The Importance of Zoos
In the world of animals, there are few topics more controversial than zoos. To many people, they idea of any animal being in an enclosure is wrong. They think every animal should be free no matter what. We can all say that the idea of animals being stolen from the wild and thrown in tiny metal cages is wrong, which is why that is not what zoos are today. I can’t speak for all zoos, but I speak for almost every accredited zoo in the USA, Australia, Canada, and UK (and also most of other regions in Europe) when I say this is not what happens.
Most animals aren’t caught out of the wild. They are bred in captivity. Zoos get their animals from other zoos. A long time ago people did catch wild animals and sell them to zoos but now that is a thing of the past. The animals stay at the zoos to create and insurance population. An insurance population is a genetically diverse group of captive animals with the ability to breed incase there is a steep decline in the wild population. This program has saved many species and kept populations stable for them (more on that later).
Also, zoo enclosures aren’t “animal prisons” or “animal jail”. These naturalistic enclosures simulate the wild for the animals. There is changes in elevations, cliffs, boulders, logs, trees, plants, and other things that you would find in the animal’s natural habitat. While we can never be perfect, most animals seem content with this. Their mental stimulation comes in the form of enrichment.One of the forms of enrichment is the natural enclosures I talked about earlier. As you can see in the picture of San Diego Zoo’s lions, the rocks and logs provide something for the animals to play on. The adult lions use the rocks to sleep on as well.
Another form of enrichment is toys. Toys come in the forms of balls, puzzles, random items that have an odd smell or sound, something to chase, etc. The toys are supposed to make animals think or to stimulate natural behavior. In the image above, you can see an orangutan showing off its intelligence by using tools to grab treats inside. Many think zoos are “starving” the animals to participate in enrichment but no, animals will do anything to get food. These orangutans don’t know they are in a zoo. They don’t know that the zoo-keeper has to come everyday with food, so they participate because they don’t know when the next opportunity to eat will be. Enrichment can also be something interesting for the animal. Foreign smells and sounds get their minds going. Enrichment is given to all species, whether they need it or not.
Animals don’t think like humans. We as humans are living much better than animals in the wild. We don’t have to worry about getting killed by predators or when our next meal will show up. That allowed our minds to expand onto different things. This allowed us to have goals and desires much more diverse and complicated than animals are capable of. While we can think “I want to become a lawyer” or “I want to run 30 miles this week” animals rely more on their survival instincts. They would be thinking “Find food and get it anyway you possibly can”. Some people assume “If I were in a cage, I would be so depressed, I would want to run for miles without barriers” when in many cases, animals don’t think like that. This is called anthropomorphism. You think that the way you feel is the same way the animal feels. This get even worse when animals show behaviors we associate with the animal being “depressed”. If a big cat is taking a nap in his enclosure, he is at ease and exhibiting natural behavior. If a big cat is pacing around in circles, it is stressed out but we associate that with the animal being active and healthy. The wild isn’t a happy place where all animals are frolicking in a field. The wild is a scary place. You are constantly fearing predation and you are likely going to get killed by something before adult-hood. You don’t know where to get food. You have parasites like fleas, ticks, and worms bothering you and you have to watch for poachers.
Now that we have discussed why zoos aren’t animal prison, lets talk about the benefits of zoos. Zoos used to just be for entertainment, so the rich could show of a menageries of exotic beasts, but now they have a real purpose. That purpose is conservation and education.
Conservation:
The most important aspect of zoos is the conservation. Zoos form genetically diverse insurance populations that have saved many species. The San Diego Zoo is definitely one of the best zoos in the world as has the most successful conservation projects of any zoo. Without zoos, we would lack the bio-diversity we have now. Zoo breeding programs are usually behind the scenes so zoos make little profit from this.
Education:
Most zoos have an outreach program where they go to schools and talk about the animals they have in their care. This is important because it brings awareness to the species and most people will never donate or care about an animal they have never even heard of. This also helps break common myths about these animals that are being passed on from generation to generation. It teaches kids to respect and love the natural world.
Zoos are starting to get more important as more and more species are driven to the brink of extinction. Without them, we may lose many of the species we have today. I am not saying every zoo is great and I am not saying there are no bad zoos, but there are many good ones but people don’t care enough to look into the facts. They say they care about wildlife, but zoos are the ones saving our biodiversity. Zoos are now the leaders in conservation so we need to shut down the horrible zoos and improve the good ones.
Here are a list of the best zoos in the world that you should definitely visit (in no particular order):
- San Diego Zoo and Safari Park
- Smithsonian Zoo
- National Zoological Gardens of South Africa
- Australia Zoo
- Basel Zoo
- Korkeasaari Zoo
- Toronto Zoo
- Schönbrunn Zoo (Tiergarten Schönbrunn)
- Wellington Zoo
- Singapore Zoo
- Edinburgh Zoo
- Chester Zoo
- Bronx Zoo