Zoos
the saddest show on Earth!
ZOOS, what it means for the animals
"The simple basis of my opposition to captivity in zoos is that we are holding animals there in grossly unnatural, debilitating and aberrant circumstances. None of their beauty and force and intelligence is apparent.
Confined, frustrated, performing the ritualistic and often dangerous damaging behaviour of acute boredom, they caricature the real thing."
- Professor Euan C. Young -
Head of Department of Zoology, Auckland University, New Zealand
Sad Eyes and Empty Lives
In the wild, animals react to their surroundings, avoiding predators, seeking food and interacting with others of their species, doing what they have evolved for. Consequently, even what might seem ‘larger’ or ‘better’ enclosures may be completely impoverished in terms of the animals’ real needs.
Frustration and boredom are commonplace amongst animals in zoos and can lead to obsessive behaviours in the form of pacing, swaying, and even self-mutilation. This is known as stereotypic behaviour and such pointless, repetitive movements have also been noted in people with mental illnesses. With nothing to do, animals in zoos go out of their minds.
Studies have found that lions in zoos spend 48% of their time pacing and 40% of elephants performed stereotypic behaviours.
The Captive Animals’ Protection Society have filmed adult gorillas in zoos repeatedly eating their own vomit. A gorilla biologist told CAPS: “I have never seen wild gorillas perform R&R (regurgitate and re-ingest, as it’s known in the zoo world, being such a well known by-product of captivity) and I have never spoken to anyone who has. In fact, I have never seen a wild gorilla vomit.”
Some animals suffer such serious behavioural problems in zoos that they are given anti-depressants, tranquillisers and anti-psychotic drugs to control their behaviours.
Zoos often refer to the animals they confine as being ‘ambassadors’ of their species, but just what message does it give when we see animals in such unnatural conditions, displaying disturbed behaviours?
The Longest Life Sentence
Space in zoos rarely, if ever, matches the animals’ natural range. Animals who would normally roam for tens of miles a day tread the same few paces daily. Some of the fastest animals on earth live in pens so small that they could not gather pace to a trot, let alone full speed.
A study published by CAPS revealed that enclosures in UK zoos and safari parks are on average 100 times smaller than the minimum home range in the wild for the animals they contain. Another study of zoos worldwide found that lions and other big cats have 18,000 times less space in zoos than in the wild, and that figure rises to one million times less space for captive polar bears.
For fifteen hours a day, many animals may be shut away in their night quarters with even less room to move.
Some zoo enclosures prevent the inmates from enjoying even their most basic behavioural repertoire including exercise and social interaction. Birds are virtually stripped of their most precious gift flight, often able to do little more than flutter their wings. Consequently, birds in zoos are prone to arthritis and osteoporosis.
“Birds are finely tuned metabolic machines designed for flight. In zoos they are denied the one thing all their evolution has revolved around.” Professor Alan Feduccia, University of North Carolina
However, it is not just a matter of space, but also the quality of the environment.
Chimpanzees are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, their intelligence is universally accepted, but they exchange the infinite possibilities of the forest for little more than playground climbing frames which would not keep a human child occupied for hours, let alone years.
Reptiles need complex thermal ranges, variation in humidity, special phases of light and other factors that may seem difficult for us to appreciate as humans.
Zoos rarely have the numbers to match the natural social interaction of herd animals. And when animals do find company, their world may be torn apart when cage mates are sold or become excess to requirements.
Solitary and shy animals are often in enclosures with viewing from all sides, and even a window in the night quarters as well. A study of gorillas in Belfast Zoo found that when there were more visitors the gorillas displayed “more behaviours suggestive of agitation, such as repetitive rocking, group-directed aggression and self-grooming.”
What Happens to Surplus Animals?
Surplus animals are a problem for zoos. The sad truth is that in many cases, zoo animals are bred simply to attract visitors and pressure on space and resources means that some will be disposed of or killed at the end of the season. CAPS estimate that at least 7,500 individual animals in European zoos are ‘surplus’ at any one time.
In the past, British zoos have sold animals to vivisection laboratories and exotic meat farms. Animals are now more likely to be sold into the pet trade, and British zoos buy and sell animals with wildlife dealers around the world.
In 2002 a zoo in Cambridge sold four rare marmoset monkeys to a Belgian animal dealer; the animals ended up in a Brussels pet shop. Several British zoos actually have pet shop licences to enable them to sell animals direct to the public!
When an Essex zoo closed down undercover reporters were able to buy a lioness for cash and drive off with her in the back of their van!
Zoos - and also circuses which use performing animals - teach people that it is acceptable to interfere with animals and keep them locked up in captivity, where they are bored, cramped, lonely, deprived of all control over their lives, and far from their natural homes. Even under the best of circumstances at the best of zoos, captivity cannot begin to replicate wild animals' habitats. Animals are often prevented from doing most of the things that are natural and important to them, like running, roaming, flying, climbing, foraging, choosing a partner, and being with others of their own kind.
Zoos claim to want to protect species from extinction, but zoo officials usually favor exotic or popular animals—who draw crowds and publicity—rather than threatened or endangered local wildlife. Most animals housed in zoos are not endangered, and those who are will likely never be released into natural habitats.
Source: www.animalprotection.org.uk
Zoos claim to want to protect species from extinction, but zoo officials usually favor exotic or popular animals—who draw crowds and publicity—rather than threatened or endangered local wildlife. Most animals housed in zoos are not endangered, and those who are will likely never be released into natural habitats.
Source: www.animalprotection.org.uk
