zoos

[Guest guest]

Zoos are a problem. The little one in a town an hour away from where I

grew up in Kansas was probably an example of a zoo that is really

really bad. Those most certainly need to go. The bigger zoos, like

San Diego, Washington National, Bronx... those are actually pretty

good. Is it as good as the wild? Not a chance. But, for many

animals, it is the zoo or exctintion, and I'm guessing they'd vote for

the first one.

 

Habbitat distruction is not a simple " don't do that " answer. There are

a great variety of reasons for habitat destruction and the number one

reason is TOO MANY BLASTED PEOPLE! Birth control should be something

that all nations embrace, maybe not like China, but still... More

people mean more need for cooking wood, more houses, more food more...

 

The second major reason for loss of habitat is AMERICANS and other

developed nations. I don't know the number right off top, but we

Americans consume a hugely disproportionate amount of the natural

rescourses on this earth. Why are the trees being logged? Well,

mainly because we build wood houses, don't recycle much and have way

more than we need.

 

Zoos aren't all bad really, at least the good ones. Conserving the

genetic biodiversity of any species is incredibly important. If a

species is threatened, it is important to have in safe places members

that can contribute solid DNA to future generations. More and more,

zoos are becoming DNA repositories...

 

Those are a few of my views, altered by way to much reading on

genetics, population genetics and living abroad with only what I really

needed...

 

Genie

 

 

 

New DSL Internet Access from SBC &

http://sbc.

[Guest guest]

>There can not be a GOOD ZOO or a BAD ZOO ! Life imprisonment with

>no court of appeal !!

 

 

At a well-designed zoo, and I have seen some, most of the

animals have little or no sense of being captive. They feel safe,

within habitat boundaries resembling those they would establish in

the wild, and their natural needs and instincts are fulfilled.

 

Obviously some species are much easier to accommodate than

others. And which do well in captivity is often surprising. African

lions tend to do well; elephants do not. Okapis, who live an

almost solitary existence in the African wild, turn out to be highly

gregarious when they don't have to fear predation.

 

Zebras, on the other hand, become more anxious when they

can't see & scent their predators than when they know exactly where

the lions are.

 

Some species prefer to be housed where they can watch &

interact with visitors. Most prefer to be housed so that they are

not constantly aware of being stared at.

 

Space, per se, often isn't nearly the issue that people

think it is. Animals either as small as golden lion tamarins or as

large as hippos and manatees may spend their entire lives within

habitats not much larger than a good zoo exhibit, if everything they

want is accessible.

 

However, species who have a strong urge to wander and

migrate will never be happy in zoos.

 

Twenty-five years ago, after several years of writing about

zoos, I was skeptical that there could be a good zoo--but then the

U.S. zoo community began to make use of the criticisms coming their

way, and began to rethink and rebuild with markedly more

determination and imagination than the humane community would put

into rethinking and rebuilding animal shelters until only a few years

ago.

 

At the present point in time, I see a lot more good zoos

than good animal shelters.

 

With that much said, I also see many zoos whose management,

despite making multi-million-dollar investments, remains oblivious

to the reasons why they need to be rebuilding. I just visited the

Milwaukee County Zoo, a facility which has apparently spared no

expense to be first-rate, but falls well short, because the

planners apparently didn't understand the animal issues behind the

architecture they were emulating. There were some well-designed

exhibits, but also many in which the attempts at good design were

wasted.

 

On the other hand, I have seen many zoos which with

relatively modest investment are providing excellent animal habitat.

The Tacoma Point Defiance Zoo is among my personal favorites. As

major zoos go, it is a distinctly low-budget, low-key facility,

but the animals are mostly happy, and it isn't hard to pick up their

positive mood--whereas, in Milwaukee many of the animals are

stressed.

 

The differences in layout and design may be so subtle as to

elude casual visitors, but just a few degrees of angle in placing a

wall, for instance, can make a lot of difference to an animal's

sense of security.

 

The ideal zoo is a system of habitats in which the animals

have no sense of being anything but fully wild. Most of Northwest

Trek fits that definition, though not all. I have yet to see a zoo

that completely meets the requirements, but given that most wildlife

inhabits remarkably limited habitat, with even deer rarely traveling

more than a mile from their birthplace, I have no doubt that it can

be accomplished, with the right array of species and the right

design concepts, especially as regards enabling people to move

through the exhibits without their presence becoming known to the

animals.

 

I have seen many promising starts in this direction,

including the bridges over exhibits used at the Fort Worth Zoo, the

arrangement of vegetation around the Warren Ilaf gorilla exhibit at

the Dallas Zoo, the walk-through aquariums that originated in 1938

at Marineland and now can be done using one-way glass, the

blacklighting used in some habitats for nocturnal species, etc.

Much experimentation is underway at zoos, and while not every

experiment succeeds, enough is succeeding that I am quite optimistic

that most humane objections to zoos can be met.

 

Meanwhile, the typical animal shelter is still exactly the

sort of facility that a mad scientist would build for the purposes of

seeing how fast he could drive dogs, cats, and shelter workers

insane. And there are thousands more such facilities, handling

thousands more animals, than there are zoos.

 

I would very much like to see the abolition of canine

concentration camps, in particular. No animal can be made happy

more easily than a dog. Until every dog in a so-called shelter is

kept in the sort of conditions that the humane community believes are

optimal for dogs, animal advocates are at a significant disadvantage

in telling zoos how their animals should be treated.

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing

original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide,

founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the

decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations.

We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

for free sample, send address.]