Ever since zoos first became an established and popular attraction, people have debated their ethics. While many believe that wild animals shouldn’t be kept behind bars, others understand the important wildlife conservation that can take place at zoos. Here are some fact-checked arguments for and against zoos.
Conservation
Many zoos around the world use their enclosures as a part of wildlife conservation by ensuring that endangered species have a safe haven away from population threats. They can give a species a better opportunity for their numbers to recover, as breeding can also be easier in captivity.
Population Efforts
Whether or not the species’ captivity is good or bad for them, breeding programs have been proven to bring back threatened animal populations from the brink. One example is the California condor population, which recovered from just 27 birds to hundreds across different zoos like the Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park.
Other Examples
Other species like Przewalski’s horse and the Arabian oryx were animals that faced almost certain extinction. Through conservation efforts at zoos, their populations have slowly recovered, but it does come at a cost.
Captivity Versus Nature
Despite even the biggest zoos trying to replicate wildlife habitats, there isn’t a way to simulate the perfect natural environment that many species need. Animals know that they’re in a zoo, and the stress of being confined can have an impact on their health.
Not Fit For The Wild
Many species that are saved through conservation have many challenges. Animals brought up in a zoo often aren’t fit to ever go back into the wild. This means that many populations that have recovered through zoos will face complications if they are to be released into their environment. Zoo populations released could also make the natural population more vulnerable, as they breed and get possible “bad” traits.
Educational Value
Despite many arguments against keeping so many different species in close proximity to one another, zoos are a vital way to teach the public about different species, their roles in their environment, and how important they are. This raises awareness about threatened wildlife and can aid in conservation work in the wild.
Stress
The process of animals being transferred to zoos is the first of many stressful situations that they have to undergo. There are arguments against human interference in the wild, with animals adapted to natural stressors in their environment struggling to adapt to life in an enclosure, even if it’s part of a vital conservation effort.
Animal Health
This confinement in zoos has a massive impact on animal health despite many believing that many zoo animals’ lives are being improved. Many animals do not understand what is going on and why they are being taken away from their natural environment, even if it is in the interest of saving the species.
Most Aren’t Endangered
While many animals in zoos are threatened and there is a lot of debate for and against the necessary captivity that saves their numbers, most animals in zoos aren’t endangered, with 85% of zoo animals having healthy populations in the wild. Furthermore, only a fraction of these endangered animals are part of breeding programs.
Priorities
Although some zoos try their best to put conservation first and foremost, most zoos have their priorities shifted towards entertainment rather than the animals’ wellbeing. One of the most ethical concerns in zoos is the culling of “surplus” numbers of a population.
Modern Solutions
New concepts could be implemented to turn the traditional zoo concept on its head. One innovative approach is to bring people into the animal’s natural environment by having human enclosures in a species’ environment. Still, this human encroachment could stress out the local population and won’t solve critically endangered species facing extinction.
Better Alternatives
Many believe that there are just better alternatives to zoos. There are many wildlife sanctuaries around the U.S. and the rest of the world, and they are much more ethical way of achieving a similar purpose. In many examples, the ethics of zoos depends entirely on the management and commitment to animal welfare and conservation.
Explore more of our trending stories and hit Follow to keep them coming to your feed!
Don’t miss out on more stories like this! Hit the Follow button at the top of this article to stay updated with the latest news. Share your thoughts in the comments—we’d love to hear from you!
