• Question: What is your opinion on animals being kept in zoos?

    Asked by siennamcg2017 to Carrie, Cedric, Ellen, Ines, Rupert on 8 Mar 2017. This question was also asked by Grace.
    • Photo: Carrie Ijichi

      Carrie Ijichi answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      I think some species are better able to cope with being in a zoo than others and so it’s ok for the ones that can tolerate it to be used. There are some species though whose needs are so far from what we can offer that it really compromises their welfare and they suffer as a result. Zoos do really good work but I’m not sure that it’s justified for those species that can’t cope.

    • Photo: Ellen Williams

      Ellen Williams answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      Great question and actually a really hard one to answer. I think zoos play a really important role in species conservation – in some instances they actually enable species to be saved through captive breeding and release programs, they provide really valuable opportunities for learning, they allow humans to feel empathy with the crisis faced in the wild, they also allow us the opportunity to study the species and find out more about them – which is really important if they are a shy or little studied species in the wild. And the other angle is that of course the animals we currently house in zoos cannot be put back into the wild (unless they are trained especially for that purpose – i.e. no contact with humans, pre release training etc). So whilst I resolutely do not agree with ANY animal being taken from the wild to sustain a captive population (unless it is part of an intensive rescue operation such as those done by Jersey Zoo (Durrell Conservation Trust) in Mauritius and other areas, where in order to save species they sometimes have to bring them into quarantined conditions to eradicate the threat and build up the numbers before release), i do think it is fine to continue to breed ‘captive populations’ as long as animals have good standards of welfare and are adequately cared for.

    • Photo: Ines Goncalves

      Ines Goncalves answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      Hi Sienna, this is a really good and tough question. First of all, I need to say that I generally don’t like the idea of wild animals being kept in zoos or anywhere else for that matter. However, it is important to acknowledge that zoos play an important role in the conservation of endangered species. Also, zoos have improved immensely in the last 50 years, thanks to science. We now understand much better animals’ needs and we have improved immensely their enclosures, enrichment, and the food they are given. We have also developed methods that allow us to monitor zoo animals’ health and stress levels. So we are in a much better place to keep zoo animals “happy” and zoos actively strive to achieve the highest possible standards of animal welfare. It is also important to keep in mind that many of these animals were already born in captivity, they were not born in the wild. This means that these animals do not miss the african savannah of great barrier reef. They know only the conditions in which they were brought up, and if these conditions provide shelter, food, water, company and some form of enrichment as distraction (because animals don’t need to spend so much time searching for food for example) then they do live a decent life.

    • Photo: Rupert Marshall

      Rupert Marshall answered on 9 Mar 2017:

      I think well run zoos are very important. Some species are extinct in the wild and only survive because of zoos. Zoos can keep species alive by breeding them. And they do a great job educating people. There are a lot of laws in Great Britain that keep an eye on zoos. One had its licence taken away last week because it was doing a bad job. Most are very good though.

    • Photo: Cedric Tan

      Cedric Tan answered on 12 Mar 2017:

      Very good question. I’m on the fence on this one and it depends on which zoo we are looking at. Zoos are important for education and conservation, some zoos like the one in San Francisco is amazing in these aspects, however I have been to many zoos in asia where the animals are poorly kept and used for entertainment in the most cruel of manners 🙁

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