Zoos

[Guest guest]

Trying to talk to people about good zoos who have seen only

bad zoos is rather futile--and, unfortunately, there are many more

bad zoos in the world than good ones.

 

There is also much misconception within both the zoo

community and the animal advocacy community about what zoos can &

should be doing.

 

Zoos like to think of themselves as conservation

institutions, but conservation was never a purpose that any zoo

claimed until under 40 years ago.

 

Zoos evolved from popular entertainment, in most of the

world, and from public education in the U.S., where relatively few

large zoos have ever operated on a for-profit basis.

 

The overwhelming majority of U.S. zoos owe ancestry to late

19th century ideas about educating the masses through libraries,

museums, botanical gardens, national parks, and yes, zoos, which

were in fact the primary vehicles for promoting understanding of

evolution.

 

Interestingly enough, public education was also the original

concept behind the great zoos of the Islamic world and ancient times.

 

The concept of zoos as entertainment is in itself old, but

the idea of zoos as education is older.

 

Zoos actually are quite effective at many aspects of

educating the public, but mostly not at the aspects that they

purport to be good at. Most zoo-goers learn relatively little about

ecology, because most zoos do not portray functional ecology. Most

zoo-goers learn almost nothing about the natural lives of animals.

 

Zoo-goers do, however, learn quite a lot from the behavior

of the animals they see, including the human animals. The major

lesson that zoos teach is how humans should interact with other

species: whether with consideration, or in strictly a utilitarian

manner, or in a balance of concerns. The lesson is imparted chiefly

to children.

 

Zoos are essentially an acculturating institution. If you

want to learn how any given city treats people, go to the zoo and

see how animals are treated,

 

With that much said, I have had the pleasure of visiting

many truly excellent zoos, but they are often not the zoos that are

most acclaimed by the zoo community, and one of my very favorite

zoos is one that for years was picketed by animal rights activists,

who must have been stone blind to what actually goes on there.

 

What I look for, first of all, is that the animals not be

aware that they are captive. Most animals live their entire lives

within relatively closely confined habitat, delineated by a variety

of natural barriers, scent markings, etc., that keep them from

going father. These conditions can be met within the limitations of

zoos, if the zoos are designed to genuinely provide species-specific

appropriate habitat.

 

Second, I look to see if the animals are aware of being observed.

 

Large animals with few predators generally don't mind being watched.

 

African lions are the most extreme example of this. African

lions, in the wild, are watched constantly by every zebra, gnu,

tommy, buffalo, etc. on the veldt, and by every scavenger too.

There are often at least a hundred eyes staring at a wild African

lion, and African lions accordingly have evolved to not give a damn.

While many other cats don't even like to be seen at a distance,

African lions will let anyone watch them do anything.

 

Gregarious species also generally don't mind being watched,

and welcome the chance to visit, even perform.

 

Many other species should never be housed where they feel

constantly under observation, especially from closer than the safety

zones they prefer to keep around themselves in the wild.

 

What a really good zoo does, most of all, is show the

public how to treat animals with respect and consideration. If it

does that, it is teaching an attitude of respect and consideration

toward all animals.

 

If it does not, then I really don't give a damn how

successful it is at captive breeding, producing scientific papers,

attracting crowds, raising funds, & all of the other things that

zoos measure themselves by.

 

I am not in favor of shutting down all zoos, even all bad

zoos. I am in favor of turning bad zoos into good zoos, which would

include largely abandoning the notion of captive breeding as the

ultimate test of success, and instead using zoo facilities to

fulfill the roles now filled by hundreds of small, badly funded

quasi-sanctuaries that actually function more as roadside zoos.

 

There are quite enough exotic and unusual animals in need of

help, and native species who need to be taken into custody for

whatever reason, for every zoo to maintain an excellent collection

without ever having to breed or capture animals for exhibit.

 

Such a collection might not have " conservation value, " but

reality is that most zoo collections have little actual conservation

value anyway. Focusing on keeping token specimens of vanishing

species is a rationale for zoos, not a working purpose. Changing

human attitudes toward animals would have far more authentic

conservation value, in the long run, than managing any so-called

Species Survival Plan.

 

My family did not have pets. Neither did we have TV. Most

of my own early exposure to animals, in the 1950s and very early

1960s, was through once-a-year Easter Sunday visits to the Oakland

Zoo, back when it was still at Lake Merritt; the San Francisco Zoo

later; and once, the Rotterdam Zoo in The Netherlands.

 

Until I was in my teens, the zoo animals I saw at Easter and

some farm animals were almost the only animals I ever saw.

 

Every moment of my zoo visits was remembered, treasured, and

became deeply influential in what I read, and eventually in what I

did, later in life.

 

Even then, I was seeing and recognizing some very bad zoo

methods and practices. Barren concrete enclosures shocked and upset

me.

 

On the other hand, I also saw some good examples, that

helped encourage me to believe that good zookeeping need not be an

illusion--if zoos can ever be brought to understand and accept their

real role, as opposed to the conservation goal to which they pretend.

 

 

--

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

 

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