HK: Letter to South China Morning Post from Jill Robinson

[Guest guest]

Feb 06, 2008

 

Siu Fa, the jaguar at the Zoological and Botanical Gardens, most

definitely should not be replaced when she dies.

 

Carnivores with large home ranges - and the jaguar is a typical

example - have worse reactions to being caged than those that roam

less widely in the wild.

 

I share the thinking of a growing number of conservationists and even

zoo directors who believe that zoos do not offer an appropriate

environment for large mammals. I think the majority of zoos also

waste a golden opportunity for real education in the community and

the chance to reduce animal suffering.

 

Visitors to Asian zoos generally only learn the size, shape and

colour of an animal, rather than about its natural behaviour and

habitat. Worse, they learn how miserable and barren the animals'

enclosures and lives are.

 

Being a realist, I accept that zoos will probably be here for decades

to come and, in that case, we need zoos to climb out of the Victorian

era and become places of proper education that can instil a greater

sense of compassion for animals in the community.

 

Some zoos today are at last recognising that animals, like us, have

complex social, behavioural, psychological and emotional needs. For

example, several progressive zoos are phasing out elephant

enclosures. In 2005, Detroit Zoo eliminated elephant enclosures on

humane grounds, because they could not provide adequately for this

wide-ranging, social species.

 

Former zoo director David Hancocks now says he was mistaken in

helping to design an elephant enclosure for Melbourne Zoo. While he

believes it to be the best such exhibit in Australia, he says his

study of elephants since has convinced him that no urban enclosure is

adequate for them. He likens the enclosure to " being locked in a

hotel room with four other people, not of your choosing, for the rest

of your life " .

 

Our rescued moon bears, for example, have intensive management and

enrichment programmes that allow them to engage in natural behaviour

and keep them busy and happy 24 hours a day. Even in a 10-hectare

enclosure, it is a huge challenge to ensure that the bears are

mentally stimulated as they would be in the wild. The

600-square-metre area now provided for Siu Fa is woefully inadequate

for a large carnivore and should never be used to house another.

 

Jill Robinson, founder and chief executive officer, Animals Asia Foundation