Zoo Animals: Behaviour, Management, & Welfare

[Guest guest]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

 

 

Zoo Animals: Behaviour, Management, & Welfare

by Geoff Hosey, Vicky Melfi, & Sheila Pankhurst

Oxford University Press (198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016), 2009.

660 pages, paperback. $50.00.

 

 

Zoo Animals: Behaviour, Manage-ment, & Welfare pulls

together the sum of current perspectives about what constitutes " best

practice " zookeeping into a single text. Though Zoo Animals might be

used as the basis for a single university-level course, it is

actually an entire curriculum for would-be zookeepers. Each of the

15 chapters could frame a course also including much supplementary

reading--and the recommended texts are listed, included specialized

web sites.

As the subtitle indicates, much of Zoo Animals focuses upon

the need to accommodate and encourage natural animal behavior within

the confines of an artificial environment. In addition to early

chapters specifically addressing animal welfare, almost every

chapter reminds zookeepers of animal welfare issues, including the

perceptions and misperceptions that visitors may develop if either

the conditions for the animals or the need to inform the public about

what they are seeing is neglected.

Several of the first chapters of Zoo Animals review the

evolution of zookeeping. Zoos in the 19th century turned away from

the menagerie style of exhibition, featuring often overtly cruel

popular entertainment, including staged animal fights, toward an

emphasis on scientific study of animals and public education. While

most zoos developed exhibits based on taxonomy, some of the most

progressive moved toward " naturalistic " exhibits presaging the

prevalent style of today.

The latter trend, however, was interrupted by what the

authors call the " Disinfectant Era, " in which an obsession with

maintaining sanitation subsumed all other concerns for most of the

20th century. Both animal welfare and visitor appreciation of zoos

deteriorated.

Ironically, the sterile environments of " Disinfectant Era "

zoos eventually proved detrimental to both the physical and mental

well-being of animals, as well as discouraging visitors from

returning. Animal behavior observed at such zoos turned out to be

atypical of animals in the wild. Captive breeding programs for most

species failed in environments that so poorly suited the animals.

Animals thrived, bred, and repeat attendance grew,

meanwhile, at the earliest semi-naturalistic zoos, even when they

were badly mismanaged.

By the time the rise of the animal rights movement directed

activist attention toward zoos, beginning in the 1970s, many of the

best-respected leaders within the zoo community were already

experimenting with redesign. Animal advocacy pressure helped zoo

directors to raise the funds to rebuild practically everything, to

the point that rebuilding at least one major exhibit per year is now

standard practice at major zoos. Few zoos exist today, at least in

the developed world, which have not been thoroughly reconfigured

within the past several decades.

This has scarcely resolved all animal welfare problems, but

the zoo community had already embarked upon a revolution in

architecture to accommodate animal needs approximately 15 years

before animal shelters began a similar transition in the last years

of the 20th century.

Part of the purpose of redesign was, and is, to keep

animals alive and well longer, and to encourage more successful

captive breeding of rare and endangered species. The 1973 adoption

of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

significantly inhibited the ability of zoos to continuously restock

themselves from the wild. For several decades the pretext of

breeding rare species for eventual reintroduction to the wild also

helped to shield zoos from activist criticism--but much of the zoo

community itself now acknowledges that the " lifeboat " concept of zoo

management is dated. Relatively few species have been successfully

returned to the wild, in part because even if zoo-raised specimens

retained the necessary suite of natural behaviors, their kind have

typically become rare in the wild in the first place because their

habitats have been transformed, and their survival depends upon the

activity of many other species who are also no longer there, or no

longer thriving.

Zoo Animals includes almost as much discussion of the

relevant philosophical questions as of practical zookeeping

procedures, in part because almost everything zookeepers do must be

done with attention to why. Keeping animals healthy and relatively

happy, for example, is not necessarily the same job as keeping them

" wild, " in situations where they have no need to either hunt or

evade predation, and natural reproductive behavior must often be

thwarted to prevent either overpopulation or inbreeding.

Inescapably, the metaphor of zoos as Noah's Ark carrying

wildlife to eventually repopulate a depleted earth is yielding to the

reality of indefinitely maintaining collections of selected species

whose resemblance to actual wild animals may be mostly in external

appearance. The ark may never land, at least not here on earth.

The exercise might most resemble trying to keep animals alive in

intergalactic spaceflight, taking multiple generations to reach

planets orbiting distant stars.

--Merritt Clifton

 

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephones: 360-579-2505, 360-678-1057

Cell: 360-969-0450

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[Your donations help to support ANIMAL PEOPLE, the leading

independent nonprofit newspaper providing original investigative

coverage of animal protection worldwide, founded in 1992. Our

global readership includes the decision-makers at more than 10,000

animal protection organizations. We have no alignment or affiliation

with any other entity. Free online; $24/year by post; for free

sample, please send postal address.]

[Guest guest]

Dear Merritt,

Thank you for sharing this review. Having read the book,

it may be germane to mention this tome is in line with the following studies

published previously :

 

1) A Handbook on the Management of Animals in captivity in Lower Bengal by

Ram Brahma Sanyal(1892)

 

2) Man And Animal in the Zoo and Wild Animals in Captivity by Heini

Hedigger(1969 and 1952) (The disinfectant era as you write)

 

3) Management of Mammals in Captivity by Lee Crandall 1964

 

4) Wild Mammals in Captivity edited by Devra Kleiman et al 1995

 

Sanyal is virtually unknown in the Western world today but he was a pioneer

and Natraj Publishers has done a great job by publishing his work again.

Read more about his work here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Brahma_Sanyal

 

and here :

http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/rawdataupload/upload/insa/INSA_1/20005b5a_279.pdf

 

There is also a new book entitled 'Animal Welfare : Assessing Animal Welfare

standards in

South East Asian Zoos' by Govindaswamy Agoramoorthy published in 2008 that

provides good information on guidelines ofr animal care in captivity. I

don't agree with everything Agoramoorthy says but he does make excellent

points for better welfare standards. The Hosey, Melfi and Pankhurst book

does touch upon criticisms of zoos. It is perhaps a sobering thought that

the anti zoo lobby has produced nothing similar except Zoo Check's 'Beyond

the Bars' in 1987 and Rob Laidlaw's children's book in 2008. There has also

been no formal published response to the last World Zoo Conservation

Strategy from the animal welfare community. A bit sad really.

 

Best wishes,

 

 

 

 

 

On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 10:28 AM, Merritt Clifton <anmlpeplwrote:

 

>

>

> From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

>

> Zoo Animals: Behaviour, Management, & Welfare

> by Geoff Hosey, Vicky Melfi, & Sheila Pankhurst

> Oxford University Press (198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016), 2009.

> 660 pages, paperback. $50.00.

>

> Zoo Animals: Behaviour, Manage-ment, & Welfare pulls

> together the sum of current perspectives about what constitutes " best

> practice " zookeeping into a single text. Though Zoo Animals might be

> used as the basis for a single university-level course, it is

> actually an entire curriculum for would-be zookeepers. Each of the

> 15 chapters could frame a course also including much supplementary

> reading--and the recommended texts are listed, included specialized

> web sites.

> As the subtitle indicates, much of Zoo Animals focuses upon

> the need to accommodate and encourage natural animal behavior within

> the confines of an artificial environment. In addition to early

> chapters specifically addressing animal welfare, almost every

> chapter reminds zookeepers of animal welfare issues, including the

> perceptions and misperceptions that visitors may develop if either

> the conditions for the animals or the need to inform the public about

> what they are seeing is neglected.

> Several of the first chapters of Zoo Animals review the

> evolution of zookeeping. Zoos in the 19th century turned away from

> the menagerie style of exhibition, featuring often overtly cruel

> popular entertainment, including staged animal fights, toward an

> emphasis on scientific study of animals and public education. While

> most zoos developed exhibits based on taxonomy, some of the most

> progressive moved toward " naturalistic " exhibits presaging the

> prevalent style of today.

> The latter trend, however, was interrupted by what the

> authors call the " Disinfectant Era, " in which an obsession with

> maintaining sanitation subsumed all other concerns for most of the

> 20th century. Both animal welfare and visitor appreciation of zoos

> deteriorated.

> Ironically, the sterile environments of " Disinfectant Era "

> zoos eventually proved detrimental to both the physical and mental

> well-being of animals, as well as discouraging visitors from

> returning. Animal behavior observed at such zoos turned out to be

> atypical of animals in the wild. Captive breeding programs for most

> species failed in environments that so poorly suited the animals.

> Animals thrived, bred, and repeat attendance grew,

> meanwhile, at the earliest semi-naturalistic zoos, even when they

> were badly mismanaged.

> By the time the rise of the animal rights movement directed

> activist attention toward zoos, beginning in the 1970s, many of the

> best-respected leaders within the zoo community were already

> experimenting with redesign. Animal advocacy pressure helped zoo

> directors to raise the funds to rebuild practically everything, to

> the point that rebuilding at least one major exhibit per year is now

> standard practice at major zoos. Few zoos exist today, at least in

> the developed world, which have not been thoroughly reconfigured

> within the past several decades.

> This has scarcely resolved all animal welfare problems, but

> the zoo community had already embarked upon a revolution in

> architecture to accommodate animal needs approximately 15 years

> before animal shelters began a similar transition in the last years

> of the 20th century.

> Part of the purpose of redesign was, and is, to keep

> animals alive and well longer, and to encourage more successful

> captive breeding of rare and endangered species. The 1973 adoption

> of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

> significantly inhibited the ability of zoos to continuously restock

> themselves from the wild. For several decades the pretext of

> breeding rare species for eventual reintroduction to the wild also

> helped to shield zoos from activist criticism--but much of the zoo

> community itself now acknowledges that the " lifeboat " concept of zoo

> management is dated. Relatively few species have been successfully

> returned to the wild, in part because even if zoo-raised specimens

> retained the necessary suite of natural behaviors, their kind have

> typically become rare in the wild in the first place because their

> habitats have been transformed, and their survival depends upon the

> activity of many other species who are also no longer there, or no

> longer thriving.

> Zoo Animals includes almost as much discussion of the

> relevant philosophical questions as of practical zookeeping

> procedures, in part because almost everything zookeepers do must be

> done with attention to why. Keeping animals healthy and relatively

> happy, for example, is not necessarily the same job as keeping them

> " wild, " in situations where they have no need to either hunt or

> evade predation, and natural reproductive behavior must often be

> thwarted to prevent either overpopulation or inbreeding.

> Inescapably, the metaphor of zoos as Noah's Ark carrying

> wildlife to eventually repopulate a depleted earth is yielding to the

> reality of indefinitely maintaining collections of selected species

> whose resemblance to actual wild animals may be mostly in external

> appearance. The ark may never land, at least not here on earth.

> The exercise might most resemble trying to keep animals alive in

> intergalactic spaceflight, taking multiple generations to reach

> planets orbiting distant stars.

> --Merritt Clifton

>

> --

> Merritt Clifton

> Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

> P.O. Box 960

> Clinton, WA 98236

>

> Telephones: 360-579-2505, 360-678-1057

> Cell: 360-969-0450

> Fax: 360-579-2575

> E-mail: anmlpepl <anmlpepl%40whidbey.com>

> Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

>

> [Your donations help to support ANIMAL PEOPLE, the leading

> independent nonprofit newspaper providing original investigative

> coverage of animal protection worldwide, founded in 1992. Our

> global readership includes the decision-makers at more than 10,000

> animal protection organizations. We have no alignment or affiliation

> with any other entity. Free online; $24/year by post; for free

> sample, please send postal address.]

>

>