Zoos Going Forward
Like many other issues involving animals, the ethical and policy
considerations involved in keeping animals in zoos increase in complexity and
ambiguity upon closer examination. Recently, through my involvement on the
Advisory Committee of the Detroit Zoo's Center for Zoo Animal Welfare and
participation in the Future of Zoos Symposium at Canisius University's
Institute for the Study of Human-Animal Relations, I have gotten a better
understanding of the issues.
One of the dilemmas is the tension between enhancing the quality of
life of individual animals and reducing the extinction of populations of
endangered and threatened species of animals -- the sixth great extinction. Can one institution, the contemporary zoo
resolve this tension and make progress toward both of these ongoing goals or
would it be better to separate the two functions into two (or more) distinct
institutions?
Although for the past 2-3 decades, zoos present themselves as major
contributors to the conservation of endangered species, most zoos devote less
than 1% of their budgets to that end. There have been a few major success
reintroductions (the golden lion tamarin, Arabian oryx, and California condor),
but the International Union for Conservation of Nature currently classifies
tens of thousands of species as extinct in the wild, critically endangered,
endangered, or vulnerable.
Regarding the well-being of individual animals, while considerable
progress has been made in the past few decades, animals in even the better
zoos, still lead impoverished lives. Even in new, multi-million dollar exhibits
that attempt to provide the visitor a glimpse of life in, say, the rainforest ("immersion" exhibits), often the animals have very limited space and clearly
show stereotypic behavior, a sign of poor welfare.
The zoo of the future should focus on housing local or endemic
species, rather than exotics; smaller numbers of species, and species with
smaller individuals, such as insects, amphibians, rodents, and birds. Animal
populations should be maintained largely through rescue and rehabilitation,
rather than captive breeding. Many of the currently featured mega-fauna will no
longer be in the zoo -- elephants, great apes, dolphins, orcas, and several of the
large cats. The distinction between zoo and wildlife park will blur as animals
roam freely within expansive boundaries and humans are relegated to the back
seat of motorized vehicles.
Ken Shapiro
Published by admin on 02/16/2012 18:13:28
