Zoos, Do We Really Need Them Essays - Zoos, Animal Welfare, Zoo

Zoos, Do We Really Need Them? Do Zoos Positively Affect the Welfare and Conservation of Animals What are Zoos: A Zoo is a place where animals are put in captivity and display, where people can view the animals. The Zoo, which is short for Zoological Park or Zoological Garden, houses a wide range of animals. Most of these animals are native to certain parts of the world. Zoos also habit endangered animals, which the zoo takes in to help with the conservation of the most endangered animals around the world. [1] Against Zoos: Captivity often makes animals crazy --- When animals, especially animals not born in the zoo and captured from the wild, are introduced to Zoos (especially Zoos with a low budget) with small enclosures, cramped spaces, and virtually no privacy, they have very little opportunity to exercise and keep their minds active. For example, In the wild, elephants are known to travel up to 50km a day while migrating, bears are active for up to 18 hours at a time every day by exploring their home ranges for up to hundreds of kilometers , and tigers and lions often run, climb and roam throughout their environments and travel many kilometers to hunt. Animals imprisoned in enclosures may suffer from a condition known as zoochosis , a condition similar human madness, where the animal act strangely and even injure themselves over frustration and boredom. This behaviour is mainly observed in animals that have close-knit communities, such as Gorillas or Elephants. [2] One of the main problem with Zoos is that animals that are usually in the travel thousands of kilometres to migrate and move around a lot. When they are brought into an enclosed space, it would take a long time to adjust to the new environment they are placed in, and they would be extremely stressed out from the adjusting experience. An example of this would be Elephants. Elephants travel thousands of kilometres when migrating and they more around a lot to find water and food etc.They are very social creatures living in very large families of up to 100 other elephants. When held in captivity, the limited space and only one or two other elephants, which they might not even be compatible with, causes them huge stresses and anxiety, which shortens their lifespan. Elephants in the wild are expected to live for up to double the years that an elephant in captivity or natural wildlife preserves would be expected to live for. African Elephants living in Amboseli Natural Park o f Kenya has an average lifespan of around 36 years, compared to African Elephants in Zoos which live up to 17 years old. [4] Other huge problems with Zoos are the high costs, not only to buy them and bring them into the zoo but also for maintenance of the already residing animals in the zoo. Zoos may close down as the lesser income from visits by customers and other funds may not be able to pay for the high maintenance costs or make a profit from the income of the zoo. This leads to animals getting divided to be sent off and accommodated by other Zoos, animal rescues, or getting sold off to cover any debt the affected zoo may have. What's worse, the animals do not always go to people with the animal's best interests in mind, and for this reason, Zoos are not only harming the lives and welfare of the animal, but also the livelihoods of the staff working in the zoo. [3] For Zoos: In the wild some animals, especially on the IUCN Red List of Threatened species, have a very low survival rate in their environment. Animals in the wild are subjected to predation, not only by other predators but poachers. These poachers hunt tens of thousands of endangered animals for their very valuable skin, bones, meat and other by-products. Some animals may find other problems such as pollution, destruction of habitats, high level of competition for food, over-predation, diseases and other reasons. Zoos help these animals by taking them in and looking after them. In Zoos, these animals are protected from all sorts of dangers which they might find out in the wild such as