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The Role of Zoos in Conservation
The Role of Zoos in Conservation
Cause and effect of endangered species
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Through the years, humans have constructed roads, build cities, and cut down trees for wood, all of these activities have destroyed and changed habitats of animals to an extent where the animals can no longer survive in these environments. As a result, some people have found a way to create new homes for these animals and preserve them and keep them safe by establishing nature parks and sanctuaries. People are not allowed to build or hunt in these areas, and they have rangers who watch over the animals. Keeping endangered animals in these reserves and protected has proven to be beneficial and increase populations of endangered animals to keep them from going extinct. Some may compare a zoo to a prison and ay that animals need room to roam and be free in nature, but zoos today focus of animal welfare and spend millions of dollars to create larger and better animal enclosures to improve the living conditions of the animals. And although there are some zoos out there who don’t treat their animals the right way, that doesn’t go for all zoos, the main priority of most zoos is to protect and help animals thrive in their environment. Zoos help fight wildlife extinction, they educate visitors, and they constantly strive to improve animal welfare. …show more content…
One of the ways they do this is through recovery programs and captive breeding of endangered species. In fact, each year good zoos contribute $350 million directly to conservation alone, and you can bet this contribution has an impact. A study in 2010 by IUCN found that conservation breeding in zoos and aquariums played a role in the recovery of 28% of the species listed to be threatened in the wild. These zoo conservation efforts have averted the extinction of the Mountain Chicken, the Scimitar-Horned Oryx, the Blue-Crowned Laughing Thrush, the Polynesian tree snail and the Ploughshare tortoise to name a
Have you ever seen an animal sitting in a cage all alone with nothing to do. Well, zoos are trying to change that fact. They will allow the animals to live in an environment that is like their home. Many people don't realize this, but zoo are keeping and breeding these animals because they would not survive in the wild alone. In the three passages, ¨The Stripes Will Survive,¨ ¨The Zood Go Wild from No More Dodos,¨ ¨Our Beautiful Macaws and Why They Need Enrichment.¨ All of these articles present one claim, that is that the role of zoos is no longer to keep animal, but to protect them.
Peoples Trust article “Zoos & Conservation” touched surface solely on zoos located in Britain. What about the rest of the world? Luckily there is a group called the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) that inspects zoos and aquariums making sure that they are fit for conservation. For instance, the Giza Zoo In Cairo was shut down for killing two gorillas that may have been infected with disease and for extra pay putting visitors in danger so they could pet any animal they requested. Now if one of these animals were to attack a visitor then they would put down the animal in which is just doing what its instincts tell them.
Even though zoos try to imitate the natural habitat of each animal, the area for the zoo might not be able to support the animals needed environment. When visiting a zoo many people fail to notice that the animals have living areas measuring an acre or smaller. “Their enclosures are often small, barren, and without shade or privacy” (Laws). “Animals also need to endure dirty living conditions, stagnant water, and hard floors to sleep on at night” (Laws). It’s obvious that in the wild any animal has almost unlimited space to live in. They catch and forage for food naturally and mate naturally.
Thousands of zoos worldwide are visited by citizens yearly to admire and satisfy their curiosity of the beautiful wild animals that mother nature has to offer. Zoos have been around for hundreds of years and have become a known tradition for numerous school field trips and family outings. The ongoing debate between animal rights activists and zoo officials remains, should wild animals be taken from their natural habitats to live in city zoos for education and entertainment purposes?
From a Ted Talk said by Gabriela Mastromonaco from the Toronto Zoo, she says “That zoos serve and important purpose beyond from this entertainment and are vital to the future of the animal world.” She tells us how the zoos today save many endangered species. “1. We care for and breed animals that have been wiped from the wild, or reduced to very small numbers. 2. We store genetic material, such as sperm and eggs, that can be used in the future to breed offspring.” She concludes by telling us how zoos save many species every year and how they can save a whole group of animals.
As a kid, I had always looked forward to days at the zoo. I was, however, far more interested in the jungle-themed surroundings than the educational parts. I was told that zoos protected animals and took good care of them. Now I'm not too sure that's the truth. Animals like tigers, lions, and elephants are born to live and grow up in the wild. They aren't meant to live inside of a cage in a zoo. Not only that, but the animals' health isn't as good as you'd expect. Although lots time and money has been spent on zoos, animals are still suffering. Zoos are fun and exciting for kids and tourists, however, the animals aren't enjoying it as much as us.
Captive breeding programs are what make zoos ethical, but several problems need to be confronted. Zoos operate captive breeding programs in which they take animals from the wildlife and breed then in a scientifically controlled environment. They have saved several species from extinction such as the Red Wolf and the Przewalski Horse, and are aiding many others such as the blue-crowned laughing thrush. Before the breeding program saved the Red Wolves from extinction, there were only 14 pure breed Red Wolves remaining. When a species gets endangered it goes on the Species Survival Plan program. There are two issues that I came across during my research. Firstly, some zoos are taking advantage of several species to generate revenue. Cohn said that “to get more white tigers, zoo managers in India and the United States in the 1950s mated fathers with daughters, granddaughters, and even, on occasion, great granddaughters. (Cohn 654)” The question is whether this is ethical? After reading this I felt...
"How Zoos Are Saving Our Animals." – Features – ABC Environment (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2015.
Among many other fun and exciting attraction to visit around our community, a visit to the zoo has always been a memorable experience. This cost effective priceless lifetime experience is being undermined by a group of activists all around the country. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), world largest animal rights organization, argue that zoos deprived animals from satisfying their most basic needs. They urge not to patronized zoos and claims that the money spent on ticket purchases pays for animals to be imprisoned and traded, not rescued and rehabilitated. They go on saying in summary that zoos strip animals from their rights. So this heated debate revolves around the animal rights and how the zoo industry inhibits it. Are zoo really bad for the animals? Should we get rid of the zoo and let the animals back to the wilderness? Mazur and Clark (2001) state that zoo is a monument to a long-standing tradition of people’s fascination with non-human nature. Since the early societies of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Chinese, wild animals have been maintained in captivity in order to satisfy human curiosity with exotica (p 185). Most western zoos today, however, embrace far more benevolent values such as supporting the conservation of biodiversity through specialized animal breeding, research, and education programs.
Zoos today say that one of their main goals is to conserve endangered species and eventually reintroduce them back into the wild. However, Benjamin Beck, former associate director of biological programs at the National Zoo in Washington, found that over the past century only 16 of 145 reintroduction programs worldwide ever actually restored any of the animals back to the wild (qtd. in Fravel). He also found that a majority was carried out by the government and not the actual programs themselves. Beck noted that the billions of dollars the zoos were receiving were going towards hi-tech exhibits and marketing strategies to get people to go to the zoos. So which zoos are actually attempting to save the lives they claim to be? According to David Hancocks, a former zoo director with 30 years’ experience, many zoos that are not affiliated with the AZA do not spend hardly any of their fu...
Zoos are perhaps one of the most popular forms of museum on the planet. Some of these vast, sprawling landscapes are filled with species from every continent on the planet, representing a vast portion of life found on the earth. A child from Iowa can get the opportunity to see a polar bear, a zebra, and rare species of birds, insects, and countless other animals all in the course of a day. Zoos truly provide a unique and profound experience for those with an open and curious mind. But, the nature of a zoo is not purely entertainment. These collections of creatures big and small also serve the purpose of education, conservation, and research. These reasons are enumerated well in the mission statement of the St. Louis Zoo as “To conserve animals
“It is estimated to be 50 times more expensive to keep an elephant in a zoo than to protect sufficient natural habitat to sustain that elephant and many other animals.” (CAPS, Sad Eyes & Empty Lives- The reality of zoos) Indeed, only if the billions of dollars that spent on building a zoo are optimized to preserve habitats and animal welfare, can our grandchildren still have a chance to see more rare animals by their own eyes.
In “The White Heron” the heron was protected from the hunter by a girl. The girl could represent a zoo while the young hunter could represent people who exploit animals for personal reasons, such as money. Zoos promote the awareness of animals that are going extinct. This would allow for people to help fund the repopulation of those animals. If more people are aware of new animals on the endangered species list, there is more of a chance that researchers will get more funds. Zoos also make habitats for animals on the verge of extinction where otherwise there would be none. There is some controversy between zoos and endangered species. Because of the limited gene pool of a species, the variation is limited greatly. This will –as an end result- lead to inbreeding which will create mutations and defects in the offspring.
One of the ways that zoos provide protection is by giving animals that are constantly threatened have food and medical care in a zoo. The aza has suddeble living areas for the animals also. Animals that are endangered can be bred in captivity in a zoo to make sure that animals species does not die out. There are about 1000 endangered species and if we put them in a zoo they will be safe. Zoos provide education by in a
Keeping endangered animals protected in a zoo helps them reproduce easier so that the population of that animal can go up not down. Keeping endangered animals in a protected area has saved several species of animals over the past 30 years.