Are zoo's actually necessary in the 21st century?

A zoo defines itself as a an "establishment which maintains a collection of wild animals, typically in a park or gardens, for study, conservation, or display to the public". This a quick simple summary of what a zoo is. I'm gong to be exploring in more detail to what zoos are being used for and overall answering if they are a necessity.

One of the main purposes of having zoos today is for education purposes. Many schools and colleges here in the UK take students to zoos to educate them. A few years ago I was taken to a zoo as part of my biology A level, as at that time we were exploring the classification and taxonomy of animals. We were shown my zookeepers how they classified animals, and taught the taxonomy of a few animals, as well as being allowed to explore the zoo ourselves. However, realistically the educational part of this visit was all taken part in a classroom that could have been done at the college, it took less than an hour, with the majority of the time was just us being able to look at the 'cute' animals. Other people may have found there visits very educational to them, but personally I did not.

There is also the argument that if zoos are to educate people when they are visiting why are there cases of animus being killed purely because they couldn't breed. An article on livescience.com discussed this topic in which they used the example of a "young and healthy' giraffe being killed at Copenhagen zoo. So this brings up the argument are animals there for educational purposed or purely looked at as "breeding machines", that are disposed of when they can't be used. After discovering this case I began to look into zoos disposing of animals for similar reasons. According to a BBC article Copenhagen zoos (which was was being looked into due to the giraffe being killed) scientific director was quoted saying "its done everyday", this was seen as a slight exaggeration on his part, however he does go on to say that its only done "when its necessary" (yet I don't think anyone can argue that killing that giraffe just because it couldn't breed would be classed as necessary). Copenhagen zoo isnt the only zoo known to do this, other danish zoos are also known to be quite open about discussing the animals they have culled, one zoo having culled two lions a week or so before Copenhagen killed one of their giraffes. As for the rest of Europe although its hard to find information as the EAZA ( European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) doesn't actually publish deaths, births or really very much information of each animal. However the executive Dr Lesley Dickie estimates somewhat between "3000 and 5000: are "management-euthanised' in any given year. This is apparent across the world, culling animals that are not sick/in pain but because they've just become "unuseful'.

However breeding is a very important part of zoos (although obviously conservation doesn't make killing animals that can't breed acceptable) when it comes to conservation. Many animals are now becoming endangered/extinct due to things such as habitat destruction or overhunting (which I will discuss in more detail in another blog) and zoos are sometimes the only place certain animals can be found or where the majority of certain animals population can be found. Zoos help conservation through things such as breeding programmes, research, and reintroduction programmes.

Obviously conservation is very much important with many species completely vanishing if it wasn't for zoo/conservation programmes, and this is why creating breeding programmes is such an important aspect of zoos. Breeding programmes mean that they can begin to try and reproduce more endangered and vulnerable animals, even if it means they have to stay in captivity instead of being in the wild. Wouldn't you rather see the animal in captivity than to not exist at all?

Its not always the case where they are only found in the captivity, there are also reintroduction programmes that try and make them present in the wild again. However there is very limited cases of this happening, but you have to think that in many cases is there much point in reintroducing them, if what caused them to become extinct is still a problem. Reintroduction programmes have worked in the past, for example the Golden lion tamarin was classified as critically endangered and then down listed to endangered due to reintroduction efforts. There were 146 captive-born golden lion tamarins, all from 43 different institutions (41 being zoos) that had been successfully reintroduced within 21 years (1984-2001) in Brazil. Now around one third of the wild population are a descendant of the reintroduced animals (with 1000 estimated to be in wild today). One issue with reintroduction programmes is they can be very difficult and take a lot of time and funding to get right. This is why funding to conservation causes is very important, whether this is donations within zoos or charities for this cause.

So with all this to consider, are zoos necessary today? In my opinion there are aspects of zoos that are very important today. Im very supportive of conservation efforts whether this is through charities helping or through zoos and there research. However the majority of animals that are found in zoos are not endangered animals and they aren't being reintroduced to the wild. One thing I came upon when looking up about conservation and reintroduction programmes, was the idea that if nothings being done in the wild to protect these endangered and vulnerable animals, captive breeding won't make a difference. An article on sciencedaily looked into this evaluation. In this article they quoted Dr Paul Dolman, from UEA's School of Environmental Sciences, who said "Captive breeding can reduce motivation and resources for conservation in the wild, with disastrous consequences". He was also quoted saying "Captive breeding can offer a last chance when species face imminent extinction, but ultimately depends on re-establishing a population in the wild. This has proved successful for some high-profile species, but in many cases it has not". This brought me back to the point I briefly touched on early that if the issues that caused them to become endangered or extinct In the wild aren't sorted then reintroduction programmes can't be successful for many species. Personally I believe that zoos can be educational in some ways, especially when it comes to conservation. However a big majority of zoos animals aren't vulnerable. I believe that zoos and conservation efforts/programmes should be used to create breeding programmes as a last resort when there is conclusive evidence that if this doesn't happen the animal will become extinct. Realistically more needs to be done in the wild to improve conservation, the direct source of where these animals live should be a first priority. This is not me saying zoos should not exist, I believe zoos should be home to the many species that are endangered and on the verge of becoming extinct, I also believe in breeding programmes and reintroduction programmes (they are very important to being able to bring animals back into their natural habitat). However I don't think they should be there merely for people to be entertained, here zoos have the opportunity to educate people of all ages of whats being done to these animals thats causing them to become so endangered. The more people that become educated on this and start talking/protesting for change the more likely change will begin to happen (turning a blind eye achieves nothing).

So to conclude, I believe zoos should be helping animals that are endangered, they should be educating people on the severity of endangerment and what is causing it. I don't think its necessary to have any and every wild animal in zoos, but just the ones that need saving. Reintroduction programmes are something that definitely needs to be used and looked into more. Although its nice to know that there are animals that are extinct or on the verge still being kept here on Earth due to zoos, I would much prefer to one day be able to see them myself in the wild.

Overall I believe its time for zoos to change and develop!