Home > Pets & Animals > Animal Rights & Issues
Should zoos keep endangered species?
Results so far:
| For | 77% | 148 votes | Total: 193 votes | |
| Against | 23% | 45 votes |
For
by S.E. Ingraham
Created on: September 21, 2009 Last Updated: September 23, 2009
Sadly, the only way to preserve some of earth's endangered species may be within the confines of zoos. That being said, a great deal must be done to ensure that zoos protect the endangered species of which they become the guardians.
The controversy surrounding zoos and endangered species has centred around the fact that some zoos have used such animals in breeding programs, ostensibly to rejuvenate the species and reintroduce it to the wild, but in reality, once the young are born, the zoos have used them to attract customers to their facilities and in the end, do not ever release animals back into the wild.
As man continues to destroy the habitat of all animals at an alarming pace, it is quite possible that the feasibility of releasing endangered species back into the wild is not tenable, once they have spent considerable time in a zoo and/or after they have been part of a breeding program.
It could quite well be that there will not be habitat of sufficient quality and size left within which to place certain species by the time zoos might be considering a release program.
However, as well-meaning animal-protection groups rally to have endangered species barred from being adopted by all zoos, a more reasoned approach must prevail on both sides.
If some endangered species are allowed to stay as they are, in the wild, with minimal protection and increasingly scant habitat , as for example, the Siberian tiger is, chances are great that some of these species will disappear from the planet completely, and in the not too distant future.
In the case of this tiger for instance, it once ranged throughout Western and Central Asia plus eastern Russia, now - it is completely confined to a region in far-eastern Siberia.
The frightening fact about the Siberian tiger is that it is almost identical to the Caspian Tiger, a now extinct sub-species (one of eight such sub-species, all of which are extinct). Even though the tiger is now protected, it wouldn't take much to wipe a species such as this from the earth, especially when you consider such things as illness, natural disaster, or any number of man-made catastrophes, it is not unreasonable to protect at least some of the tigers in a zoo setting.
The zoos that are willing to take on this type of responsibility must be top-of-the-line in every way; the habitat the animal is moved to must mimic their natural habitat as closely as possible. Newer zoos that have been built in the last decade or so reflect this need and most of the public demand that animals have nothing less, if they are to be held in captivity. This has been a positive change for good.
Since the very definition of endangered species indicates that there is a high risk of the species becoming extinct in the wild, the need for zoos to be the guardians of these particular species is great.
Again, it has become important that the zoos involved, and eventually, this will be all zoos worldwide, become cognizant of, and even required to sign, a covenant stating that they will be responsible stewards for the animals they undertake to adopt into their care.
There must be laws put in place that keep the zoos responsible to the animals, and to the rest of the world's population - i.e. the people, stating that they will do everything in their power to protect the endangered species.
Being responsible guardians of the endangered species of the world will require careful management and accountability and only the zoos whose first priority is the well-being of the animals will be permitted to undertake this type of stewardship.
Breeding and releasing into the wild are components of a program that will have to be decided on a case by case study, but zoos taking on the challenge of housing endangered species will have to know up front that it can never again be about the bottom line. For the preservation of the endangered species, it must forever more be about the animals.
Learn more about this author, S.E. Ingraham.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Against
by Lindsay Grahaem
Created on: July 11, 2010
The question of whether zoos should keep endangered species depends entirely upon the reasons behind the zoo keeping such animals. Contrary to the beliefs of many of the general public, the majority of zoos care little about the actual conservation work needed to preserve endangered species, and are far more concerned with having a range of exotic animals which encourage tourists to visit and therefore generate income for the establishment in question.
There are some circumstances in which endangered species of animals should indeed be kept in zoos, and that is in cases where genuine conservation efforts are being made. For example, a zoo which has a dedicated breeding programme for an endangered species, where the aim is to breed and release endangered species back into protected areas, where they can live a wild life, should indeed be allowed to keep endangered species. This is not the case for the vast majority of zoos though, who often play the 'endangered species' card when enticing visitors to their attractions. Visitors are very much mistaken, however, if they think that visiting a normal zoo with endangered species is at all contributing to the survival of the species in the wild. This is not the case. Without a scientifically proven, full structured rehabilitation and release programme, the majority of zoos with endangered species are doing is simply breeding more animals destined to spend their life living unnaturally behind bars.The wild population, who are of course the ones who we should be concerned about, do not benefit in the slightest from this.
Zoo visitors need to ask themselves where the individual endangered species in the zoos originated from; many zoo animals are wild caught specimins, confiscated wild catches, or products of overbreeding, which are traded internationally between zoos. It's often a case of one zoo having too many of X endangered species and another zoo having too few of X endangered species, and having a trade, which incidentally is how Taronga zoo in New Zealand aquired it's Asian elephants via Thailand.
Zoos often entice visitors in with rare species, such as white tigers and ligers/tigons (lion/tiger hybrids), claiming to be protecting these 'endangered animals'. What they often fail to tell the visitors is that the majority of these animals, although beautiful in appearance, are fundamentally freaks of nature, unnatural hybrids which in the wild would have genetically been bred out of the species naturally. Similarly, a zoo creating it's own new sub-species of animal through inter-species breeding, then labelling it endangered does not make it a genuine endangered species - it does however, make it a money spinner!
The large sums of money being spent on acquiring exotic endangered species with which to lure in tourists is being wasted. Similarly, money spent on the artificial insemination of lone endangered elephants in zoos for example, is not being spent to help the population as a whole (this could be done far more efficiently incidentally by rescuing the elephants currently being forced to beg on streets of numerous South East Asian countries) but to have the attraction of a baby elephant at their zoo. Everyone likes to see a baby elephant, right? The money invested in the acquisition, insemination and inter-zoo trading would be much better spent on protecting the habitats of the endangered species, and setting up scientific release programmes which are actually capable of increasing the numbers of these animals in the wild.
Learn more about this author, Lindsay Grahaem.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- Next Page >>
Write and get published
Share with other writers
Polish your freelancing skills
Quality articles from proven freelancers
Exclusive rights, fast turnaround
Brand engagement, business blogging -- our writers do it all
INFORMATION
Copyright © 2002-2012 Helium, Inc. All rights reserved.
Helium.com: A Service of RR Donnelley