Editorial feature: The lessons zoos teach, & how to teach them better
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2007:
Trying to talk to animal advocates about good zoos, when
most have seen only bad zoos, is much like the proverbial effort to
introduce six blind men to an elephant. Merely describing a good
zoo, and especially describing how bad zoos can become good zoos,
tends to strike most as describing a series of contradictions in
terms. Each grasps a different part, and none have any idea how to
reconcile the tusks, tail, ears, legs, belly, and trunk.
Unfortunately, the same is also true of trying to describe
to zoo planners what makes a good zoo, from an animal welfare
perspective. Many zoos include some excellent quarters for species
whose needs are well understood by the management, alongside
horribly botched exhibits based on gross misunderstandings. An
expansive concrete floor polished to resemble ice, for example, is
anything but homelike to a polar bear–but the bear may thrive in a
habitat which in no way resembles the Arctic, if the habitat
includes mental stimulation of equivalent intensity of interest to
the bear as the challenge of finding seals beneath ice.