On zoos

Ricky, London Zoo's infamous
rockhopper penguin

The Zoo. As a child, the zoo was a very exciting place, the sort of place that you went to as a very special treat, a birthday maybe. I have a personal memory of going to London Zoo with my parents - I must have been about 8 years old at the time, and although my memory of most of the day is quite hazy, I still remember seeing the elephants. 11 or so years later, when I had my induction for working at London Zoo, I immediately spotted the elephant enclosure. The elephants were long since gone- moved to London Zoo's sister zoo, Whipsnade, where there is more space for such famously large creatures - but my memories remained.

Moving into adulthood, the zoo is still a fascinating place, but throws up an ethical conundrum. Are zoos "right"? Should we be keeping animals in enclosures, however large the enclosure or well cared for the animals are? In a manner, the recent documentary, Blackfish, has thrown the issue of keeping animals in captivity back into the limelight (but more of that in a future article).

I sat down to write about my thoughts on this matter, and by coincidence a programme called "A day at the zoo" was being broadcast on BBC4. The programme was absolutely fascinating, giving an insight into the history of zoos around the world, from the humble beginnings of London Zoo in Regent's Park. More interesting than the basic history of the zoos was the changing attitude of the mass public towards the concept of zoos. From the early days of "bear-prodding sticks" being sold at London Zoo, to the construction of the "barless" Dudley Zoo which made people feel "less troubled" as it gave the "illusion of freedom", it was interesting to see how people's thoughts on animal cruelty have changed.

If you want to watch this fascinating programme, click here- I highly recommend it, as it sums up attitudes towards zoos far better than I ever could.

As it stands, I will attempt to sum up my feelings about zoos. As I have said, there are many split opinions about zoos, and I can see why; for every decent zoo out there (of which I hold ZSL London Zoo in the highest regard), there is another zoo - at the risk of stereotyping, often in poorer countries with less strict regulations - which does nothing to improve the reputation of zoos, often keeping animals in sub-standard conditions, putting visitor revenue ahead of animal welfare.

As to whether we should be keeping animals in cages and enclosures at all, I think it's a case of the greater good. Well-managed zoos have contributed so much towards conservation in the past, mainly in terms of breeding animals on the breed of extinction, that as long as the animals are kept in excellent conditions, I believe they have a place in our society. One of the things that stuck with me from the BBC programme was a description of one of the featured historic zoos as "of it's time", and this is how I see zoos today. Could they be entirely outlawed in 50 years time? It's entirely possible. Will we look back one day and see today's zoos as barbaric? Perhaps. But for now, I'm all for zoos with good standards, which place animal welfare ahead of visitor numbers and contribute a significant amount to conservation science.

And for the zoos which do not have good operating standards,  Born Free's zoo check programme does a great job at eliminating the suffering of animals in captivity. If you visit a zoo with questionable animal care standards, contact them!

What do you think about zoos? Do you have a favourite memory of going to the zoo? Share your thoughts in the comments section below, on Twitter @WildWorldBlog, or on Facebook.