Follow your favorite zoos and aquariums on social media to keep up with their animals and their conservation efforts. You can also join your local facility as a member, or donate to help zoos and aquariums feed their animals, pay their staff, and continue their conservation work. This site uses cookies to offer you a better browsing experience. If you continue using our website, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on this website and you agree to our Privacy Policy.
Conway International Conservation Award R. LinkedIn Twitter Facebook. Repairing Ecosystems AZA-accredited facilities restore habitats to support reintroduction and rehabilitation programs for a variety of species, including critically endangered orangutans. Rehabilitation AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums frequently work with the U. Are Zoos and Aquariums Educational?
Ecology AZA members have access to diverse animal populations and research their behaviors and their biological, physiological, and psychological needs. Biodiversity Research and conservation projects conducted by AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums improve biodiversity. Related Stories. And these standards will be set not by zoos but instead an independent collection of world-renowned experts in the fields of animal science, behavior, and ethics—a sharp departure from most existing accreditation programs, which are vulnerable to accusations of conflicts of interest and leniency.
To some detractors, the humane certification of zoos and aquariums is an oxymoron. But vast empirical and academic research discredits this black-and-white view. Animals in zoos and aquariums today can live longer, healthier, and richer lives than their forbearers ever did in the wild.
Go see for yourself. Contact us at letters time. Ideas animals Zoos Are Not Prisons. They Improve the Lives of Animals. By Dr. But just as the fact that some police are corrupt does not mean we should not have people to enforce the law, although bad zoos or exhibits persist does not mean they are not worthwhile institutes.
It merely means we need to pay more attention to the bad and improve them or close them. In either case, zoos at least in the U.
While a bad collection should not be ignored, if you are worried the care and treatment of animals in captivity I can point to a great many farms, breeders, dealers and private owners who are in far greater need or inspection, improvement or both. But at what point does that become captivity? A m fence? What if veterinary care is provided or extra food as in many reserves or as part of conservation projects.
What I would state with absolute confidence is that for many species but no, not all it is perfectly possible to keep them in a zoo or wildlife park and for them to have a quality of life as high or higher than in the wild.
They can be spared bullying or social ostracism or even infanticide by others of their kind, or a lack of a suitable home or environment in which to live.
So a good zoo will provide great care and protection to animals in their care. These are good things for the individuals concerned, but what do zoos actually bring to the table for the visitors and the wider world?
Helping respond to emergencies. In the last 20 years, an estimated amphibian species have gone extinct. In addition to habitat loss, chytrid fungus has emerged as a deadly threat to worldwide amphibian populations. Responding to threats such as this, especially in small or medium sized vertebrates is surely one of the greatest uses of zoos around the world. In fact, many zoos have set up specialist amphibian centers and are pioneering treatment and breeding programmes.
They remind us that we can succeed. For me at least, zoos remind us that conservation does work, we just need more of it. But zoos are not perfect. Should they continue to keep large predators, or intelligent primates? Over the next few decades, probably not. Should large new animals be collected from the wild? No, unless there is a compelling case to develop a captive breeding program.
But are zoos changing and developing? More than ever, good zoos are aware of their evolving role in conservation and responding to it.
Would I rather have a species in captivity, than not at all. One hundred times, yes. What is much, much harder is taking action to support conservation in the field, to reduce the impact of climate change or tackle pollution. These things are a lot less tangiable, a lot harder to get to grips with.
That I think is why so many animal rights groups attack zoos, when instead I would argue that they could achieve a much greater net good by working together and protecting natural habitats.
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