Going to school for zoology is amazing. It is so awesome
working with such unique, exotic animals that such a small percent of people
even have the chance to experience. This definitely has its perks. However,
after I tell people what I’m going to school for or even at the zoo, people often
ask, “But don’t the animals get depressed in captivity?”
First off, among myself and other people who affiliate
themselves working with animals that happen to be in captivity would most
likely agree with me that as keepers, we try our best for that not to happen.
Every single day of the year, we make sure that ALL animals are taken accounted
for to be fed, watered, provide enrichment and gain attention from all of us.
We do this to prevent animals from getting “bored.” We do not force any of our
animals to do anything they do not want to do. It is all voluntary. Fortunately,
our animals enjoy our choices of enrichment every day. J The scent of a new spice or
toy is very exciting and makes them curious. Even for our snow leopard, Pasha,
he gets a kick out of it when we give him new straw or our white Bengal tiger,
Payson, will not let us hose her back holding floor without making sure we “accidently”
spray her!
Anywho, back to the part about animals in captivity. There
is a huge stigma against zoos, aquariums, “Blackfish” if that rings a bell for
anyone, or just the idea of animals in captivity. Well, I can agree with anyone
that hands down, the natural environment that animals thrive in is the most
optimal place for any animal to live. I would like to live in a world where humans
and animals can coexist with each other and still get along fine. However, we
have to be honest with ourselves. If you look at how much the human population
is expanding, where do you expect some of these animals to go as we start to
keep reaching further and further into their homes? With these “animal
encounters” roaming in our neighborhoods, have you ever taken the devil’s
advocate thought that maybe it is us humans moving into their space instead of
them moving into ours? Well, I don’t think I can stop the human population
expansion that is continuing to grow, so, that is where I feel that facilities
that have animals in captivity can be seen as a positive reason.
In addition, the Black Market unfortunately still exists no
matter what we do to try and stop it. Poachers in particular, are very
interested not only in big cats, but for other animals to illegally sell for
high prices and waste the rest of the animal. Facilities that have captivity
can only save so many animals from this, but at least we know that the animals
that are here at the Omaha Zoo, will be safe from that. This helps decrease the
number of animals dying this way instead of struggling through life and dying
in an unnatural way.
Some people also ask “Do animals in captivity tend to have
longer or shorter life spans?” Like every human, people and animals can come
completely healthy, some may have a mental disorder, possibly some physical
difficulties, and the list could go on.
Every person and animal is different from one another. For most of our
big cats, they tend to live on average to about twelve years old. However, many
factors can alter this in their natural environment due to poachers like
mentioned before, possibly a bad year for their prey and do not get enough food
or water and so forth. However, in captivity, most of our animals could
actually almost double their expected life span because they get the benefit of
having the proper nutrition, medications if they need it and veterinary care.
Lastly, my last reason why I feel that having animals in
captivity at facilities such like at a zoo is great because as a college
student, I kind of do not have the money to go see the world where all of these
animals actually come from. It’s a unique setting where I can learn so much
about all kinds of animals in one place. As a zoo, we try to have people who
visit come with an open mind to learn about all animals, their importance in
our world and leave with a better understanding of why animals are here.
I hope after reading this, you’ll have an open perspective
about animals in captivity. J
Please feel free to put your feelings about captivity.
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