Zoo Biology and Management- Lecture 1-Horizon Video Notes 'Should we close our Zoos?'

1. Role of Zoos has changed since 50-60's

1.1. Education

1.1.1. Teaching and educating the public, however this has not been scientifically proven to be successful.

1.2. Breeding endangered species has gained research and experts

1.2.1. Threats from people have meant populations are monitored and manged to keep alive

1.2.1.1. Californian Condors- Breeding programme was perfected - re introductions took place

2. Captivity halves the life expectancy of elephants

2.1. Elephants in captivity - 19yrs in females Elephants in the wild - 40 yrs +

2.2. Stress, obesity, foot problems and arthritis

3. Zoos

3.1. Foot problems for elephants who are in confinement

3.2. Detroit Zoo chose to stop housing elephants after welfare was compromised

4. Seaworld

4.1. Been displaying whales since 1964

4.2. 12 keepers have been injured by whales

4.3. Tilikum killed trainer in 2010 - argued it was an accident

4.3.1. As a result, trainers are now longer allowed to go into tanks with whales

4.4. SeaWorld have stopped breeding programme

5. Stereotypical Behaviour

5.1. Prodominant issue in zoos

5.2. Various stereotypy in various animals

6. 90% of animals in zoos are captive bred

7. Zoos end up with a surplus of animals when trying to breed sustainably - culling of animals ensue

7.1. Copenhagen Zoo culled when they has a surplus - they chose to let them breed naturally rather than use contraceptives

7.2. 3,000-5,000 healthy animals in zoos are culled each year

7.3. Marius the giraffe was killed, dissected and fed to the lions in front of members of the public