Elephant deaths spur new debate over U.S. zoos
BY ANDREW Stern
CHICAGO, (Reuters) - Zoo elephants swaying back and forth, polar
bears swimming in endless circuits and manic monkeys grooming themselves
to baldness.
Such disturbed, trance-like behaviour in some zoo animals and the
deaths of four elephants in the past year at two U.S. zoos have sparked
animal rights protests and renewed a larger debate over the purpose of
zoos.
Defenders say zoos serve important purposes, including offering
access to researchers, providing money and expertise for habitat
preservation elsewhere and as repositories of genetic material for
fast-vanishing species.
Critics say captivity is both physically and mentally stressful.
"We might see within our lifetimes a great reduction or extinction of
these animals," as their natural habitats are squeezed by the crush of
human populations, said Bill Foster, president of the American Zoo and
Aquarium Association. "Extinction is not acceptable."
Zoos originally gave city dwellers the chance to marvel at the
world's fauna and later promoted habitat preservation, but those
purposes have been eclipsed, critics say.
"In the old days, when you didn't have television, children would see
animals for the first time at the zoo and it had an educational
component," said Tufts University animal behaviourist Nicholas Dodman.
"Now the zoos claim they're preserving the disappearing species,
preserving embryos and genetic material. But you don't need to do that
in a zoo. There's still a lot of entertainment to zoos," he said.
Elephants are often chosen in surveys as the most popular zoo animals
and a newborn calf draws many visitors.
But seeing animals behaving oddly in zoos is more disturbing than
educational, said a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals (PETA).
Oxford University researchers contended 40 percent of zoo elephants
display so-called stereotypical behaviour, which their 2002 report
defined as repetitive movements that lack purpose.
The report said studies have shown zoo elephants tend to die younger,
are more prone to aggression and are less capable of breeding compared
with the hundreds of thousands of elephants left in the wild.
Moreover, critics say many zoo elephants, though hardy, spend too
much time cramped indoors, get little exercise and become susceptible to
infections and arthritis from walking on concrete floors.
Following the deaths of two of three African elephants housed at
Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo in the past four months, animal rights
activists said their demise was hastened by the stress brought on by
their 2003 move from balmy San Diego.
Zoo curators denied climate was to blame and concluded that Tatima,
35, died from a rare lung infection and Peaches, at 55 the oldest of
some 300 elephants in U.S. captivity, suffered from organ failure.
When two elephants in San Francisco's zoo died within weeks of each
other last year, the resulting outcry prompted the zoo to opt to send
its remaining elephants to a California sanctuary against the wishes of
the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.
Detroit's zoo director, who decided his zoo lacked the space or
resources to keep elephants, also had a fight with the association about
sending his elephants to a Tennessee sanctuary.
The association relented only when one elephant showed signs of
herpes.
Detroit's zoo was the eighth North American zoo to stop exhibiting
elephants since 1991, according to PETA.
"For the modern-day zoo to have elephants does nothing for the
preservation or conservation of the species. And it does nothing for the
welfare of the elephant," said Carol Buckley, who created a Tennessee
sanctuary that now cares for a dozen cast-off zoo and circus elephants.
Foster of the zoo association countered that many northern zoos have
successful elephant programmes with plans to expand.
Calves born in captivity have higher mortality rates and survivors
often have to be isolated for a time from their inexperienced mothers,
who may trample them.
Based on the Oxford University report that found 40 percent of zoo
elephants engage in stereotypical behaviour, the report's sponsor,
Britain's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, urged
European zoos to stop importing and breeding elephants and to phase out
exhibits.
Dodman said he frequently observes stereotypical behaviour among zoo
animals: polar bears rocking in place or swimming in endless circuits,
parrots grooming themselves until they bleed, gorillas regurgitating and
re-ingesting meals, and big cats pacing the same routes in trance-like
patterns.
Most zoos embrace efforts to enrich the animals' lives by varying
feeding rituals and providing toys, with some success; an Alaskan zoo is
even building its elephant a treadmill.
But elephants and other animals that range widely in the wild are
less easily distracted, critics say.
Some zoos give animals behaving stereotypically the same
antidepressant drugs found to ease compulsive behaviours in people,
Dodman said.
The key is providing more space and companionship for elephants,
which often travel in large herds and forage for hours, Buckley said. |