Zoos were originally created as places of entertainment and their roles as centres of conservation didn't arise seriously until about thirty years ago. However, it was only some years later when the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust was founded by Gerald Durrell that zoos as conservation bodies got a boost. But studies show that the conservation record of zoos is rather mediocre all over the world and the primary function they seem to perform is that of entertainment. In fact, zoos allegedly contribute to the depletion of species in the wild. For when an animal dies, many zoos supposedly replace it with one from the wild.
Another function that zoos are meant to perform is an educational one. Despite visiting a number of zoos, I don't recall learning anything beyond the name of the animal residing in the enclosure. Certainly, looking at animals cowering and pacing restlessly in the cage didn't give me a clue about how they lived, what they ate and how they interacted with others of their own kind.
Zoological gardens can do much more. If run well, like the New Jersey zoo, a zoo can contribute towards conserving threatened animals and ultimately rehabilitating them in the wild. More can be learnt about the animals, their breeding habits, their growth pattern and their behaviour, if the zoo is managed in a proper manner - keeping in mind that the zoo is meant for the well-being of it's inmates and not for the entertainment of the human race.
The status of zoos in India (as in most countries) is pathetic and terrifying. Though it is mandatory for a zoo to have a full time vet, this is rarely the case. Zoological gardens are always struggling because of paucity of funds and people in charge of the animals rarely have a clue to what they are doing. Zoo biology is a relatively young science and most zoos run without the knowledge that it even exists.
Going to the zoo is a picnic, somewhere you can take the kids on a Sunday. And many of us are not beyond poking and prodding the animals to hear them roar and squeak. A zookeeper once told me that a habit that reccurred with rather alarming regularity was that the monkeys were fed with bananas with pieces of razor blades stuffed in it! I recall seeing a hippopotamus, sitting in it's pool of stagnant and filthy water, swallowing a plastic bag full of popcorn which one of the visitors had generously tossed to the poor animal.
A losing battle
I find it rather silly that humans have chosen to declare war on insects through the use of poisons (insecticides). There is no doubt that caterpillars, beetles and grasshoppers pose a problem to farmers because they eat our food crops. But the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has more than enough proof on hand to indicate that our crops cannot be protected indefinitely by poisoning the `enemy'. This has not stopped us from waging our absurd chemical war against insects.
Why are the animals condemned to live and die in such appalling conditions? What is their crime, that they are being imprisoned for life?
