Zoo Hannover (Germany) – A place for animal protection and education?

Introduction

In August 2019, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) started a public relations campaign in Germany. PETA asked the public to write letters to their local zoos, encouraging them to stop displaying their great apes, sending them to sanctuaries instead. As a result of this request, the author of this essay wrote to a zoo in Hannover, which exhibits great apes like orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees. The zoo replied with a four-page letter, presenting their arguments about why zoos are essential. This essay refutes the arguments contained in the zoo's reply based on scientific evidence and will be used as the basis of the response to them.

The life of the animals

`The keeping of animals in modern and scientific zoos like the Zoo of Hannover is subjected to high requirements. The zoo belongs to the EAZA, which means it even goes a step further… Zoos are providing a species-appropriate and protected life following the newest husbandry systems' (Thielert, 2020, [online]).

The level of commitment that the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) has to the welfare of animals can be called into question when examining their position regarding euthanasia as a management tool. For example, Marius was a healthy two-year-old giraffe living at the Copenhagen Zoo. However, his genes were considered unsuitable for future breeding because his siblings had similar genes and were already in the breeding program. His gene pool was, therefore, already existent within his siblings. So to avoid inbreeding issues, EAZA decided to euthanize him on 9 February 2014 (Rose-Innes, 2016). Other zoos had agreed to adopt Marius, but EAZA declined their offers. Either because they were not EAZA-accredited or because Marius would have taken up space that otherwise could have housed a genetically valuable giraffe (Rincon, 2014). A genetically valuable giraffe is defined as one which brings a new gene pool to the breeding program. In the same year, the Copenhagen zoo euthanized four healthy lions so they could introduce a new male lion from the Givskud Zoo (Denmark) to the group. This new lion introduced a new gene pool to a group that the Copenhagen Zoo wanted to create. They kept two females from a 2012 litter and euthanized the other two cubs and their parents. The 14-year-old mother was too old to give birth to more offspring, and the 16-year-old father would have been at risk for mating with his daughters. The two euthanized cubs were males and would, therefore, have been killed by the new male lion from Denmark. The Copenhagen zoo alone culls 20-30 healthy animals each year (Dell'Amore, 2014). Across all 410 EAZA zoos and aquaria (EAZA, 2018), between 3,000 to 5,000 animals are killed annually. Several hundred of these animals are large fauna, including giraffes, lions, leopards, and hippos. EAZA considers euthanasia a viable management strategy to improve their breeding program (Smith-Spark, 2014; Moss, 2014). According to animal rights philosophy, `sentient animals have their intrinsic worth, independent of any instrumental value to humans' (Knight, 2014: 269). Any approach to life that reduces it to its genetic components is, therefore, unacceptable and brings into question the assertion that zoos are providing a protected life.

One of the wild animals’ primary task is searching for and consuming food. Gorillas spend 70% of their days foraging and feeding (Carlstead, 1998). African elephants spend 57% of daylight hours moving and feeding (Evans, 2006). Grazing is unavailable in 90% (18 out of 20) of European zoos that house Asian elephants (Taylor & Poole 1998). Even if the zoos require animals to perform tasks to get their food, this is a questionable replacement for regular feeding activity. The complexity of this task in nature cannot be replicated by freezing a bit of food in an ice-block or hiding it under rocks. Most of the time, the effort needed to get food will not be comparable to the wild and leaves animals with much empty time. This issue is often combined with another significant privation in zoos, which is space. In the wild, polar bears can have a home range of over 250,000 square kilometres. In a single day, Asian elephants may travel as far as 65 kilometres (Maple, 2007), and African elephants can cover 30–50 kilometres (Leuthold, 1977). The space available in all of the world's major zoos combined is smaller than the range requirement of a single jaguar (Preece & Chamberlain, 1993). These conditions are far from being 'species-appropriate' and can lead to depression and other mental illnesses like stereotypic behaviour.

Education

`The main goal of zoos is only to make humans interested in and educated about animals, and by this to make a significant contribution to species survival and protection´ (Thielert, 2020, [online]).

In contrast to the above assertion, studies suggest that the main reasons why people visit zoos are for fun and entertainment. Only about four percent of zoo visitors claim that they visit zoos for educational reasons (Fennell, 2012). The vast majority of studies have concluded that conservation awareness is a generally insignificant part of the overall experience of zoo visitors (Reade and Waran, 1996; Holzer et al., 1998; Turley, 1999; Ryan and Saward, 2004; Lück and Jiang, 2007). On average visitors spend about 30 seconds to two minutes at a typical exhibit and only read some of the signs (Kreger, 1998). The typical zoo visitor is much less environmentally aware than those who spend time in nature (Fennell, 2012). Zoo visitors do not gain an understanding of the significance of the differences between animals living in captivity and those living free. Generally, visitors perceive zoo animals as tame, restricted, and passive, and wild animals as free, wild, and active (Finlay et al., 1988). This is a broad generalization and shows a lack of biological knowledge about animals. Living in captivity can reduce activity levels, as natural behaviours are restricted. However, there are also species in the wild that are not that active. For example, lions may sleep up to 20 hours a day (Myhrvold, 2007). Nevertheless, in contrast, their very active hunting behaviours cannot be adequately replicated in a zoo. So they are generally perceived as passive in that environment.

Conservation

`Zoos make a meaningful contribution to the conservation and protection of species. They are supporting the protection of natural habitats and reintroduce endangered animals to the wild. Worldwide zoos spend around 350 million US-dollars for this purpose each year' (Thielert, 2020, [online]).

Research suggests that great apes born and raised in captive environments can never be released into the wild. `Even a lifetime in the most humane zoo will have left animals too affected by years of a sheltered existence. Captive animals seldom learn crucial survival skills and often are too habituated to human contact. Lacking a natural fear of humans, they are vulnerable to poachers and ill-equipped for life in the wild' (Cormier, 2018, [online]). Furthermore, reintroduction efforts have been unsuccessful in general. Less than 20 species (out of the 120 reintroduced) have become self-sufficient in the wild (Catibog-Sinha, 2008). In 1990, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature identified survival action plans for 1370 rare or endangered species. Reintroduction of captive-bred animals could assist with the conservation of only 1.4% (19) of these 1,370 species. Captive breeding of wildlife is best accomplished and most useful at centres that are specifically designed for that purpose and that are located adjacent to a species' natural habitat (Gatland, 1996). Zoos and aquariums manage a limited number of individual members of a species, and population problems become magnified in small populations. Genetic diversity is needed for a species to be able to react to changing environmental influences and other new circumstances that may arise. This diversity, necessary for species’ long-term survival, is just not achievable within the relatively small populations contained by zoos compared to those in the wild (Penfold, 2015).

The amount of money that zoos currently spend on the protection of natural habitats is only one to two percent of their whole budget (Jamieson, 1998). The average cost of annual captive management for a black rhino is USD 16,000 per animal. The yearly cost of protecting the habitat of one rhino in the wild is only USD 1000. Therefore, sixteen rhinos can be supported in the wild for the same price as one in captivity (Wildlife New Zealand, 2007). It can cost over 100 times more to maintain a group of elephants in captivity for a year than conserve a similar group in the wild for the same period (Gatland, 1996). It is hard to justify the millions of tax money zoos receive as support by the government. In 2020, this will be four million Euro for the Zoo of Hannover (Klein, 2019). Choosing to financially support zoos reduces the funding available for the far more critical need to protect the natural environment these animals have come from.

Conclusion

Even though the Zoo of Hannover is trying to provide animals and visitors with a naturalistic experience, it offers a simplistic view, presenting animals that are living in minimal environments. Space restrictions and a lack of useful activities are just two of these limitations. The animals cannot move around freely and cannot make their own decisions regarding food, shelter, climate, social contacts, migration, and reproduction. The claim from the letter that zoos protect their animals may not be valid for individual animals. Animals lacking useful genes for future breeding may receive a death sentence. This is instituted by humans who claim to protect them. Instead of confining species like great apes, polar bears, and elephants, and subsequently spending millions of dollars (including tax money) on building beautiful enclosures for them, this money would be better spent saving their real homes. Children should be taught compassion and respect for animals. Zoos demonstrate human power by taking control of other living beings.

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