Zoos began as menageries for the entertainment of royalty and were democratized for public viewing in the 18th and 19th centuries. Now, more zoo tickets are sold than tickets for four sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL) combined. Baba Dioum, a Senegalese conservationist offers this rationale for public zoos: "In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." The phenomenon of “species loneliness” may help explain the impulse for families to visit zoos, though it’s not clear to me whether zoos actually foster connection with or separation from the natural world.
Humans and orangutans share 97% of their DNA. Humans have destroyed 98% of orangutan’s habitat, much of which has been converted to palm oil plantations. An artificially-inseminated mother orangutan at the Richmond Zoo had to learn how to breastfeed by watching a zookeeper breastfeed a newborn human. Besides their educational mission, zoos justify their existence in part as conserving the gene pool of endangered species. But all species co-evolve within specific habitats that sustain their populations. Once those habitats are gone (or become so degraded they no longer serve their previous ecological function), I question the point of preserving the genetic stock of their animal inhabitants.
Click on the triangle below to play “Visitation Privileges”, a six-minute video.