Some animals kept in Chiang Mai zoo. Photo: sluj78
Today I took the advice offered in the children’s nursery rhyme “Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo / How about you? ” It’s a long time since I did so. My last visit to Phuket Zoo, some seven years ago, resulted in my penning a piece which, while critical of some aspects of the place, made encouraging noises about others. For some reason, the article was never published, but perversely, a more recent and much more condemnatory piece – not, it should be said, written by me – did see the light of day.
Clearly, the whole idea of animals in captivity – for that is what it is – provokes widely divergent and sometimes irrational reactions. Witness the “brouhaha” about the proposed Nemo Dolphinarium – an initiative which has resulted in a twelve point opposition letter to the Thai Minister for Tourism. Feelings are running high. On one side of the barricade are proponents who think it would make a significant tourist attraction, and would bring in revenue for Phuket – not to mention profits for the businessmen involved in the project.
But such supportive arguments pale into insignificance when set against the dissenting voices. While some animals might conceivably benefit from being “protected”, cetaceans – for example orcas, porpoises and pilot whales as well as dolphins – are, by their very nature, free spirits that live in complex social groups . They need oodles of space, since they may travel a hundred miles a day in the vast oceans of the world. Cabined, cribbed and confined in so called “marine parks”, they endure lives diminished by the unnatural conditions. Worse, they are fed on dead flesh and made to perform . On average, they only live half as long as they would in the wild.
Highly intelligent and sensitive creatures with a strong sense of kinship, dolphins are hunted in peculiarly appalling ways, especially in Japan , where in an annual cull at Taiji, they are herded into shallow coves and brutally killed . A few traumatized individuals are singled out, still alive, for sale to marine parks. Photographs of pilot whale massacres in the Faroe Islands show the animals pulled ashore by hooks inserted in their blowholes, and then cut open while alive. The beach runs red with blood.
The case for zoos – as opposed to marine parks – is not nearly so black and white. The days of the old style menagerie, when animals were kept in tiny barred cages, often in solitary confinement, are largely gone, thanks to animal rights movements such as the Wildlife Conservation Society, controls exercised by The American Zoo and Aquarium Society (ASA) and burgeoning public awareness – though it is growing all too slowly – of ecological issues. And while zoos cannot offer the same replication of conditions in the wild as game reserves or national parks, many are trying, laudably, to simulate more spacious and natural environments for their charges.
Phuket Zoo is a case in point. Still undergoing radical improvements with many zones currently closed for redevelopment, it has dispensed with most of the ancient, barred cages, or at least sited them away from the popular areas. And they are limited to less vulnerable groups of companionable creatures such as purple swamp hens or flocks of pigeons. Happily, there are pairs of most animals such as otters and ostriches; a colony of pig-tailed macaque monkeys enjoy life in a spacious area; and both the fallow deer and crocodiles, creatures used to each other’s company, have compounds in which they can roam. The central lake provides a natural, if under-used focal point, and the abundance of plants, including thousands of bromeliads and specimen bird’s nest ferns, means that the setting looks in places more like a botanical garden than a haven for animals.
Whether it is, however, a “haven” for many of these inmates, and whether they are less stressed than their fellow species in the wild is a moot point. But it can be argued that they at least suffer no anxiety from potential attack, no grisly deaths from predators, and no threat of starvation. And certainly some inmates, reptiles such as terrapins , pythons and crocs, – do adapt more readily to confinement.
The second important argument in favor of zoos is that they support the principle of conservation. Take an extreme example. There are about 2,300 tigers left in the whole of the Indian jungle; in the state of Texas alone, there are some 2,000 tigers, all in zoos or wild life parks. As a simple matter of fact, I spotted at least five in Phuket Zoo, whereas the last free-range tiger on the island was killed some forty odd years ago.
Some species, on the verge of extinction or at least extirpation, have been saved by conservation programs initiated by zoos. Classic examples include the Chinese panda and the orang-utang, but other less heralded species have benefited from these initiatives. Minnesota Zoo has a program called “Adopt a Park”, aimed at helping to save the Javan rhino. However, it is estimated that only 3% of global zoo resources are actually spent on conservation, and a significantly lower proportion on the far more crucial issue of habitat conservation. It is of little use ‘saving’ threatened species, if there is nowhere in the wild to return them to .
Moreover, animals bred in captivity create their own problems. One is in-breeding a genetic weakness caused by limited populations, while another and more serious concern centers on their inability to survive in the wild. Most released creatures will die within weeks – from predation or hunger. There is also some limited evidence that ‘surplus’ zoo animals are sold to circuses – with their uneviable reputation for animal cruelty – and to unscrupulous businessmen who allow them to be shot for so-called sport. Big game hunting is apparently not dead.
Are most people aware of these issues ? The answer sadly is a resounding “No”. Zoos, however, can and indubitably do help in the business of research and education. Actually seeing animals in the flesh is truly awe-inspiring: no amount of film footage can match the appearance – close up – of an Asian elephant or a Siamese tiger. The reptilian stillness of a giant crocodile with its huge jaws agape is something a child will not easily forget.
But there are downsides, both in evidence at Phuket Zoo. Good signage on enclosures is important, information which both young and old can read and absorb in order to discover more about the animal inside – its habits, its distribution, whether it is threatened , what we can do to protect it and so on. In the bad old days, the signage used to be very poor, faded by sunlight and often unreadable. Now it is better, but there is too little in the way of facts and figures and in any case it is written in Thai.
Thailands’ education system has failed conservation badly. What do children know about Thailand’s unique pangolins or dugongs? About its 900 varieties of birds. Very little, if anything, about the kingdom’s precious natural heritage is taught in schools, so there is a crying need for zoos to help bridge what is a yawning chasm of indifference and ignorance.
There is, moreover, still a preoccupation with the “tame” animal show. Phuket Zoo advertises three different shows: four daily monkey shows, three elephant and three crocodile performances. Personally I dislike the entire notion of performing animals and especially the “training” which precedes them, but I do concede that they are enjoyed by children. Significantly, on my visit to the zoo, a hot and humid day, the elephants refused to cooperate, and had to be unceremoniously driven from the arena. So much for the argument that animals enjoy performing….
I do not want to conclude on a pessimistic note. No zoo can hope to match genuine encounters in the wild – watching a pod of orcas cavorting in the Pacific Ocean, or enjoying the majestic sight of giraffes, elephants, zebras, lions and gazelles roaming freely in Kruger National Park. Those are unforgettable moments, epiphanies in one’s life.
At least the guardians of Phuket Zoo, in creating an environment with fewer animals, more emphasis on native species, and more “natural” conditions, are moving in the right direction. “Going to the zoo?” Why not…. You should learn plenty.
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