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this is fantastic

Now this is what I mean (metaphorically) by "enrichment in my enclosure"

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Dhole Enclosure at Zoo Wuppertal (source)

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allow me to bless your dashboard with the best lil skunk snoot

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Palmitos Park - Canary Islands - Gibbon & Orangatan Island (source)

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One of the metroparks in my town has this really cool living stream tank full of native species. I always enjoy seeing it whenever we visit with the family so I thought you guys would like to see it too. Big thanks to Debbie for narrating.

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Yesss!

This tiny toad is the world’s first Puerto Rican crested toad hatched from in-vitro fertilization (IVF) utilizing frozen semen collected from the wild.

The Fort Worth Zoo and its partners from Mississippi State University came together at the Fort Worth Zoo this summer to continue their efforts with assisted reproduction technology (ART) for critically endangered amphibians. For the first time ever, they were able to successfully conduct IVF using the eggs from two Zoo females and frozen semen from six wild males. To celebrate this conservation success, the first egg to be fertilized and hatched has been named Olaf!

Read more: https://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/2019/12/meet-olaf-the-ivf-toad.html

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Who wants to tell OP about the free entey, not-for-profit zoos that run programs for rehabilitating and reinteoducing native wildlife in their local areas? Or how zoos are literally the ONLY reason we stil have the Panamanian Golden Frog because of captive breeding efforts? Or how the Californian Condor was redvued feom near extinction thanks to zoos? And the Corroboree Frog? The Bongo? The Golden Lion Tamarin and the Amur Leopard?

I guess all those species, and countless numbers of others, just set up breeding programs and reintroduced themselves all on their own ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Zoos are not animal sanctuaries. When it comes to zoos, research and rehabilitation will always be secondary to entertainment and money. The primary purpose of a zoo is to make money off of the capture of animals, that is a direct incentive against true rehabilitation. As long as a human stands to make money off of it, it incentivizes exploitation and will always leave the person with a blind spot to ethical violations even if they think their practices are perfect.

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This wolf wasn’t letting anybody take naps. Kept coming over and waking up the buddies! Rude!

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Sometimes people who keep giant snakes give them little drawers and say “but in the wild they never stretch out!”

These people are wrong. This is what a giant snake should live in. Look at this! I couldn’t even get it in the whole panorama! The enclosure continues beyond that tree thing! The zoo says this is a fifteen footer, and her enclosure is really great.

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Hey! I am very pro-AZA facilities, but I am a little bit concerned about your recent comment on sanctuary breeding. Sanctuaries and rescues are NOT receiving genetically valuable animals, usually they come with no genetic history, and are inbred for color morphs or mixed species (i.e. tigers)! This wouldn't be smart breeding for conservation like the SSPs! (1/?)

The animals they receive should essentially be considered like the excess domestic dog/cat populations in the US (only big and dangerous), because there truly are more than there are available suitable homes for. The argument of breeding for conservation in captivity has to be done in line with responsible breeding that’s part of a larger networked plan, because roadside zoos breed all kinds of animals irresponsibly (filling up the sanctuaries) and claim conservation.

Most of what you’re saying is true, and what you’re most concerned about re: the SSP mention is going to be an issue in the future. However, there are a couple things I want to respond to because they’re going to be super important for people who care about big cats to understand in the near future, in regards to conservation and the sanctuary industry and animal rights interactions. I’m gonna break those down below, but it’s not intended as a smackdown - you just gave me a great opening to talk about something I’ve been realizing I need to write about. To give you some context: I’ve spent the last couple months digging into the histories of sanctuaries and rescues as an industry and studying a lot of the exotic animal legislation that has been proposed/passed in the last couple decades. That means I’ve been researching the evolution of legislation and how animals move (both around the US, and between types of placement) in response to it, and what legal actions or public petitions influence those movements. The holistic picture is… interesting. 

First, though, I want to talk about a couple of the statements you made - because they’re super common in sanctuary messaging right now and, most importantly, have started showing up in legislation and lobbying regarding big cats recently. 

The lack of known lineage for big cats coming into sanctuaries and rescues was really only accurate in the 90s and potentially early 2000s, and from what I can really was at latest an issue up until 2007. The 90s was the period when the big cat population in private ownership in the US was out of control and rescue began to be a big deal - hence the formation of the current major big cat sanctuary organizations. The last large number of big cats of “unknown origin or lineage” left private hands and went into sanctuaries between 2004-2007, as people prepared for the full enforcement of the Captive Wildlife Safety Act (which, among other things, prohibited moving cats across state lines). After that point in time, the need for rescue - by which I mean hoarder situations or animals that truly were not receiving appropriate care, not exotic pet politics framed as abusive - dropped off sharply because anyone who hadn’t given up their big cats prior to 2007 was very aware that the CWSA meant that they were responsible for keeping those animals for life because they could no longer be easily transported to a new owner or another facility. So, a decade after that, animals coming into rescue are generally coming from either pet situations or are confiscations from private facilities. The people who are currently breeding big cats outside of AZA accreditation - regardless of what else you think about them or their practices - are smart enough to understand that inbreeding can occur and that tracking bloodlines is important. All of the exotic pet communities are pretty small and tight-knit in the US, so I can’t believe that there’s no known lineage for the animals currently ending up in sanctuaries. It might not go back more than a couple generations, or might not be something the sanctuaries are given, but it’s got to exist. 

I’m also really skeptical about the whole “there are more big cats than there are suitable homes for” messaging that’s omnipresent in the rescue and sanctuary industry right now, for two reasons. One, there’s no agreement on what a “suitable home” for a big cat is: the Animal Welfare Act is the federal set of requirements for appropriate care, but sanctuaries and animal rights groups consistently condemn places that meet that criteria, and only AZA likes the idea of AZA standards being a requirement for a suitable home, since most facilities don’t have the funding and mission to become part of the AZA. This means there’s no other set of standards that sanctuaries and rescues can point to to back up a claim about a situation for a big cat being ‘not good enough’. Since sanctuaries continue exist because they house confiscated animals, in the absence of data or concrete standards used to quantify a bad situation, any statement they make about big cat quality of care is inherently embroiled in politics. 

Two, the current numbers for captive big cats in the US just do not make sense. They’re all over the place and appear to be estimations because there aren’t primary source citations in any document - legislative or media - that I’ve found past 2003, and even that’s iffy. 

Let’s just look at tigers, for instance. In 2003, a paper Nyhus and Tillson estimated that there were anywhere between 5000-12,000 captive tigers in private hands alone in the US. The excuse given for such a huge potential range: the authors think most pet tigers would be kept illegally and not reported. It goes on to say the most likely estimates are between 7000-9000, but following up on those sources simply gives me news articles where the one of the authors is quoted about those numbers - there’s literally no data or study cited to support that. Okay, so, hold on, we’re guesstimating in a scientific paper about the existence of multiple thousands of tigers, multiple times more than exist in the wild, because of an utter absence of data and the determination that people lie? That doesn’t seem right.  But, then, in 2008 a report on tiger trafficking done by Fish and Wildlife said there are “as many as” 5000 tigers in the US - total, including in zoos and sanctuaries as well as private hands. They were using data from a single 2005 study, which estimated 3349 tigers in “private” hands (2120 in USDA licensed facilities that were not considered zoos or sanctuaries and 1129 in non-exhibition situations). That’s a drastic difference from 2003-2005, and only the 2005 citation shows evidence of actually having data backing it. Now, fast forward to the last couple of years. In 2014, the World Wildlife Fund states that of the 5000 tigers it thinks are in the US, 4700 of those tigers are in private hands. In 2015, the founder of the sanctuary group Tigers in America stated that he thinks there are actually upwards of 7000 tigers in the US with no mention of location. Neither of these statements have any sort of citation, and those numbers don’t make sense. It’s been a decade since the last mention I can find of an actual study of the locations of big cats in the US, so does that mean the numbers that are now being used in legislation and advocacy efforts are simply estimates based on how many pet tigers these organizations think people aren’t reporting? Not to mention, the numbers don’t make sense - the Captive Wildlife Safety Act, as well as many pieces of state-and local-level legislation restricting big cat ownership have majorly restricted the ownership, transport, and breeding of big cats. How are the numbers going up as legislation gets more restrictive? If anyone can show me actual data on the number of big cats in captivity in the US post-2005, I’ll happily update this post - until then, I remain pretty skeptical about this supposed surplus of big cats because after months of searching I’ve found no primary data anywhere to support it. 

Next, let’s chat about roadside zoos for a second. If you’re not aware of why I think that appellation is outdated and meaningless to the general public, please take a second to read this article I wrote about the topic. This is especially pertinent to this discussion, as many facilities outside of AZA (frequently referred to as roadside zoos) directly contribute to the success of SSP programs - see Mill Mountain Zoo’s success with Pallas Cats and Red Wolves, and Tanganyika Wildlife Park’s success with Clouded Leopard breeding. Not all non-AZA places are of the same quality - some do still promote breeding color morphs or talk about white tigers as a separate subspecies - but it’s inaccurate to say that all roadside zoos don’t contribute to conservation or just “fill up sanctuaries” with excess animals. 

Okay. Now, on to the SSP and sanctuaries comment. Most of the cats coming into sanctuaries right now are either previous pets or animals confiscated after animals rights investigations, as mentioned above. Right now, AR groups aren’t going after places that participate in SSPs… but that’s not going to last. For years, HSUS has been campaigning to close down every zoo that isn’t AZA. You can see that in their rhetoric, and in the fact that in every single piece of legislation and media they right they directly contrast how AZA does things with the horrors of roadside zoos. As of earlier this month, the CEO of HSUS made a statement indicating that AZA is partnering with them to help police the rest of the zoo industry - and the biggest focus that HSUS wants to see from AZA is help shutting down roadside zoos, according to a representative who spoke on HSUS’ behalf at the 2016 AZA national conference. It’s convenient that there’s no operant definition for “roadside zoo” published anywhere in HSUS literature since 1980, isn’t there? (See the linked article above for that discussion). This leads us to the question of what happens to the big cats in external facilities that participate in SSPs when animal rights organizations start going after facilities they deem “roadside zoos” or those they condemn for simply not being AZA. Somehow I sincerely doubt they’ll deviate from the long-term plan of shutting them all down just because they happen to support a decent big cat conservation program. When HSUS lobbies to have a facility investigated, and the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF, the legal branch of the AR organizations) get involved with advocating to have animals removed from a facility, there’s always a sanctuary or two ready and willing to take those poor animals -  and they’re all ones that are tightly associated with the animal rights organizations and decry the breeding of their residents. So yes, I do think we’re going to see genetically valued animals “rescued” from facilities where they were part of legitimate, planned breeding programs in the near future and put in sanctuaries where they can no longer contribute to the conservation of their species. 

I also don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the animal rights organizations will eventually start going after AZA, once all the other zoos have been driven out of business or had their animals confiscated. The head of BCR has said publicly that she wants to see all cats removed from zoos and in sanctuaries by 2025 - and that she plans on doing it by first turning the public against roadside zoos, and then by taking in all the big cats the zoos abandon after she convinces the public that they’re fundamentally immoral for having them. That lines up pretty neatly with the current rhetoric coming out of sanctuaries and animal rights organizations about zoos right now, and hey, BCR and HSUS and ALDF are all sponsors of all the recent big cat welfare petitions to the USDA and heavily involved in lobbying for congressional legislation like the Big Cat Public Safety Act. Still not convinced? In the newest iteration of the BCPSA, AZA-accredited facilities are no longer accorded their historical exemption from the proposed regulations. 

Big cat sanctuaries may currently only have cats who aren’t considered valuable to conservation programs, but I don’t think it’ll stay that way. All of the animals who came into the sanctuaries because of the Captive Wildlife Safety Act in 2007 (along with a ton of funding, because pretty faces and sob stories are great for fundraising) are reaching the end of their natural lifespans. If the sanctuaries want to continue to exist, they have to get new animals from somewhere - and you can see them beginning to turn against the zoo industry and demand ownership of their animals. It’s scary, but it’s real, and it looks like it’s starting already - in late 2016, ALDF notified Landry’s Downtown Aquarium (an AZA facility) of their intent to sue for removal of their tigers under the Endangered Species Act if Landry’s did not send the cats to an accredited sanctuary. 

Some of the relevant citations:

Denham J. H.R.1818 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): Big Cat Public Safety Act [Internet]. Congress.gov. 2017 [cited 2017May30]. Available from: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1818

Nyhus PJ, Tilson RL, Tomlinson JL. Dangerous animals in captivity: ex situ tiger conflict and implications for private ownership of exotic animals. Zoo Biology. 2003 Jan 1;22(6):573-86. 

McGuire K. Animal welfare group threatens Tilman Fertitta’s Landry’s Inc. over white tigers at aquarium [Internet]. Houston Chronicle. 2016 [cited 2017May30]. Available from: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Animal-welfare-group-threatens-lawsuit-over-9231998.php 

More Tigers in American Backyards than in the Wild [Internet]. WWF. World Wildlife Fund; 2014 [cited 2017May30]. Available from: https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/more-tigers-in-american-backyards-than-in-the-wild 

https://www.peta.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2017-05-19_PetitiontoUSDArequestingrulemakingreBigCatsunderAWA.pdf

Service USFW. Office of Law Enforcement - Captive Wildlife Safety Act [Internet]. Official Web page of the U S Fish and Wildlife Service. [cited 2017May30]. Available from: https://www.fws.gov/le/captive-wildlife-safety-act.html

USDA Requests Comments on a Petition to Amend the AWA to Prohibit Public Contact with Big Cats, Bears, and Nonhuman Primates [Internet]. USDA APHIS | USDA Requests Comments on a Petition to Amend the AWA to Prohibit Public Contact with Big Cats, Bears, and Nonhuman Primates. [cited 2017May30]. Available from: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/newsroom/news/sa_by_date/sa_2013/sa_08/ct_awa_amendment

William Nimmo, founder of Tigers In America [Internet]. Talking Animals. [cited 2017May30]. Available from: http://www.talkinganimals.net/2015/01/william-nimmo-founder-of-tigers-in-america/ 

Williamson DF, Henry LA. Paper Tigers: The Role of the US Captive Tiger Population in the Trade in Tiger Parts. TRAFFIC North America, World Wildlife Fund; 2008. 

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hey i was wondering how you feel about zoos and aquariums? ive been seeing a lot of people (idk if theyre vegan) trying to support them by saying theyre non profit, accredited animal rehabilitation centers, & that makes them okay? i have a problem with this cos most zoos i know definitely arent for that purpose, they just seem to cage animals up&like ones with zoos r killing polar bears cos its not their natural habitat, & i know many actual rehabilitation centers tht never call themselves a zoo

Hi there fruitkink! 🐙

I totally agree with you on that, Zoos are businesses! Sanctuaries, Natural Reserves, National Parks and such are truly for conservation and nature’s well-being. 

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the majesty! the beauty! the pride! he knows his angles!

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False Water Cobra Hydrodynastes gigas - Brookfield Zoo - Chicago IL USA

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The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and the Nashville Zoo are pleased to announce the birth of a male clouded leopard on March 1, 2017 from an artificial insemination (AI) procedure using frozen/thawed semen. This accomplishment is a first for this species and a giant step for global conservation efforts.

“This cub, the first clouded leopard offspring produced with cryopreserved semen, is a symbol of how zoos and scientists can come together to make positive change for animals and preserving global biodiversity,” said Adrienne Crosier, biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. “Collaboration is the key to conservation of clouded leopards, along with so many other rare and endangered species we care for and study.”

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and Nashville Zoo have a long history of working together on clouded leopard conservation. Since 2000, they have collaborated with Point Defiance Zoo and Thailand’s Zoological Park Organization to form the Clouded Leopard Consortium and develop breeding programs as well as field monitoring projects for clouded leopards in Thailand. Because the captive clouded leopard population is not self-sustaining, it necessitates the need for intensive reproductive management techniques to maintaining captive populations not only in the U.S. but also throughout the world.

“This is an enormous accomplishment for both Nashville Zoo and the team at the Smithsonian,” said Dr. Heather Robertson, Director of Veterinary Services at the Zoo. “It means we can collect and preserve semen from clouded leopard populations around the globe and improve pregnancy outcomes from AI procedures in this species.”

Dr. Robertson and Nashville Zoo Associate Veterinarian Dr. Margarita Woc Colburn used hormones to induce ovulation in a female named Tula living at Nashville Zoo. The Smithsonian’s research staff, Crosier, Ph.D., Pierre Comizzoli, D.V.M., Ph.D., and Diana Koester, Ph.D, collected semen a week earlier from a male named Hannibal at Smithsonian’s National Zoo. The team used a new technique depositing a very small volume of semen into the oviduct where the eggs normally rest after ovulation.

After birth, the cub was removed for examination and will be hand-raised by keepers to ensure survival and well-being. This process also lowers animal stress for future hands-on care. The cub will stay at Nashville Zoo with plans to eventually introduce him to a potential mate.

The first successful clouded leopard AI was performed at Nashville Zoo in 1992 by Smithsonian scientist JoGayle Howard and Nashville Zoo President Rick Schwartz. In 2015, Comizzoli contributed to a successful birth using cooled semen and the new AI technique at the Khao Khew Open Zoo in Thailand.

Clouded leopards are among the rarest of the world’s cat species and one of the most secretive. Due to limited knowledge of this species, they have proved difficult to breed in captivity. They are sensitive to auditory and visual disturbances, increasing the stress levels during captive breeding programs – leading facilities, such as Nashville Zoo, to work with artificial insemination specialists to increase the size and diversity of the captive bred population.

(source)

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One of the comments I get a lot as an anthropologist (mostly from my students) is that captivity is sad for great apes. They’re right sometimes- when done incorrectly, great ape captivity can lead to self-destructive behaviors, depression, and many mental and physical illnesses. However, the reality is that captivity is at this point absolutely necessary for great ape survival. Despite scientists’ best efforts to protect their native ranges, habitat destruction from logging and various forest industries is hell on these species. They’re also worth much more dead than they are alive to many of the people who live in their native ranges- there is a massive black market for apes and ape parts. Add that to numerous tropical diseases that can decimate populations and apes’ naturally slow birth rate, and you get a world where humans are the only apes remaining in fifty years. For many of these apes, there’s no wild to return to anymore. 

Enter the zoo. Zoos are invaluable for great ape conservation. The carefully managed breeding programs and species survival plans help maintain genetic diversity within the captive population. Good exhibit design and enrichment activities, along with proper animal management and husbandry, means that captivity doesn’t have to be depressing for great apes. This is the orangutan exhibit at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, Louisiana, and from an anthropologist’s standpoint, it’s great. 

The apes pictured here are mother and daughter. Orangutan juveniles stay with their parents for about eight years. Outside of that, orangutans are solitary, so whenever the girls are out on exhibit, dad’s inside, and vice versa. The indoor area for these apes is the former Elephant House, so it’s nice and spacious. The outdoor exhibit, though- whew. The climbing structures are about 45 feet tall at their peak, and there’s actual palms in the exhibit to pull fronds from and make nests with. Orangutans are the largest arboreal animal, and that’s a lot of really nice climbing space for them to use. There’s steps leading down to the moat, which has a waterfall- fun for drinking and splashing. My favorite piece of enrichment, however, was the guest interactivity. Great apes are absolutely aware that there’s somebody outside of their exhibit, watching them- and they watch you right back. They’re smart, smart creatures. In the glass-walled area, there’s a water jet- somewhere in the exhibit, there’s a trigger that the orangutans can pull to squirt the guests. They get a kick out of watching the reactions, and it’s a great way to do something that’s just plain fun for them. 

I was so impressed with this exhibit. There was a lot at the Audubon Zoo that I really loved, but this was something I thought was really special. 

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San Diego Zoo 2014

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Addison and her litter of six cubs.  The largest litter the Safari Park has had of cheetahs.  Bringing them to over 160 successful cheetah births.