Paste your essay in here… In recent years, there has been a major increase in attention towards animal welfare. The Western population continues to expand, increasing market demands and lowering the resources allocated to captive animals. Although this provokes the consciences of many citizens all around the world, intimate relationships between animals and humans are considered rare today; while improving animal welfare sounds good in theory, in reality many people are exclusively focused on increasing labor efficiency and productivity. Zoo Animal Welfare, co-authored by Terry L. Maple and Bonnie M. Perdue, was “designed for contributing to a culture of respect for animals and their welfare by producing learned papers/works/studies about the provision for the welfare of the animals managed by humans (viii).” It focuses on the capacities of zoos to effectively promote and solidify their duty to optimal animal welfare, conservation, and education. It covers a wide range of topics, from defining and applying specific concepts of animal welfare, psychology, and ethics, to zoo design and administration. This book has successfully achieved these goals; it is educational and informative while convincing readers of the importance of optimal animal welfare, because it affects every area of zoo management and operations from visitor to animal satisfaction.
An ethical ark is described as “a zoo or aquarium that is committed to advancing superior animal welfare standards and practices (6).” Essentially, animal welfare is considered an ethical issue. Zoos are often placed in the spotlight as a high platform for morality, values, and natural law when it comes to wild and captive animals. Critics, endorsers, and those in between look to zoos to determine and evaluate their own views about conservation and the treatment of captive animals. “Good welfare is inherent in the operating philosophy of all successful zoos, but great welfare requires an extraordinary commitment throughout the organization. We believe that zoo visitors expect and want the organization to designate the health and welfare of the animals as its first priority (11).” Therefore, it is vital that zoos exercise and promote the highest forms of animal welfare and caretaking in order to generate the “culture of respect” that the book was designed to do. Maple and Perdue emphasize the idea that providing optimal welfare has the potential to increase revenue, visitor satisfaction, animal activity, creative design, and research and education opportunities; it is apparent that placing a heavy focus on animal welfare will benefit all parties involved in zoo management, sponsorship, and operations.
Animal wellness and psychology are often overlooked aspects of welfare; institutions cannot achieve optimal welfare without considering the physical and mental health of the animals involved. When considering captive animals, wellness primarily includes controlling obesity and inactivity rates, although nutrition is also a very important aspect. Maple and Perdue provide many examples of how neglecting animal wellness can lead to decreased welfare, such as the increasing rates of heart disease in captive gorillas and obesity in orangutans. When visitors, particularly critiques, see the results of this neglect, they are more likely to openly castigate zoos and aquariums for their care of captive animals. The authors offer many suggestions for this dilema, including annual wellness check exams and the construction of comprehensive wellness centers located at the zoo entrance/exit or in the middle of the zoo. Through these wellness centers, visitors can visualize the purpose, mission statements, and future plans or exhibits of zoos; if they can easily see the values of the institution from a wellness and welfare perspective, they are more likely to endorse the zoo and its values. By placing a firm focus on wellness, zoos can also be sources of education about human wellness, nutrition, and movement. For example, “…healthier designs encourage people to walk to their destination with exposed stairwells and other features (61)” and “by telling our visitors how we improve zoo animal health through proper nutrition, we might see immediate results in the food choices of our visitors when they purchase their lunch at the zoo (63).” Maple and Perdue show that optimal animal welfare through the lense of wellness has advantages for both humans and animals alike as visitors connect the dots between their own lives and those of the animals they are learning about.
While the importance of zookeepers and curators should not be underestimated, this book stresses the importance of professionals and experts within various fields of the zoo industry. Such positions include experts in behavior, psychology, wellness, nutrition, design, ecology, and conservation. It is valuable for these professionals to help their peers gather, organize, and evaluate data to more effectively promote a strong animal welfare platform. In order to transform zoos from “good” to “great,” these institutions need to emphasize scientific knowledge, not just merely theory or pure logic. “Wellness begins with a deep understanding of the preferences and the needs of each and every species in the zoo. Therefore, zoos committed to wellness and welfare must recruit intelligent, perceptive employees with advanced training in relevant fields such as psychology and biology (54).” If zoos are going to generate this culture of respect for animals in captivity, Maple and Perdue show that the commitment starts at the zoo industry management level. They emphasize the cooperation and collaboration of many different fronts, including professionals, researchers, students, and renowned organizations. The constructive criticism that potentially results from such a coalition can benefit zoos in a plethora of ways when considering improvements and future work. In addition, when the public sees this partnership at such a high level, it can inspire them and restore their high values of zoos.
To coincide with the idea of collaboration and community, Maple and Perdue go in depth about the significance of education and the public. A zoo can achieve an optimal welfare system, but it will never be endorsed or supported without public outreach and various programs to inform people of its importance. For example, zoo and aquarium institutions can set up a lecture series at a local college and recruit graduate students for further research and studies. Zoo-mobiles are popular for elementary-aged students, with tactile objects and small animals playing the roles of “wellness ambassadors (57).” Social media is an invaluable resource for teaching and recruiting citizens of all ages. Surveys and questionnaires can be used to identify what the public prioritizes and values. When the public feels as if their ideas and beliefs are being well-represented, they are more willing to support a zoo through financial and time/volunteer donations. Therefore, Maple and Perdue show that welfare is vital for the success of all zoos, and that futures of these institutions largely rest in the hands of the public.
The priority of zoo design should be placed in the following order: animals, caretakers, visitors. When the animals are placed as a higher priority than the guests, it pulls the focus away from being completely centered on the economic side of zoo operations towards animal well-being and contentedness. Exhibits must be designed to present the animals in a reverent way that prevents visitors from physically looking down on the animals; such exhibits are demeaning and stressful for the animals. It is still important to balance the animal’s needs with public satisfaction; this can be done through soft architecture that is beneficial for the animal but also encourages people to walk more slowly through the exhibits and prevent less abusive behaviors such as glass-tapping. Maple and Perdue use words such as “naturalistic” and “active design” to describe optimal exhibits and alternatives to hard, poorly developed designs. Active design involves constructing exhibits that stimulate and promote animal activity and movement, such as rotations where animals have the opportunity to visit multiple areas in a single day. Such design has been shown to increase activity levels, cognitive stimulation, and the amount of variation in behaviors. Another valuable aspect that complements zoo design is enrichment. “Enrichment is potentially one of the most powerful tools an animal caretaker has to improve welfare for an individual (95).” Maple and Perdue present nine different types of enrichment: feeding, tactile, structural, auditory, olfactory, visual, social, human-animal interactions, and cognitive. Enrichment programs should be depend on the idea that animals need to be able to exert control over their environment, and should be designed to increase behavioral variation and reduce stereotypic behavior. However, although effective enrichment may meet some of these goals, it cannot be used as a substitute for poor habitat design. Overall, Maple and Perdue show that proper design and enrichment are vital for optimal animal welfare, but that there are also human benefits for such designs. If the animals are more active and demonstrate less stereotypic behaviors, public satisfaction increases. Designs that prevent visitors from looking down on the animals and viewing them from a 360 degree display helps to generate these ideas of respect that Maple and Perdue are continually advocating for.
According to the AZA and the WAZA, welfare is a vital element of conservation. Maple and Perdue go through many examples of how welfare and conservation can be balanced in a way that is most beneficial for the taxa involved. This can be done through habitat protection, security against poachers and the application of veterinary medicine to combat disease by treating wild animals in the field. Quality welfare can increase the probability of re-introduction for particular species in the future. It can also be used as a useful tool for education about pressing issues; “it appears that a zoo, largely positioned as a happy family destination, can be an effective venue for delivering unvarnished, alarming conservation messages (19).” Examples of this include raising awareness of the illegal bushmeat trade in West and Central Africa; zoo visitors who saw the visual exhibits at Zoo Atlanta concerning this illegal activity acknowledged that it was a problem and that it requires citizen action to fight it. When ethical arks combine their efforts with leading conservation groups, it can increase the human, technical, and financial resources needed to meet the priorities of zoos: a platform for education, research, and most importantly the conservation of earth’s extraordinary biodiversity.
In order for zoos and aquariums to move advance and forward in this modern world, an increased emphasis on optimal welfare is necessary. The management, reports, mission statements, and education platforms of an institution should reflect animal welfare as a top priority; this requires cooperation on many levels, from students, visitors, and sponsors to humane societies, professionals, and management. Through Zoo Animal Welfare, Maple and Perdue sought to contribute to a culture of respect for animals and their welfare, and they demonstrated how animal welfare affects every area of a successful zoo institution. “In the end, if visitors feel sorry for animals in the zoo, we have failed to meet the challenge of humane exhibition. The zoo must become an ethical, caring, uplifting oasis where wildlife can fulfill their destiny as self-sustaining ambassadors for the natural world (172).” Throughout the book, Maple and Perdue show how welfare affects wellness, psychology, behavior, education, the public, students, universities, zoo design, enrichment, and finally conservation. Without optimal welfare, the public will not see and feel the key roles that zoos play in conservation and education; their consciences will not allow them to support zoos with their financial resources or time. Universities will not support or fund research opportunities for students that are necessary for education and zoo development. “Great zoos are not built easily or quickly, but our intellectual capital is up to the task. At no time in the history of zoos have so many creative scientists, designers, and leaders been assembled to propel our institutions forward. Our next generation of zoos and aquariums will be unlike anything we have yet imagined (165).” Zoos could have an exciting road set before them, plowed by the priorities of optimal animal welfare that impacts every area of zoo management and design.