Zoos

Zoos are duty bound to maintain a high standard of welfare for all animals for which they are responsible. For elephants, this represents a greater challenge than for many other species; their sheer size, sophisticated social life, high level of intelligence and large behavioural repertoire, combined with their origins in tropical and subtropical climates mean that replicating the physical, social and environmental requirements needed for a high standard of welfare in captivity is a significant challenge. This is compounded by the difficulties in measuring welfare generally, and specifically for animals such as elephants within zoo environments. Evidence does exist relating to the longevity, reproductive success and the health status of captive elephants which suggests that their management is not at as high a standard as it is for many other species kept in zoos, and that elephant welfare is likely to be compromised as a result. It is suggested that for as long as elephants remain in captivity that their management should be based around the requirements of the animals themselves taking into account an understanding of their biology and behavioural ecology. Given the difficulties in measuring welfare, it is suggested that those responsible for elephant management should not rely on proof of suffering prior to making adjustments to their programmes, but in the first instance consider the likely physical and behavioural needs of the elephant. As a minimum, facilities should provide for those behaviours and contingencies which are biologically significant in terms of survival and reproduction in the wild, which take up a significant proportion of an elephant's time in the wild and are not necessarily triggered by external stimuli alone. It is suggested that a high standard of captive elephant welfare is theoretically attainable and that significant improvements in welfare are likely to be achieved by addressing inadequacies in the physical environment which predispose captive elephants to trauma and by providing for appropriate social and foraging opportunities.

Modern zoological parks, as community enterprises housing exotic animals with hundreds, sometimes thousands of visitors every day, must prepare for the innate possibility of dangerous situations. When such controversy does arise, clashing viewpoints among media outlets, the zoo’s communications department, and the public’s mediated communication encourages examination with a theoretical eye. This paper utilizes the controversy of the Copenhagen Zoo’s public dissections to illustrate each of the parties’ influence on one another through Bitzer’s Rhetorical Situation. That analysis lays the groundwork justifying the public’s influence on the media’s agenda, also illustrated through the Cincinnati Zoo’s controversy regarding Harambe the gorilla. This reverse of the original notions of McCombs and Shaw’s Agenda-Setting Theory explains that as social media becomes more prevalent, media entities will continue to lose issue salience, ultimately resulting in the public agenda’s greater infl...

In anthropology and across the humanities and social sciences, zoos have tended to be theorized as places of spectacle. Scholars often focus on the ways in which these institutions enable the viewing of other-than-human animals by human publics. This article, however, uses sound-focused ethnographic fieldwork to engage with two UK zoos and to describe a particular mode of cross-species listening which is enacted by zookeepers. The concepts of pastoral care and control discussed by Foucault and applied to the zoo context by Braverman are productively reworked and reoriented in order to understand this form of listening. The article also demonstrates the interconnectedness of keeper, visitor and animal sound worlds, in the process generating an original perspective that complements and enriches conventional zoo studies.

This chapter highlights several criticisms of zoos, then provides a vision for new zoos: “nooz.” Offering a new name to these institutions makes a clear break from the old model, which is fundamentally exploitative. The common denominator between zoos and nooz is that both foster nonhumans who are neither domestic pets nor farmed animals—they keep “wild” animals. Nooz are nonexploitative, benevolent, and are designed for nonhumans, to provide safe-haven for those individuals who have been misused by zoos or science, or injured by humans. This essay also explores “benevolent” reasons for keeping nonhuman animals in zoos, such as captive breeding programs and injured wildlife, and acceptable parameters for nooz, including such topics as retribution for previous exploitation and the problem of carnivory.

Animal-Visitor Interactions (AVI) within zoos and aquariums have become an increasingly studied topic. Influenced by both the broader field of Human-Animal Interactions (HAI), as well as visitor studies conducted in museums, AVI studies can be separated into two areas of focus: (1) Visitor effects, or the impact visitors have on the animals housed within a zoo, and (2) visitor experiences, or the impact zoo animals and visiting a zoo have on the visitors. Historically, visitor effects have been of primary concern to the study of AVIs, as have the potential negative impacts on the welfare of animals, particularly those of zoo primates. This special issue examines the impact of AVIs in greater detail through twelve recent papers on the topic, equally addressing visitor effects and experiences. Many of the papers focus on positive welfare indices, as well as less traditional measures to examine both visitor effects and experiences, such as visitor proximity and visitor interviews. In addition, we discuss the relevance of future AVI work, with particular attention to (a) increased interest in visitor experience research, (b) examinations of signage effects, and (c) continued focus on positive welfare indices and direct interactions, such as public feedings.

The last chapter attempted to shed light on the ontological status of animals in the wild as naturally occurring beings. The next five chapters will try analogously to clarify the ontological status of zoo animals. However, this chapter will grapple specifically with a basic problem of terminology, whether it is conceptually appropriate to refer to animals in zoos as ‘wild animals in captivity’. It will argue that the term is an oxymoron. The phrase makes perfect grammatical sense, yet the terms ‘wild’ on the one hand, and ‘captive’/‘captivity’ on the other, do not yield conceptual coherence.

In academic discourse, zoos have often been conceptualised as places of spectacle, with scholars focusing on the ways in which these institutions enable the viewing of other-than-human animals by human publics. This article, however, describes a set of guided listening visits conducted at two UK zoos. The visits were designed to question, disrupt and offer alternatives to ingrained zoo visiting conventions. They were also used to generate data on how sound mediates, or has the potential to mediate, relations between zoo visitors and zoo animals. The article describes the visits, reflects on their conceptual underpinnings and discusses themes emerging from participants' experiences. It demonstrates the relevance of listening walks as a research methodology and illustrates the complexity of sound as a form of multispecies entanglement in the zoo context. The listening visits are also shown to indicate potential directions for wider changes in zoo visiting culture.

Enclosure use assessments have gained popularity as one of the tools for animal welfare assessments and Post Occupancy Evaluations. There are now a plethora of studies and enclosure use indices available in published literature, and identification of the most appropriate index for each research question is often challenging. The benefits and limitations of four different enclosure use indices; Original and Modified Spread of Participation Index, Entropy, and Electivity Index were compared. Three artificial data sets were developed to represent the challenges commonly found in animal exhibits, and these indices were applied to these contrived enclosure settings. Three of the indices (Original SPI, Modified SPI, and Entropy) were used to assess a single measure of enclosure use variability. When zones within an exhibit were comparable in size, all three indices performed similarly. However, with less equal zone sizes, Modified SPI outperformed Original SPI and Entropy, suggesting that the Modified formula was more useful for assessing overall enclosure use variability under such conditions. Electivity Index assessed the use of individual zones, rather than the variability of use across the entire exhibit, and therefore could not be compared directly to the other three indices. This index is therefore most valuable for assessing individual resources, especially after exhibit modifications.

In de negentiende eeuw werden vier dierentuinen opgericht in België. De Antwerpse Zoo werd opgericht in 1843 en kreeg navolging in Gent, Brussel (beiden 1851) en Luik (1865). De Brusselse zoo werd opgevat als ‘salon public’ om een mooie wandeling te bieden, verrijkt met een verzameling dieren om de verveling tegen te gaan en de wetenschappelijke interesse op te wekken. Meer nog dan een op archieven gebaseerde feitelijke geschiedenis, wil dit artikel de zoo kaderen in de
tijdsgeest en de modes of thought in de negentiende eeuw. De zoo profileerde zich als wetenschappelijke instelling in de stad, met aandacht voor (theoretische) classificatie en (praktische) acclimatisatie. De culturele activiteiten vormden, misschien
meer nog dan de dieren, een populaire aantrekkingspool
voor de burgerij.

Where animals are trapped, poisoned, hunted, or shot in order to kill them,
the welfare may be only slightly affected before the animal dies, or it may be very poor indeed.
A conclusion from the rather widespread poor welfare in zoos is, firstly that the welfare of some animals is too poor in zoos to justify keeping them and secondly, that zoos should keep other animals only when the negative aspect of rather poor welfare is adequately counterbalanced by the positive value of zoos. In my opinion, the major value of zoos is in education. People who experience animals in zoos, especially in good conditions, are more likely to care about animals including their conservation. The major impact of zoos on conservation is via education. The direct impact of zoos on conservation in the wild is negligible for most species. In only a few species has the wild population been affected by zoo breeding. Breeding is better done in specialist places with no public access. A further positive aspect of zoos is that they have therapeutic benefits for people who feel better because of contact with the animals.

Animal-Visitor Interactions (AVIs) have become commonplace in zoological institutions and facilities globally. However, most AVI research focuses on the effects of visitors on the welfare of animals, with considerably fewer studies examining the visitor experience itself. Furthermore, robust evaluations of the efficacy of zoo education programs and engagements for increasing visitor awareness of conservation issues, and for fostering longterm pro-conservation behavior changes in them, are under-researched. This paper reviews the current literature that pertains to the effects of zoo visitation and AVIs on visitor perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes. We briefly note some of the known effects that zoo visitors have on zoo animals, then explore the effects that factors such as enclosure design, animal visibility and behaviors, and AVIs can have on visitors' overall experience whilst attending the zoo. We suggest that future research needs to more closely examine the relationships and interactions between zoo visitors and zoo animals; why some zoo visitors over others repeat visitation; what the differences in beliefs and attitudes may be between "zoo visitors" and "non-zoo visitors" (i.e., other general public); and to make a concerted effort to understand: (1) what visitors do after they leave the zoo, and (2) whether visitors adopt long-term proconservation behaviors into their daily lives. We further suggest that future research needs to start investigating indirect measures related to the visitor experience, such as: (a) individual conservation support outside of the zoo; (b) internet activity; (c) changes in sustainable purchasing practices related to knowledge gains; (d) financial investment in sustainable or ethical companies after knowledge gains; (e) and the longitudinal effects of zoo visits.

after finding an inoperable tumor in his thyroid region. He was loved by a lot, but he was also very well-known for one thing: once, he was neurotic. Gus started to compulsively swim in figure-eight patterns, sometimes for 12 hours a day. The conclusion of an animal behaviorist was that the polar bear was bored. An enrichment program started to try to keep his mind and body active, that and a little dose of Prozac, an antidepressant. He got better, but he never fully recovered (Kleinfield).

Since the 1950s zoos have taken up the mission to make their audience aware of conservational issues. The ideological shift towards conservational goals as well as public concerns about living conditions of captive wild animals influenced the concepts of zoo design. Zoos had to integrate popular imaginations about naturalness and scientific research on ecological issues, an ambivalent mixture between science and aesthetics. During the 1950s and the beginning 1960s planners have worked on a new master plan for the Zoological Garden of Basel in Switzerland. The old buildings of the nineteenth-century’s city zoo were demolished and replaced with animal houses styled according to post-war modernism. Veterinary and behavioural research as well as new materials like concrete, glass and tiles supported the conditions for conservational tasks like health and fertility. Nevertheless, the zoo’s environment should appear as a surrogate of Nature to enhance the public’s awareness of conservational concerns and ecological relations. The artist Kurt Brägger modelled illusionistic natural habitats with the help of a semiotic program, which transferred geomorphological structures of the regional landscape of Basel into the zoo. A dramaturgy of sight-lines and lightning effects led the visitors through the park to immerse the recipients into a coherent landscape experience. The new landscape design and the souterrain buildings of the 1960s relied on contemporary theoretical studies about walking experiences and phenomenological space. Conservational claims and ecological rhetorics were closely related to behavioural research on the relational space of territory and social behaviour. All these ideas influenced the design of Nature for both kind of users, for visitors and animals. The represention of zoological research contrasted the immersive effects of the popular themed exhibition space. Hence, the built environment of the zoo condensed and combined contradictory ideas of progress, conservation and reassurance.

Animal Welfare 1996, 5: 139-153 To assess the validity of using wild behavioural data as a welfare indicator for zoo animals, the time budgets of 19 captive giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), from four zoos were compared with the time budgets of wild giraffe from Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. Differences were shown to exist between the behaviour of wild and captive giraffe. However, only the duration of lying differed significantly across zoos. Correlations demonstrated that both enclosure size and feed restriction affected the locomotor activity of giraffe. An attempt to quantify observer influence upon the behaviour of wild giraffe was made. Different methods of observation were shown to significantly affect the time budget established. The extent to which wild giraffe behaviour can be used as a welfare indicator for captive conspecifics is discussed, as are the problems inherent in such a study. The difficulties in constructing an alternative welfare measure using prevalence to veterinary problems, are briefly considered. Methods by which captive giraffe welfare can be improved are discussed, particularly concerning the provision of browse to allow more natural feeding patterns to be established.

Increasing popularity of marine parks as tourist attractions brought with it a number of concerns. Considerable attention has been paid to investigate issues, such as the ethics of keeping marine mammals in captivity, welfare of captive marine mammals, and the educational and conservational abilities of marine parks. Little research has been conducted to explore the public's awareness and opinions of these issues. Public awareness is an important tool to understand the quality of a marine park's products and services. This study was designed to investigate the public's awareness of welfare of captive marine mammals, educational and conservational purposes of marine parks, and to examine public awareness and opinions of Dunlap and Van Liere's New Environmental Paradigm. A total of 120 respondents from St. Catharines, Canada completed either a visitor or a nonvisitor questionnaire. Results indicated that most people were aware of the issues of welfare of captive marine mammals and educational opportunities offered by marine parks, but showed less awareness of the conservational issues. However, results also indicated that respondents were well aware of, and agree with, the concerns expressed in the New Environmental Paradigm.

The assessment of animal welfare relates to investigations of how animals try to cope with their environment, and how easy or how difficult it is for them to do so. The use of rigorous scientific methods to assess this has grown over the past few decades, and so our understanding of the needs of animals has improved during this time. Much of the work in the field of animal welfare has been conducted on farm animals, but it is important to consider how the methods and approaches used in assessing farm animal welfare have been, and can be, adapted and applied to the measurement of welfare in animals in other domains, such as in zoos. This is beneficial to our understanding of both the theoretical knowledge, and the practicability of methods. In this paper, some of the commonly-used methods for measuring animal welfare will be discussed, as well as some practical considerations in assessing the welfare of zoo animals.

Ho scritto la mia tesi sulla protezione dei diritti animali nella giurisprudenza Americana, analizzando l'emergenza e lo sviluppo dei diritti animali nell'Unione Europea e negli Stati Uniti. Nello specifico, ho esaminato la relazione tra esseri umani e non umani; il cossiddetto "processo delle sciemmie"; la caccia per sport e per la produzione di pellicce; la pesca e il suo impatto ambientale; le specie in via di estinzione e il trattato CITIES; l'uso di animali per sport e intrattenimento; l'industria della carne, le malattie del bestiame e il vegetarianesimo; la vivisezione e i metodi alternativi di ricerca medica; il mercato degli animali domestici, la crescita delle organizzazioni animaliste e la Dichiarazione Universale dei Diritti degli Animali.

Science museums, science centers, zoos, and aquariums (MCZAs) constitute major settings of science learning with unique characteristics of informal science education. Emphasis will be given to the analysis of four specific characteristics of MCZAs that seem relevant for educational research and practice, namely, conditions of mixed motives and goals, staged popular science, and impact of physical layout, as well as the role of social exchange and participation. By doing so, we focus on the consequences of these characteristics for the learning processes and outcomes of visits of MCZAs. We show that outcomes encompass not only knowledge acquisition in a narrower sense but also changes in interest and beliefs.

Stereotypies in captive animals have been defined as repetitive, largely invariant patterns of behavior that serve no obvious goal or function. Stereotypies are commonly attributed to boredom or stress and are typically treated by enriching captivity with distracting, appealing stimuli. These stimuli often include food presented at times other than regular feedings, and as a result, engage species-typical foraging behaviors that reduce stereotypies. The present work on captive polar bears is based on the view that stereotypies are due in part to inadequate support for the expression of species-typical foraging "loops" and can be reduced by increasing support for a more complete expression of foraging responses. We tested this view through 4 experiments that presented small samples of food and scents on several schedules, examining their effects prior to, during, and after the schedule. Most schedules reduced stereotypies and increased general activity prior to and during the schedule. These data support three conclusions: (1) individual stereotypies appear related to incomplete, repeating loops of foraging behavior; (2) providing stimuli supporting a more complete sequence of search behaviors reduces stereotypies and increases non-stereotypic activity; and (3) a descriptive, analytic approach based on how foraging behaviors relate to the captive feeding procedures can facilitate understanding of stereotypies and suggest methods to reduce them.

Animals are among the most sought after tourist attractions and the impact on them is a matter of concern to an increasing number of people. The first book of its kind, Tourism and Animal Welfare addresses the issue of animal welfare within the tourism experience. It explores important foundations such as the meaning of 'animal welfare' and its relation to ethics, animal rights and human obligations to animals. It also explores the nature and diversity of the position and role of animals within tourism.

‘Tales from the front line’ is the section of the book that provides the reader with the views and experiences of animal welfare organisations, individual leaders, tourism industry organisations and operators, and academic experts. These case studies and opinion pieces will encourage the reader to consider their own position regarding animals in tourism and their welfare.

Update: If you'd like to watch an accurate, funny, and brief take on Eco-Nihilism, please go to #wisecrack on Youtube: Did South Park Turn Anti-Capitalist, where the central argument from Eco-Nihilism is quoted at several junctures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_MglOKUFRg.

I may not have made South Park directly--but Wisecrack--close enough!!

Wendy Lynne Lee

This is the preface for Eco-Nihilism: The Philosophical Geopolitics of the Climate Change Apocalypse.

Lexington Books (Rowman and Littlefield), February 2017.

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739176887/Eco-Nihilism-The-Philosophical-Geopolitics-of-the-Climate-Change-Apocalypse.

Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 novel, The Road,  tells the story of a dying father’s heroic effort to protect his child from starvation, violence, and disease as they struggle to cross the devastated landscape of a post-apocalyptic America. We don’t know what’s happened to bring about so tragic and terrorizing a circumstance, but we’re nonetheless drawn to the stark images McCarthy evokes and, though we work feverishly to deny that such a tragedy could befall us, we can imagine it.

Indeed, for Syrian refugees, Niger Delta villagers, Northwest Kenyan pastoralists, Chukchi Sea coastal fishermen, Ecuadorian rainforest dwellers, Mexican fishermen, Pennsylvania farmers, indigenous Sengwer, the citizens of Kiribati Island’s thirty-two atolls, and many more, fables like The Road reek of a reality already poisoned nearly beyond repair and foreshadow future crises—environmental, economic, geopolitical, social, and moral—for which the prospect of recovery seems little more than fiction.

Such crises are as predictable as are the implications of an economic system, namely, neoliberal or conquest capitalism, whose objectives and governing logic are, I’ll argue, inherently incompatible not only with the just, the good, or the beautiful—but with life itself. Conquest capital devours and digests values, ethical, civic, and aesthetic, reducing each to that single value without which it can neither replicate itself nor grow: exchange. In so doing it generates a state of affairs that can only rightly be described as pathologically nihilistic: capitalism destroys its own existential conditions through the wholesale commodification of the finite ecosystems upon which it depends. It cannot do otherwise and be capitalism. Hence, to continue down this road guarantees a future disfigured by the violence consequent on abject desperation and subjugation not only to domination by multinational corporations, but ultimately to more prosaic though terrorizing prospects—like thirst.

"Natural history collections, are among others, used for studies in biochemistry, genetics and ecology. Avoidance of the use of chemical substances is necessary to avoid loss or modification of the structure, chemical and genetic components of the specimens that reduce their scientific value and stability. The practice of preventive conservation is imperative, for the slowdown of chemical, mechanical and biological damage.
In natural history collections of fossils, minerals, rocks, stuffed animals and birds, animal tissues in ethanol, dried plants bottles etc,  damages observed include pyrite disease, delaminations, oxidations, discolourations, cracks, photomechanical and plastic damage. To avoid damage, it is necessary to control environmental parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, radiation and pollutants, provide proper storage condition and perform regular recording of the collections.
Preventive conservation becomes a real challenge in the case of fossil-bearing areas. Conservators are invited to in situ protect the objects from extreme weather variations and anthropogenic disasters. "

Many people visit zoos and eat meat, and they believe that consuming meat and attending zoos is morally legitimate. They are opposed by a minority who view meat consumption and zoo visits as morally problematic. How should we settle such a disagreement? Based on an approach from moral psychology, the method of reflective equilibrium appears to be a very promising strategy for settling such disagreements. In applying this method, the classical concept of the 'weakness of will' (akrasia) will be used. As a result of deploying such an argumentative approach to solving the question of whether or not one should visit zoos, it emerges that, all things considered, it is wrong to visit zoos.

Animal welfare is a complex matter that includes scientific, ethical, economic and other dimensions. Despite the existence of more comprehensive approaches to animal welfare and the obvious shortcomings of the 'Five Freedoms', for zoological gardens the freedoms still constitute the general guidelines to be followed. These guidelines reflect both, an ethical view and a science based approach. Analysis reveals that the potential ineptitude of the 'Five Freedoms' lies in the manifold perceptions that people have of other animals. These perceptions are biased by our own (mammalian) umwelt, which is intertwined with different cultural attitudes towards other species (e.g. humanistic, moralistic, ecologistic). Perceptions of animals may be held simultaneously by different interest groups and may often be incompatible, thus often making it difficult to follow the 'Five Freedoms' in practice. We aim to recognise and consider the multiplicity of factors that, besides animal subjectivity, are relevant in understanding this hybrid environment. The moral value and practical applicability of the 'Five Freedoms' are sometimes undermined by prioritising some freedoms over others and by species bias. Both are characteristic phenomena of the zoo as a hybrid environment where other species are managed by humans. Given deficiencies are further amplified by humanistic and moralistic attitudes that people hold.

This article examines the shift in animal spectatorship at the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV (the 1660s) from the violence of wild animal combat at the Vincennes Menagerie to the peaceful display of graceful of graceful birds in the first pavilion constructed in the Versailles park beginning in 1662. I interpret the pavilion and animal collections, using the sparse administrative sources and the richer literary descriptions by Mademoiselle de Scudéry, Jean de la Fontaine, and the unpublished poem of the fountaineer Claude Denis. Drawing on the theoretical work of Norbert Elias and Michel Foucault, I argue that the menagerie is best understood as both a royal claim of absolute authority and as a model of the aristocratic experience of civilité. The menagerie was less a zoo than a living metaphor of Louis XIV’s absolutism and the court society of Versailles itself.

In 1967, philosopher Richard Rorty edited a volume with the programmatic title The Linguistic Turn. Since then, the social and cultural sciences have gone through several ›turns‹, e. g. the ›interpretative‹, ›iconic/pictorial‹, or the ›spatial turn‹. Such ›turns‹ stimulate new research perspectives and questions, as well as shifts in theory and method. In recent years, the ›material turn‹ is gaining prominence in the humanities and social sciences. The principle of ›thinking through things‹ and the claim that objects possess agency are especially provoking. This chapter explores the stimulating effects of the ›material turn‹ in the field of museum studies. Firstly, it recalls the early history of disciplines such as archaeology, cultural anthropology, folklore studies, and art history, which are essentially based on their involvement with material culture and on the establishment of the museum as a bourgeois institution. Secondly, it outlines the developments of the ›material turn‹ and its theoretical ambitions over the last decades. Thirdly, it discusses the theoretical and practical consequences of such a new perspective for University archives and collections, as well as for the public presentation of academic knowledge conveyed by objects and things.

The role of zoo veterinarians has changed significantly in the last several decades, reflecting and revealing broader transformations in zoo culture, especially among North American accredited zoos. This article draws on several interviews with prominent zoo vets, as well as on regulations that pertain to their work, to highlight their current position at the nexus of animal health and welfare, on the one hand, and of species conservation, on the other hand. The transformation of zoos into conservation institutions in particular has resulted in the vets’ novel focus on the sustainability of populations and their intensified involvement in in situ wildlife management. The article will explore the everyday negotiations that zoo vets must undertake to balance between caring for the individual animal’s medical needs and for the long-term survival of her population and species. Despite the central role of the zoo vet in this institutional arena, very little has been written about this figure from a scholarly perspective. The article concludes with a call for further explorations in this direction.

The modern zoo has been associated with two major behavioral welfare advances: (a) the use of training to increase voluntary husbandry care, and (b) the implementation of environmental enrichment to promote naturalistic behaviors. Both practices have their roots in behavior analysis, or the operant conditioning-centered, reward-based approach to behavioral psychology. Operant conditioning served as the foundation for the development of reinforcement-based training methods commonly used in zoos to make veterinary and husbandry procedures easier and safer for animals and their caregivers. Likewise, operant conditioning, with its focus on arranging environmental antecedents and consequences to change behavior, also provided a framework for successful environmental enrichment practices. In this paper, we outline the key individuals and events that shaped two of the cornerstones of the modern zoo: (1) the emergence of reward-based husbandry training practices, and (2) the engineering of environmental enrichment. In addition, we (3) suggest ways in which behavior analysis can continue to advance zoo welfare by (i) expanding the efficacy of environmental enrichment, (ii) using within-subject methodology, and (iii) improving animal-visitor interactions. Our goal is to provide a historical and contextual reference for future efforts to improve the well-being of zoo animals.

Los zoológicos justifican su existencia en cuatro tareas fundamentales: la educación del público; la investigación hecha sobre la conducta y las condiciones que garantizan la salud de los animales en cautiverio; el cuidado de los animales, tanto los que están a su cargo como, desde una perspectiva más amplia, los que están en peligro de extinción; y el entretenimiento del público. En este trabajo examino brevemente estas tareas y concluyo que sólo la tarea de entretener al público es realizada con algún éxito y, muchas veces, a costa de las otras tareas. Pero es necesario también reconocer que los zoológicos operan hoy en día en condiciones de grave deterioro ambiental, lo que hace pensar que podrían renovar su compromiso con el cuidado y conservación de los animales. Argumento que también esta tarea enfrenta fuertes dificultades y que ya no sabemos qué es un animal en cautiverio.
Palabras clave: Animales, cuidado animal, conservación, cautiverio, ética
Abstract
The zoos justify its existence in four fundamental tasks: the education of the public; the research done on the behavior and conditions that guarantee the health of animals in captivity; the care of the animals, both those in captivity in the zoos itself and, from a broader perspective, those in danger of extinction; and the entertainment of the public. In this paper, I briefly examine these tasks and conclude that only the task of entertaining the public is performed with some success and, often, at the expense of the other tasks. But it is also necessary to recognize that zoos today operate in conditions of serious environmental deterioration, which suggests that they could renew their commitment to the care and conservation of animals. I argue that this task too faces great difficulties and that we no longer know what is an animal in captivity.

Are there “fates worse than death,” to use Kurt Vonnegut’s title? Is captivity one such fate? Captive for Life examines these questions through the lens of conservation biology’s ex situ models of captive management — and captive breeding in particular — for wild animals, and especially for species that have been designated as Critically Endangered or as Extinct in the Wild. Drawing on interviews with leading conservation biologists, the chapter describes the erosion of the distinctions between species management in captivity and in wild nature, often referred to among experts as ex situ and in situ conservation. The chapter examines situations in which the extinction, or near-extinction, of a species in the wild is imminent, and a captive breeding program is initiated — typically by zoos — to ensure this species’ survival. Finally, I hint toward the possibility of abandoning the “in” and “out” paradigm, that has so characterized modern conservation narratives, in favor of an understanding of conservation that focuses on a more dynamic and less predetermined view of ecosystems and populations. Such a holistic model breaks with the bifurcations of modern conservation to offer relational configurations for managing wild life.

This study examines zoo discourses on media as a convenient site for probing into human-animal power relations. A form of critical discourse analysis is carried out in national daily news discourse focusing on how zoo discourses portray animals through lexical choices, grammatical structures, and discursive strategies of capitalism, hospitality, and conservation. These strategies overall operate to conceal the domination, oppression, and suffering of captive wild animals behind the benevolent image of the zoo institution promoting conservation, education, and recreation. Through language, animals are constructed, on a superficial level, as subjects who enjoy their lives on natural habitats with their families. Yet further analysis reveals a power abuse in which animals are objectified and commodified for an exclusively human agenda. The study concludes that through the naturalizing effect of discourses human dominance over wild animals are never questioned and the zoos grant animals an instrumental value rather than inherent value.

Panda Cams, which monitor and broadcast the activity of pandas in zoos or enclosed nature reserves, make an exceedingly rare and elusive species part of everyday life, creating the illusion of having unfettered access to the lives of these animals. They also represent a highly successful realization of the nature webcam’s potential, particularly in relation to managed environments. This article uses the Panda Cam as a case study to consider the unique ethics and implications of this relatively new method of observing and connecting with non-human animal life. To begin, this article contextualizes the out-of-proportion importance of pandas in the popular imagination. The charismatic panda has become (literally) emblematic of disappearing wildlife and the importance of conservation. The way pandas are presented, framed, and narrativized impacts human perceptions of the larger non-human world. The ubiquitous access enabled by webcam surveillance technology complements perceived connections with
pandas fostered by traditional media sources. However, the Panda Cam exacerbates traditional criticisms of zoos. For good or ill, zoos have long shaped how humans understand the natural world and their relation to it, and this technology stands to change how humans experience these institutions. The article also places the Panda Cam in relation to alternative methods of watching animals, specifically wildlife documentaries and webcams set up in the wild. I ultimately argue that the zoo webcam technology cannot replace those forms, but can supplement them in important ways – lacking the documentary’s careful curation or the
nature webcam’s illusion of a pristine and remote natural world. While acknowledging criticisms of the zoo webcam technology, this article argues that it would be a mistake wholly to reject a tool so successful in fostering affection and connection with a nonhuman species. One must recognize the good intentions and positive effects of this new technology, rather than castigating it for not conforming to an image of authentic nature. Yet, at this early stage, there still exists room for improvement. The technology in its current form often encourages a passive engagement with a subordinated natural world that audiences view on their own terms. In the future, this technology should strive to encourage a more active viewing experience and productively incorporate the frustration that often accompanies the physical zoo experience, or other nature webcams.

"ENGLISH
In 1671, Colbert – ubiquitous Minister of Louis XIV of France – sent officers aboard a small man-of-war to gather intelligence on Dutch forts engaged in the gold trade in WestAfrica.
Colbert et la Guinée results from an erudite and rigorous historical investigation about two little known accounts of this voyage, from Senegambia to the Gold Coast (Ghana), in the
seventeenth century. It includes an English translation of the French original.

FRENCH
En 1671, anticipant l’offensive contre les Provinces-Unies, Colbert organise une mission de renseignement sur les forteresses hollandaises en Afrique de l’Ouest, où s’effectue le commerce de l’or. Fruit d’une enquête historique rigoureuse et érudite, Colbert et la Guinée propose une édition comparée des deux relations de ce voyage, fenêtres ouvertes entre Europe et Afrique, et témoignages méconnus sur l’Afrique atlantique, entre Sénégambie et Côte de l’Or, au XVIIe siècle.""

The release of the American documentary film Blackfish (2013) caused a splash within the human-animal world. Centering on the famous Sea World orca Tilikum, who had been involved in the deaths of three Sea World trainers, Blackfish exposed potential consequences of keeping orcas in captivity for the benefit of human entertainment, although Sea World continues to argue that their marine park specialised in conservation of and education about marine animals. Whilst keeping animals in captivity has long been a controversial issue, Blackfish sparked something in the public imagination about the display of live animals and amplified the raging debate around the purposes of these displays.

Combining a uniquely anthropological and historical approach to the topic, this essay explores the development of zoos from their first appearance to the present day. Are zoos bastions of conservation which contain collections of the last precious "wild" animals in the world or are they entertainment stages in which animals are paraded on for the purpose of commercial profit? What can we learn from debates around the display of animals in zoos, and do they say more about us than the animals which we observe?

This paper was submitted as part of the BA in History and Anthropology at Goldsmiths University for the third year module on human-animal relations