Captive Hunting...

An interesting topic, N Z Jeremy. Good one!

So far we have been discussing hunting behavior which was not intended by zoo authorities. How do people feel about the deliberate introduction of live prey animals to be hunted and eaten? Mice, rats and rabbits put into snake cages; fish put into pools for fishing cats. Acceptable? Then, how about deer put in with big cats, as is apparently done in China (and was done occasionally after closing time by a well known British private zoo owner.) Where do we draw the line?


How do I feel, sick at the thought. A wild situation where the prey is capable of escape is one thing, but putting prey into an enclosure is completely unacceptable. Feeding live prey is illegal in Australia and I am glad of it!
 
It is illegal in South Australia to feed any live vertabrate to another animal, this includes fish.

If that is a law in NSW too I am breaking the law when I feed my Murray Cod carp and mosquito fish, but am alowed to feed Yabbies
 
yep, although i dont think anyone cares with fish, esspecially ****ing gambusia! and alsong as the yabbies dont have eggs
 
If that is a law in NSW too I am breaking the law when I feed my Murray Cod carp and mosquito fish, but am alowed to feed Yabbies

Technically yes, but it was bought in mainly in response to feeder rats and mice.
 
There is a famous bit of video of u-tube of chinese zoo feeding a live cow to its tigers. I have not posted it because its pretty disgusting and in poor taste.

Mercifully it does only last about 3 seconds and dosn't really know whats going on (it is tipped from a covered trailer).

If you want to see it, just put 'tiger china' or somesuch into u-tube search.

We often criticise the lower relative standards of (most) asian zoos compared to ours and I think this is maybe one area that needs urgent attention.
 
A few years ago I saw the giant otters at Duisberg being fed half a dozen live trout. They were just tipped from a bucket into the pool, which was a crystal clear swimming pool rather than a pond with plants etc. The fish lasted about ten seconds and were dispatched as quick if not quicker than a fisherman could do it, also it was fascinating to see the animals so active.
 
I have seen a lion eating a mallard, and a lar gibbon attempting to catch flying sea gulls in Copenhagen.
 
There is a famous bit of video of u-tube of chinese zoo feeding a live cow to its tigers. I have not posted it because its pretty disgusting and in poor taste.

Mercifully it does only last about 3 seconds and dosn't really know whats going on (it is tipped from a covered trailer).

If you want to see it, just put 'tiger china' or somesuch into u-tube search.

We often criticise the lower relative standards of (most) asian zoos compared to ours and I think this is maybe one area that needs urgent attention.

The same park feeds their Siberian tigers with alot of other animals as well, I have seen clips on youtube were they throws small lambs out of cars. Apparently a quite popular place juding from all clips on youtube.
 
At the Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary, I saw a red fox kill and eat a blackbird that had flown into an open-topped enclosure but wasn't bright enough to fly up and get out! What was interesting was that the fox involved had suffered brain damage and was kept there because it was disabled - a lot of animal rescue charities would have had him put down as he wouldn't have any quality of life. I thought it was brilliant! :D
 
I remember seeing an oropendola (correct spelling?) eating a sparrow which had got into its aviary at Bristol zoo.

Alan
 
I just remembered, Auckland Zoo has feed it Small clawed otters, live eels in the past that they caught in their central pond and released in their enclosure...

It was on their TV show, The Zoo (original name eh...?)
 
What about yet another kind of hunting? Wild animals coming in and eating captive ones?

I recall Goshawk hunting in Berlin zoo (they breed in nearby Tiergarten-park). Berlin Tierpark has rather large wintering (wild) Common Buzzard population.
 
What about yet another kind of hunting? Wild animals coming in and eating captive ones?

I recall Goshawk hunting in Berlin zoo (they breed in nearby Tiergarten-park). Berlin Tierpark has rather large wintering (wild) Common Buzzard population.

Didn't as fox get a few agouti at Chester at the time they were housed in the Marmoset enclosures?

I don't think that I'd be that opposed to penguins or sealions getting live fish, considering the enrichment that it'd offer. I guess when it is in an enclosure it is a pretty one-sided chase, but the penguins have to be fed fish anyway, and whether it is them, or the human that caught the fish, that does the 'dispatching' doesn't make much difference.
 
At Taronga Zoo on Tuesday we saw the Otters (not sure which type - the ones down below the new elephant enclosure, near the Tapirs) ... catching and eating live yabbies in their enclosure. Was quite fascinating to watch - they are very efficient!

 
Browsing youtube last night and the number of sickos out there that have filmed their pythons/boas or whatever being given a live mouse or rabbit.
On one hand you have to admire the snake as an evolutionary masterpiece within a millisecond having thrown its coils around they prey is astonishing.
But those ****wit owners who are on a par with an amoeba in evolutionary terms whooping and yelling when the snake had caught the poor prey item, usually a rabbit or mouse that stood no chance, no escape route nothing, simply for that youtubers pleasure.
 
What about yet another kind of hunting? Wild animals coming in and eating captive ones?

When the San Deigo WAP first opened they had trouble with some type (I can't remember) of canid (and native raptors) digging under the fence and making off with infant ungulates...

They extended the fences underground and provided more grass for the infants to hide in...
 
Back
Top