Damian Aspinall: You all know my views on zoos prove me wrong

like the mountain gorilla 200 a few years ago now a 1000 ?? Or the White Rhino similar story..numbers in wild have increased substantially without zoos. you need to understand that if it can be done in situ then it should be not just jump straight to the zoo argument
Two female rhinos are left right? Just making sure “population increasing” also means almost extinct. Also, I know have my snack to sit back and watch
 
I’m mostly going to be staying out of this, but a couple of notes:

1 - if you are Damian, here’s a question I’ve always wanted to ask: you frequently like to point out to your social media followers that London Zoo has tens of thousands of animals on just 36 acres, which pales in comparison to the ratio at both Howletts and Port Lympne of animals to landspace. Do you realise that that total includes small invertebrates, fish and herptiles? Because the way you make it sound is like there are tens of thousands of huge animals in 36 acres....

2 - this forum is a forum about zoos, yes, but I would say that if you want to actually talk to people who work in zoos this is not the place to do it. Zoo enthusiasts are going to be defensive about zoos no matter what because, well, they’re enthusiastic about them. This is a zoo enthusiast forum, not a zookeeper one...there are a lot of people that work with animals that are on this forum but very few that actually use it.
 
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like the mountain gorilla 200 a few years ago now a 1000 ?? Or the White Rhino similar story..numbers in wild have increased substantially without zoos. you need to understand that if it can be done in situ then it should be not just jump straight to the zoo argument
Just because it applies to some species does not mean it applies to all.

Like the hybrid rhino EAZA released last year why not ask them ??
I was not aware of this, if someone could provide a link I would be interested.
 
Just because it applies to some species does not mean it applies to all.


I was not aware of this, if someone could provide a link I would be interested.
Just because it applies to some species does not mean it applies to all.


I was not aware of this, if someone could provide a link I would be interested.
my point is not enough is done to consider whether a species can be saved in situ not in a zoo
and there is no process to decide this which must be wrong
 
please call amos courage at port lympne the overseas director and he will give you exactly the %
i assure you you are incorrect. please be civil and lets work together and learn from each other

And why would your employee say anything that contradicts what you claim :p

A perfect example of this is re-releasing American Bison back when it was endangered, and Smithsonian and several others saved it, and there are more examples, like the Przewalski Horse and the Hawaiian Crow. Zoos in the AZA, or the EAZA, are all connected and breeding to release and preserve species, even if they are going slow. I can keep going, but everyone knows that this thread isn't going to stop after someone who joined in April posted.

Excellent point but one small, pedantic correction. The bison reintroductions, spearheaded by the American Bison Society, were founded at the Bronx Zoo by their first director William T. Hornaday who used to work for the Smithsonian which is probably where the confusion comes from.

But yes, I am still waiting for Mr. Aspinall's suggestions for what we do with all the Kihansi Spray Toads, Panamanian Golden Toads, Wyoming Toads, Partula snails, Mexican splitfins, Mexican Wolf, Red Wolf, Lake Victoria cichlids, Pere David's Deer, Vietnamese Sika, Hawaiian Crows, Guam Kingfishers, Guam Rails, Socorro Doves, Alagoas Curassows, Seychelles Giant Tortoises, Scimitar-Horned Oryx, and many others which only survive today due to human intervention.

Obviously i get misquoted and nothing i have said is meant to be disrespectful infact in my paper ?article I said that i do not wish harm just provoke a debate ...
I do have a different view to you re zoos but that is ok i respect that but my views are my own and i am passionate about what i believe and passionate about the welfare of animals

Are your own social media posts misquoting you?

like the mountain gorilla 200 a few years ago now a 1000 ?? Or the White Rhino similar story..numbers in wild have increased substantially without zoos. you need to understand that if it can be done in situ then it should be not just jump straight to the zoo argument

Obviously there are examples of animals being saved in-situ, no one said there weren't, however you are STILL ignoring the topic of the animals which do rely on ex-situ conservation, which is the question I asked before you moved the goalpost.

Like the hybrid rhino EAZA released last year why not ask them ??

What rhino hybrid? There are no hybrid white rhinos in captivity, there are no hybrid Black rhinos in captivity, and there are no hybrid Indian rhinos in captivity. There aren't any taxa for any of these species to hybridize with so what exactly are you referring to?

~Thylo
 
What rhino hybrid? There are no hybrid white rhinos in captivity, there are no hybrid Black rhinos in captivity, and there are no hybrid Indian rhinos in captivity. There aren't any taxa for any of these species to hybridize with so what exactly are you referring to?

~Thylo

Ahhh but there are hybrid sub species
 
because he is a decent man and we have written papers with all this information and submitted to the zoo world its out there for you to read
 
I dont think this is the point we should focus on tbh. Let's just assume this is Mr. Aspinall and have a discussion. There's no consequences if it's isnt.

Anyway, Mr. @Damian Aspinall , if you are so anti-zoo, why do you own them and why do you still a member of EAZA? Surely you could just exit the membership?
i don't own them there are owned by a foundation and i have stated publicly that i will and am phasing out of them it takes time secondly EAZA is a imperfect organisation that needs to be updated in its thinking and outcomes. Better to do that from the inside
 
Ahhh but there are hybrid sub species

Thank you for the detailed response to my entire post and for answering the questions you've been asked repeatedly. I'm not even sure what the above is supposed to be saying?

true WCS does some great work but it doesn't justify bronx zoo

Do you believe that the American Bison and the Kihansi Spray Toad would be better off extinct?

~Thylo
 
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