Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens Los Angeles Elephant Sanctuary
- Thread starter okapikpr
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ANyhuis
Well-Known Member
Not necessarily. There's a limited amount of time, energy, and especially money. This is what critics often forget when pointing out all of the flaws to different zoos or zoo exhibits.
Yes there is...
tigertiger
Well-Known Member
There's always something that they can do, but not always anything feasible, logical or possible. For example, it would be great is every US zoo could build an elephant acreage like some of the Swiss zoos. Unfortunately, it's just not feasible, logical or possible in many cases.
While there's always a hypothetical 'could do,' there's not often a realistic 'can do.'
tigertiger
Well-Known Member
There's something wrong with every single exhibit and zoo worldwide. Sure, in some cases it is a lot smaller than in others. But people tend to forget no matter how dreadful an exhibit is...there are a lot of animals that would be dead if they were in their natural environment. I'd take "Hey, there's a flaw with my exhibit" over "Hey, I'm dead" anyday.
ANyhuis
Well-Known Member
Well said, and exactly the point I try to make many times here on ZooChat. Here's one way that I look at it:
I've raised my children in a middle class (maybe upper middle class) environment. So my kids have lived in a nice, but middle class, house, and they've enjoyed all of the food, education, vacations, gifts, etc. that middle class parents typically give to their children. I think that all of my children would say they are more than satisfied with what they've had growing up. BUT, if you compare what my children have had with what the children of some billionaire have had -- some might say my kids have been "deprived". THAT is how I see comparing zoo exhibits that are both excellent and substandard. For example, compare the grizzly bears in the Pittsburgh Zoo's aging "bear pits" with the grizzlies in Woodland Park's amazing Northern Trail exhibit. Certainly the Pittsburgh bears don't have all of the luxuries in their home that their Seattle cousins have. But if the keepers in Pittsburgh are giving their bears the care, enrichment, and love that they need -- then I see those Pittsburgh bears as similar to my children, while the Seattle bears are like the billionaire's kids.
Could Pittsburgh do better? Sure. Could I do better for my children? Sure. Give me a billion dollars and I could do a LOT better for my kids! I'm sure the Pittsburgh Zoo folks would say something similar.
"....acreage like Swiss Zoos?" Basle and Zurich are much smaller then most US zoos and are hemmed in by development. But they do a great job with the acreage they have, and in Zurich's case will develop a very large elephant exhibit.
As a keeper, I know that there is a lot that zoos can do realisticly to improve the care that their animals receive. I know that I try...and it doesnt take a billion dollars and/or hundreds of acres to do so.
And I really hope that zoos arent completely judging the care of their animals with other facilities....because they should all be looking at the animals' home ranges and their wild counterparts to compare to their animals and their exhibits.
The Los Angeles Zoo has another million bucks to spend on its elephant forest exhibit. That makes it $42 million and counting, and hopefully the finished product doesn't face as much abuse as San Diego's Elephant Odyssey has from ZooChatters.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_12727054?nclick_check=1
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_12727054?nclick_check=1