Use of the word ‘habitat’ in zoos/wildlife parks

TriUK

TriUK

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
I’m becoming increasingly annoyed & frustrated, by what I deem is the overuse and possible incorrect use of the word ‘habitat’ to label, describe or name a zoo enclosure or exhibit. I will hold my hand up high & apologise for being a grumpy old man if the majority of the posters I respect on here disagree, but surely the zoo community should agree that an enclosure the size of a tennis court is not a ‘habitat’ for an animal that has a natural range of many kilometres?
Any thoughts?
 
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I completely agree. Very few zoo enclosures come anywhere close to being habitats. I think something on the scale of Bear Wood (Bristol Zoo Project) could be described as a habitat, but it seems some people consider even the smallest cage in a squalid zoo to be a habitat.
 
It´s an americanism. I was so confused when I ´ve first seen US members use it instead of the word pen / cage / tank etc. It took me long time but nowadays I just insert "enclosure in an US zoo" in my head instead of the word habitat and those posts dont irk me anymore.
 
TriUK said:
I’m becoming increasingly annoyed & frustrated, by what I deem is the overuse and possible incorrect use of the word ‘habitat’ to label, describe or name a zoo enclosure or exhibit. I will hold my hand up high & apologise for being a grumpy old man if the majority of the posters I respect on here disagree, but surely the zoo community should agree that an enclosure the size of a tennis court is not a ‘habitat’ for an animal that has a natural range of many kilometres?
Any thoughts?
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I agree wholeheartedly; this misuse of the word "habitat" is a particular hate of mine. Using the word "habitat" as a euphemism for a "zoo exhibit" annoys me enormously.
(In a similar vein, I dislike the expression "animals in human care" used as a substitute for "animals in captivity".)
 
Jana said:
It´s an americanism. I was so confused when I ´ve first seen US members use it instead of the word pen / cage / tank etc. It took me long time but nowadays I just insert "enclosure in an US zoo" in my head instead of the word habitat and those posts dont irk me anymore.
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American members may tend to use it more on this site, but I have seen posts by European zoos on other platforms who also use the word instead of 'enclosure' or 'exhibit'. I don't think it's necessarily an Americanism (although zoos there may use it more) but more of some sort of trend similar to the example given by @ Tim May. (I think another example is using the word 'family' instead of 'collection' or 'animals', although I think this one is less common.)
 
Tim May said:
I agree wholeheartedly; this misuse of the word "habitat" is a particular hate of mine. Using the word "habitat" as a euphemism for a "zoo exhibit" annoys me enormously.
(In a similar vein, I dislike the expression "animals in human care" used as a substitute for "animals in captivity".)
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I feel like people who use such terms probably have this insecurity (for lack of a better term as a non native English speaker) about the fact that a zoo is a place that exhibits animals first and foremost. It’s especially silly when people in the industry use such terms because the average Joe doesn’t care to distinguish and anti-zoo people won’t change their minds over a couple of term changes.
 
Rohin said:
American members may tend to use it more on this site, but I have seen posts by European zoos on other platforms who also use the word instead of 'enclosure' or 'exhibit'.
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Sorry for the double post I just didn’t see your post before posting mine.

I argue that the use of “habitat” to refer to enclosures might stem from zoo building sims. I recall habitat being used in Zoo Tycoon 2 a lot, albeit it’s been a hot minute since I played anything so I might be misremembering the frequency of that word.
 
I’m under the impression that this is simply another definition of the word “habitat”. Obviously what’s called a habitat in a zoo is very different from the ecological definition of one. Not only is it a lot smaller, but an animal’s habitat in nature also has various other species, including predators and competitors, many of which it shouldn’t be mixed with in a zoo, various types of foliage and topographical features, a climate, and so on and so forth. When a zoo enclosure is called a habitat, it obviously doesn’t mean the same thing as “habitat” does when referring to an ecosystem. So I’ve never had a problem with using “habitat” as a synonym for “enclosure” and honestly it’s news to me that anyone does.
 
PossumRoach said:
Sorry for the double post I just didn’t see your post before posting mine.

I argue that the use of “habitat” to refer to enclosures might stem from zoo building sims. I recall habitat being used in Zoo Tycoon 2 a lot, albeit it’s been a hot minute since I played anything so I might be misremembering the frequency of that word.
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I know that this might only be moving the needle at all for a certain subset of people here, but it may also be worth noting that Planet Zoo persistently uses “habitat” to describe any exhibit that isn’t a terrarium box (those are “exhibits”). But it could be that that intentional distinction there is subconsciously informing the wording some people use.

That said, outside of that particular context, I don’t think I actually see it used all that often? Maybe it just doesn’t stick out to me because it doesn’t bother me. Its usage in this sense is a bit removed from its original meaning, sure, but the meaning is still clear.
 
Although the use of habitat to refer to zoo enclosures is a new growing trend, hence the unfamiliarity for many of us, its use is not at all incorrect. It is true that the use of the word habitat is strongly wired to the ecological definition of habitat, however, the word habitat is also synonymous with: home, environment, domain, territory, habitation, dwelling, etc.
Since many zoos put an effort to recreate the natural habitats of their species in the artificial habitats that we call enclosures, and often they are inhabited by multiple species I do not see at all inaccurate to call them habitats. I have already worked at a facility where the main exhibits were called habitats by everyone, mostly because those exhibits were designed not for a single species in mind, but most importantly they were designed to recreate and portray a particular natural habitat/environment. Hence people refer to them as habitats. Are they enclosures? Yes, they are as well.
 
TriUK said:
I’m becoming increasingly annoyed & frustrated, by what I deem is the overuse and possible incorrect use of the word ‘habitat’ to label, describe or name a zoo enclosure or exhibit. I will hold my hand up high & apologise for being a grumpy old man if the majority of the posters I respect on here disagree, but surely the zoo community should agree that an enclosure the size of a tennis court is not a ‘habitat’ for an animal that has a natural range of many kilometres?
Any thoughts?
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Yes - I agree with you.
'Habitat' refers to the natural range of a species.
This word used in its new context, is a softened, politically correct and yes perhaps an 'Americanism', used probably initially by new non-zoo people employed in publicity departments who deep-down were (and maybe still are) slightly uneasy about the concept of captivity.
I think they probably invented the word 'enrichment' too, for what would have previously been called rubbish and taken to the tip.:rolleyes:
In the end a cage is still a cage.
 
ZooNews2024 said:
This word used in its new context, is a softened, politically correct and yes perhaps an 'Americanism', used probably initially by new non-zoo people employed in publicity departments who deep-down were (and maybe still are) slightly uneasy about the concept of captivity.
I think they probably invented the word 'enrichment' too, for what would have previously been called rubbish and taken to the tip.
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I believe it was originally an Americanism, as I heard it used a number of decades ago to refer to some zoo enclosures in the USA, e.g. a new Great Ape building in the 1970's was described as a 'habitat'. I think your conception of how it came to be used in the UK is quite possibly correct.
 
Tim May said:
I agree wholeheartedly; this misuse of the word "habitat" is a particular hate of mine. Using the word "habitat" as a euphemism for a "zoo exhibit" annoys me enormously.
(In a similar vein, I dislike the expression "animals in human care" used as a substitute for "animals in captivity".)
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My other pet peeve is 'Forest.' Though I would accept it for something like Trentham's Barbary Apes or even Whipsnade's new Sulawesi Macaque exhibit. But not for many others.
 
Jana said:
It´s an americanism. I was so confused when I ´ve first seen US members use it instead of the word pen / cage / tank etc. It took me long time but nowadays I just insert "enclosure in an US zoo" in my head instead of the word habitat and those posts dont irk me anymore.
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'Pen' is another classic word used (or it was) for animal enclosures in the USA, but never in UK/Europe. I think 'Habitat' was originally used for anything bigger than a 'pen'.
 
I agree and use the word “exhibit”, when describing a zoo animal’s enclosure. On another note (and this may be a trend limited to the USA), but I hate when zoos are described by staff or visitors as preserves or refuges…if animals are exhibited for education or entertainment in a facility that is open to the public…it’s a zoo. (In limited cases I’ll accept “center” for facilities to which the public has limited access).

It twerks me to see a Trip Advisor review of a zoo where the fist sentence is “first this is not a zoo! It’s a refuge….”

I visited the zoo at Homossassa Springs in Florida (full of captive…some possibly rescued from the wild…some actually wild…animals on display) and as I was leaving commented to one of the staff that the facility was “one of the best zoos I’ve seen”, only to be immediately corrected “this is not a zoo…it’s a refuge”.

It’s a zoo. A nice one. Be proud of that.
 
I've said this before on here many years ago, but my favourite example of "habitat" being used at a zoo was on an episode of The Zoo (about Auckland Zoo) where they were moving an otter and the keeper was saying something like "we're just going to transfer him into this temporary habitat" - it was a cat carry-cage.

Edit: it was this thread, from 2010 - What's in a name? Of challenging zoo terminology
 
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MRJ said:
The usage originated in America, however, is spreading internationally. It is being pushed here in Australia by ZAA and the big zoos.
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Mmmm...:(
This is an area where big zoos and 'small (private?) zoos possibly diverge.
The big zoos and the associations tend to employ people in the top jobs from non-zoo backgrounds, sometimes for very short periods before they jump ship with little thought for what they leave behind, maybe to become 'consultants' - some even becoming expressly anti-zoo.
Smaller zoos, though nimbler and able to react quickly in many areas, usually usually have senior people who are in it for the long term, often with considerable personal investment of both time and money.
 
Chlidonias said:
I've said this before on here many years ago, but my favourite example of "habitat" being used at a zoo was on an episode of The Zoo (about Auckland Zoo) where they were moving an otter and the keeper was saying something like "we're just going to transfer him into this temporary habitat" - it was a cat carry-cage.

Edit: it was this thread, from 2010 - What's in a name? Of challenging zoo terminology
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Could that phrase have been put into the keepers mouth by a TV editor, methinks?
 
As for another zoo-related term, how does "little brown job" grammatically make sense? I know the term originates in birding, but it feels weird to call a creature a job. Is the job the task of distinguishing it from other similar species?
 
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