Behavioral Issues

Many animals are very distressed due to being enclosed in small quarters. To figure out how zoos affect the behavior of animals I searched and found an article called "Zoos Drive Animals Crazy" by Laura Smith. Smith is writing about an interview with Laurel Braitman who is the author of a new book, Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help US Understand Ourselves. This article highlights the stress put on animals and how it changes their natural behavior. 

 

Stereotypic Behavior:

Stereotypic behavior is a repetitive behavior that serves no obvious purpose. An example of this is Gus, a polar bear at Central Park Zoo that would swim in figure eights in his pool for hours on end. This eventually earned him the name "the bipolar bear." Other stereotypic behavior includes pacing and bar biting. Trichotillomania is also very common in captive situations. Trichotillomania is the practice of repetitive hair plucking. Regurgitation and reingestation is also very common among these animals.

 

 

 



 

An elephant at Kunming Zoo in Yunnan, China

that is displaying signs of repetitive behavior

 

 

 

 

Causes:

These behavior almost never happen in the wild. These behaviors are so common in captivity the name, zoochosis, was assigned to them. The behaviors occur because of confinement and unstimulation. This is due to the animals' small living areas. Gus "the bipolar bear" was living in an enclosure that was 0.00009 percent of the size of the range of a polar bear in the wild. The disruption of a family or pack for the sake of breeding and selling in another issue that causes stress in zoos. Many animals that have lived together for their whole life get split up because there is a good genetic match mate at another zoo. Zoos also get rid of animals to create a more diverse range of animals.

 

Treatment:

Zoos treat zoochosis with a range of unhealthy drugs. Many zoos use pyschophamaceutical has been prescribed. They are used because they are low cost and cheaper than replacing a whole enclosure to make it more enriched. The most common drugs used are Valium, Prozac, and antipsychotics. In the United States in 2010 the animals pharmaceutical industry had $6 billion in sales.

 

My Thoughts:

I believe that the animals' health and well being show through their stressful behavior should not be sacrificed in order to keep people coming to the exhibits. Many animals are suffering from these disorders and we need to change how we keep these animals and what we do to correct our mistakes. Personally, I believe that animals should not be kept in captivity due to these reasons.

 

If you would like to learn more here is a link to a documentary on zoochosis:

 http://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/zoochosis-what-really-happens-to-animals-in-captivity-video/

Smith, Laura. "Zoos Are Fun for People but Awful for Animals." Slate Magazine. N.p., 20 June 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.