Zoo animals are wilder than you think... 

Or like zoey zebra from Peppa pig sadly they’re not

@@Autistic-Noice-Panda-2023 Oh yeah I forget and here baby sisters

@@TheIntelligentElephant71133 yeh and zu the zebra

Great response! Hoping to delve further into this focussing on a specific species where I can go further into specific behaviours they’re lacking by talking to the people “on the ground” later in the year!

thanks! And may you never forget it again!🦓

Thanks for this! And thanks for the suggestion!

I appreciate that!

Hey, thanks for reaching out, I’m finally getting caught up again! You’ve brought up a really good point. And one which zoos absolutely have to consider. In an ideal world, all animals would be a visitor draw, thrive in captivity, display well and have a conservation impact. But that’s not the case. Some of the most important species from a conservation perspective just aren’t that interesting to a lot of people. While people in general want a zoos impact to be as high as possible, they typically wouldn’t enjoy or return to a zoo with multiple exhibits of slightly different looking but ultimately similar species. You can see this in many large scale developments, where certain “low profile” species are seemingly shoe horned in. But likely this came down to the diverse planning required. Getting a buy-in from shareholders or management to develop required balancing the commercial side and the zoo mission, and the reality is, while people do generally support conservation they also have certain expectations from a zoo visit. Using a flagship species as a visitor draw. And adding “related” species to the development is a great way to have that impact too. It’s definitely something I’ll explore further moving forward so thanks for your great question!

Thanks for the detailed answer! Really appreciate you taking the time to do that. Looking forward to future videos!

The heyday of cinema!

Hey thanks! I read one “statement” while researching that said they cause the most injuries to keepers in the US, but couldn’t verify that! That’s a good suggestion, I’ll keep it in mind!

Thank you 👍

Yeah, this is a very good point. Not just behaviour either, genetically it will be true too. Something like disease resistance or lack thereof, which they may never encounter in captivity, but is prevalent in the wild could lead to a whole population of captive individuals being unsuitable for release.

Well strictly from a welfare point of view it is presumably a trained behaviour. Ie pull the rope and get a reward. Assuming I’m right in saying that, then food could absolutely be used as a reward. Reality is a person isn’t going to out-pull a tiger for example, but as a behaviour that’s trained, it would be the act of sustained pulling rather than “winning” which is rewarded. In training any behaviour you really break it down to the most basic behaviour. And training is itself a positive thing for welfare, in this case both mentally and physically. As for “should you train it”. That will depend on the zoo. Given that the training could be mentally/physically positive would you be more comfortable if it only happened behind the scenes? There’s certainly some risks, damage to teeth etc which wouldn’t be present otherwise, but I don’t know enough about the setups to really assess that. From a public perception, I think some zoos will steer clear to present a more “natural” zoo experience. And actually I’ve seen tug of war setups without animals before, where you pull a rope attached to a box with a variety of different “strengths” and assigned animals. In this instance, showing the “power” an animal has doesn’t have to be a negative, just maybe not a priority for most.

Thanks

absolutely, the evolution alongside people is certainly a factor. And the behavioural differences between zebra and asses, especially their breeding system is a big factor in the lack of domestication as you say!

Sorry to hear this, send me an email and I’ll sort out a private link to one without the music. Going forward I’ll try and keep this in mind. Cheers

misophonia is a bitch. You're not a karen. (fellow sufferer)

As a keeper, I can confirm this is not the case. Animals, at least in the AZA, are bred for genetic diversity, not traits. Honestly, one of our biggest welfare goals is to encourage natural behaviors, and we take a pretty hands-off approach. Even training is really only done for the betterment of the animals, no "tricks."

No, that’s not even always true for domesticated animals (not all of which are bred for docility) let alone non-domesticated animals.

This is a great take. And largely true over here too!

Typically captive bred “wild” animals aren’t bred to be tame, although being habituated to humans often occurs due to the management situation. That said, there are many examples where captive individuals breed even in poor, high stress environments so it’s not a requirement.