Zoos

Zoos are large places where people watch caged animals without getting attacked.

Future[]

Zoos in the future are likely to keep much smaller animals than elephants and lions. Marmots and meerkats naturally form colonies that can easily be shown in zoos. Displays of night-active animals, which in day and night conditions are reversed, are popular. Other animals, such as zebras and various reptiles are likely to remain in zoos, because they are easy to keep and feed. Some animals, however, become distressed in zoos, where they cannot exercise their natural and instinctive behavior. Often, their energies are redirected to repetitive and unnatural behaviors. Pantheridae may pace constantly in a figure 8, and elephants frequently walk in their own hoofprints. Animals such as the Siberian tiger and the polar bear are often replaced by smaller animals in zoos.

Controversies[]

Keeping animals in aquariums poses problems. Many do not breed successfully. Whales and dolphins die much younger than in the wild. Animals such as hippos, chimpanzees, and occasionally elephants and silverback gorillas are shot and killed if they escape and attack visitors. Some zoos pretend animals are other animals to draw in more customers. An example of this is the People's Park of Luhoe in China, where they posed a Tibetan mastiff as an African lion, a Siberian husky as a timberwolf, an arctic fox as an Amur leopard, and rats as snakes.