Hobbies And Interests
Returning Species to the Wild
Zoos breed principally for conservation purposes. Their breeding programs are carefully designed and frequently involve loaning or exchanging specific animals to ensure that gene pools remain healthy. Many zoological institutions strive to preserve endangered species and the opportunity to return the captive young of zoo animals to the wild is the ultimate long term goal of many breeding programs. Reintroduction programs are invariably expensive and time-consuming exercises and require safe and suitable habitats in the wild. Very few zoo-bred animals are therefore ultimately released into wild areas.
Exchanges and Donations to Accredited Zoos
Zoos accredited with the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums (AZA) typically exchange surplus animals between themselves, safe in the knowledge that these creatures will be correctly cared for. Unfortunately, each individual zoological garden can only accommodate a select number of animals and AZA accredited zoos cannot house all the surplus animals that their member zoos produce.
Non-accredited Zoos and Other Facilities
Roadside zoos and circuses frequently purchase animals, but supplying these facilities with surplus zoo stock is fraught with potential ethical and legal issues. Accredited zoo directors may question the level of professional animal husbandry that these facilities provide and many non-accredited facilities may not be licensed to keep the various endangered species. Supplying pet dealers, trained animal acts and private owners with zoo-bred stock is equally, if not more, difficult.
Biomedical Research and Euthanasia
Select zoos make animals available for biomedical research, but even if the specific research program is a non-invasive study, most of these projects end after a number of years. Biomedical facilities typically seek non-human primates, but some of these animals, such as the great apes, have potential life spans of up to 50 years. Chimpanzees may therefore live for another 40 years after the project they were chosen for has run its course. This presents the dilemma of what to do with these animals. Select zoos sometime practice euthanasia, but most accredited facilities refrain from using this option because of the public's negative reaction. Zookeepers and curators normally react equally negatively to euthanasia as a means of solving a zoo's surplus animal issue.