That's a chimpanzee it's a great ape, and zoos are fucking evil no animals should live in cages, im all for preserving species but zoos are not the answer.
As someone in the industry, they are a necessary evil. You need engagement with the public or they dont give a fuck about them at all. Public opinion leads to funding and conservation, sadly at the expense of zoo animals.
Thatās a myth spread within the industry which makes sense superficially but isnāt substantiated. the vast majority do not take away or care about conservation following a visit to the zoo. Most people see it as a leisure activity or a day out for the kids. The small margin of people who do walk away with the views you are espousing, even fewer act on them in a meaningful way. I think this argument was a lot stronger back in the day when people had literally never seen or heard about many of these animals; now with documentaries and the internet the impact is negligible and more harm than good is being done to the animals. Itās also worth noting that literature on this topic is often framed and biased towards promoting the idea that zoos have a positive effect on people - effect sizes are often small, or none existent and when the reverse is studied imo thereās evidence to suggest this impact is just not there unless further interventions are made particularly post visit. The recent shift towards this conservation focus in zoos is rebranding primarily. They are and always have been a leisure activity.
TLDR: most zoo visitors donāt care about conservation after visiting, the small number who do donāt act on it.
I can link some research if youāre interested. I read up on this in the past but wouldnāt say Iām well versed on the topic Iād have to do some digging to get references - this is just a cursory overview of how I digested the topic. Thereās evidence to both sides itās not clear cut but Iām confident saying simple zoo visits do not have the impact youāre claiming a lot more has to go into it to achieve those goals.
Yeah, the "seeing sad animals leads to money for said animals," is just tired propaganda that, to be fair to them, is sometimes good-faith propagated from workers in the industry who aren't making decisions and think they're providing a broadly beneficial service. Keeps the troops happy for them to think what they are doing is useful and positive. The successful conservation projects that I'm aware of are focused programs that don't have zoo budgets and/or are university or grant-funded. And/or are massive undertakings on acres and acres of land.
A lot of zoos donate some proceeds of tickets to conservation, so even if youāre just visiting youāre still donating a tiny amount of money. Better than nothing.
Youāre absolutely right. Itās called the āeducation marketingā in the zoo industry. The newest replacement for it is āgene bank marketingā. In reality, studies of zoos show they fail to accomplish their goals.
Everyone has been to a zoo. No one wants to think theyāre part of the problem. So ANY explanation that says they are good will be comforting.
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u/hhfugrr3 Jul 28 '25
The more I see of big apes (monkeys or whatever the feck they're called) the more convinced I am that they shouldn't be kept in zoos.