Would be cool if I could get some input for this essay, it's for my analyzing and writing arugments WRI 1100 class. Thanks men.
also willing to write for fg if anyone wants lmk
Zoos: Elephant Conservationism or Consumerism?
Since their inception zoos have been created and populated with rare and exotic species for the purposes of spectating and entertainment. However, with the pressure they have faced from animal rights activists as well as zoological experts, such as those at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, you may have noticed a paradigm shift within the industry. Paradigmatic changes span from entertainment towards education, and even conservation. It is my belief that the mission Statement from the African Elephant Specialist Group of the IUCN should be the global attitude regarding elephants—“Believing there to be no direct benefit for in situ conserveation of African elephants, the African Elephant Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission does not endorse the removal of African elephants from the wild for any captive use.[sic]”. While they have begun offering a more educational and full learning experience for visitors, the conservation efforts of the zoos fall drastically short of anything other than consuming our diminishing wildlife. Elephants in captivity commonly suffer from premature deaths in addition to a low birthrate combined with a high rate of infant mortality caused by a variety of factors.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums requires an outdoor area of only 1800 square feet for captive elephants and only 400 square feet for the indoor cages that these animals are given as their home; the outdoor space they are given is approximately 1/32 the size of an American football field, to gain some perspective. Cramped spaces such as these are putting captive elephants at high risks for obesity, increasing their stress, aggression, and infertility while also damaging their feet due to a lack of abrasion which would normally wear down excessive nail and foot tissue during their standard 18-20 hours of daily activity in the wild. This increase in stress and aggression is also causative of a decreased sex drive among the captive elephant population on top of everything else (Elephant Captivity - Realities and Challenges 1) . In her paper titled “Space required for elephants” renowned ethologist and elephant conservationist Dr. Joyce Poole notes that this is not the case for elephants in the wild:
“In the form of routine problems captive elephant managers face every day, the evidence is unmistakable: foot diseases, arthritis, weight related diseases, infertility, heightened aggression, and other neurotic behavior. In the Amboseli population where the life histories of over 2,000 free-ranging individuals have been followed for 34 years, wild elephants do not develop foot problems … ; they are not seen swaying rhythmically back and forth … ; they do not have difficulties conceiving … ; they do not kill their own infants … ; they do not attack and kill the individuals with whom they are bonded […] . All these zero cases in the wild add up to an enormous amount of evidence that elephants need space to be elephants.” (1).
In the wild, Dr. Poole notes that the symptoms we see captive elephants suffering from are all but nonexistent and it is her professional position that all of these symptoms are directly related to the lack of space afforded captive elephants in a zoo setting.
The myriad of ailments suffered by elephants in captivity add up to a not-so-shockingly low life expectancy for African and Asian elephants in captivity of 17 and 19 years when compared to their life expectancy in the wild of 56 and 42 years respectively; the life expectancy for those born in captivity and lucky enough to survive is even shorter than that of those caught in the wild and introduced to the captive life. Zoologist and lead author of a study that looked at data from the lives of 4500 captive and wild African and Asian elephants, Dr. Georgia Mason of Canada’s University of Guelph, says, "Something is happening very, very early in life in these zoo animals, and it's got to be happening before the age of three or four … the average age when wild-caught animals arrive in [zoos]" to cause those born in captivity to have a such a significantly shorter lifespan than those born in the wild (Mott 1-2). According to the World Wildlife Fund the population of African elephants has dwindled from an estimated 5 million to fewer than 500,000 remaining and Asian elephants from 1 million to fewer than 50,000 (WWF 1) and this makes it more important than ever to be increasing the longevity of our captive elephants whom we have lost 76 of to death since the year 2000 with over half of those being under 40 years old and a total of 7 that were under 3 years of age (PETA 1). If this inability to sustain and encourage our captive elephants to flourish remains the status-quo of the zoo industry I fear we will be seeing more elephants removed from their homes in the wild to be placed in these painful and life shortening cages in the name of conservation.
Not only can the effects of our captivity practices be observed in the shortened life-spans of our elephants but also in their significantly low birthrate in comparison to wild elephants. Between 1995 and 2003 there were 17 African elephants born in captivity for an estimated 8,000 females in captivity mature enough to give birth. Whereas healthy elephants in their natural habitats give birth approximately once in 4 years, this means it would take 8 elephants in the wild to do what took 8,000 in captivity (Conservation Ecology Research Unit 1). Even the ones born however, have just begun the battle of survival in captivity as journalist Kara Platoni with Smithsonian Magazine notes “An elephant birth in captivity is unusual and highly anticipated: of 17 African elephants born in North America since 1995, only 6 survive” (1). In the case of Dohami, a 357-pound calf born in the Oakland Zoo the battle for life was a short one, he was found dead 11 days after his celebrated birth on the floor of the elephant room. The cause of Dohami's death was a puncture wound in his chest that had been inflicted by his mother, Lisa's, tusk. Zookeepers question what caused Lisa to kill her calf, was it simply an accident, could she have been spooked, or something else entirely? While they do not have an answer, we do know that in the wild Ambolesi population that has been followed for 34 years, there has not been one instance of infanticide nor has it ever been witnessed anywhere else in the wild (Poole 1).
With wild elephant populations dwindling due to many causes, their conservation is an important issue in today's world that a zoo is unable to answer. The shortened lifespan, low birthrate, and high infant mortality in captive elephants all point to a failing in the conservationism attitude of zoo's that leads me to believe that true elephant conservation happens in the wild and the zoos are nothing more than elephant consumerism. While the education front that many zoos have been moving forward with may help to further the cause of these pachyderms, it is not enough to forget what they are really doing with their “conservation”. Taking our elephants from thousands of miles of land where they roam free so they can be locked away into something smaller than an American sports field, not for conservation as they would try to convince us but as Maynard James Keenan sang:
“Is a product
Begging for your
Fatass dirty
Dollar
So...Shut up and
[ … ]
Send more money
Fuck you, buddy” (1).
This post was edited by 49to50 on Sep 25 2015 03:36am