A Vision of a Zoo to Preserve Wildlife
August 13, 2015
Most zoos are still seen as “animal prisons” that don’t even look after their inmates properly. But zoos are changing. In modern zoos, only a few animals have to spend their lives behind bars.
In the best cases, they have plenty of room to move in spacious artificial landscapes based on their natural habitats. Animals are now only very rarely taken straight from the wild, because many species are protected, so most animals in zoos today have actually been born there. The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZAA) wants today’s zoos to concentrate on conservation and make the public aware of nature and environment issues. So are modern zoos fit for purpose?
The Zoo of the Future
To find out, DW-author Anne Hoffmann and zoologist and nature filmmaker Fritz Jantschke visited two zoos in Germany and Switzerland. Leipzig Zoo calls itself the “zoo of the future” with spacious enclosures, oriented towards the welfare of the animals, areas designed to feel “close to nature” and even occupational therapy. In addition, the zoo for supports a wildlife conservation project for each of its fields of interest. For example, it trains pilots for the Endangered Primate Rescue Center in Vietnam and supports the “Wild Chimpanzee Organization” in Africa. With Pongoland, Leipzig Zoo also maintains the largest ape enclosure in the world.
Back to the Wild
The Goldau Nature Park and Zoo in Switzerland is another thing entirely. Ringed around an enormous rockslide, it’s often bizarre landscapes are a constant source of wonder.The gigantic boulders, precipitous slopes, meadows and forests here are the habitat of wild goats, hares, bearded vultures, bears and wolves. The Goldau zoologists are also involved in their own reintroduction program – bearded vultures, for example: we were present when they released three bearded vulture chicks in the Swiss canton of Obwalden. Their long term goal is to integrate the farmed Alpine stock with the naturally occurring population in the Pyrenees.
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