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One of London Zoo’s recent advertisements caused me some irritation, so patently did it distort reality. Headlined "Without zoos you might as well tell these animals to get stuffed", it was bordered with illustrations of several endangered species and went on to extol the myth that without zoos like London Zoo these animals "will almost certainly disappear forever". With the zoo world’s rather mediocre record on conservation, one might be forgiven for being slightly skeptical about such an advertisement.
Zoos were originally created as places of entertainment, and their suggested involvement with conservation didn’t seriously arise until about 30 years ago, when the Zoological Society of London held the first formal international meeting or3 the subject. Eight years later, a series of world conferences took place, entitled "The Breeding of the Endangered Species", and from this point onwards conservation became the zoo community’s buzzword. This commitment has now been clearly defined in The World Zoo Conservation Strategy (WZCS, 1993), which does seem to be based on an unrealistic optimism about the nature of the zoo industry.
The WZCS estimates that there are about 10,000 zoos in the world, of which around 1,000 represent a core of quality collections capable of participating in coordinated conservation programs. This is probably the document’s first failing, as I believe that 10,000 is a serious underestimate of the total number of places masquerading as zoological establishments.
The second flaw in the reasoning of the WZCS document is the naive faith it place in its 1,000 core zoos. One would assume that the caliber of these institutions would have been carefully examined, but it appears that the criterion for inclusion on this select list might merely be that the zoo is a member of a zoo federation or association. This might be a good starting point, working on the premise that members must meet certain standards, but again the facts don’t support the theory.
Even assuming that the 1,000 core zoos of the WZCS are all of a high standard, what might be the potential for conservation Colin ’Fudge, author of Last Animals at the Zoo argues that if the world’s zoos worked together in cooperative breeding programs they could save around 2,000 species of endangered land vertebrates. This seems an extremely optimistic proposition from a man who must be aware of the failings and weaknesses of the zoo industry. Moreover, where are the facts to support such optimism
Today approximately 16 species might be said to have been "saved" by captive breeding programs, although a number of these can hardly be looked upon as resounding successes. Beyond that, about a further 20 species are being seriously considered for zoo conservation programs. Given that the international conference at London Zoo was held 30 years ago, this is pretty slow progress, and a long way off Tudge’s target of 2,000. According to the writer, one of WZCS’s failings is it ______ the number of zoos in the world.