People have different views about zoos. While some consider zoos to be cruel towards wild animals, others say they play an important role in preserving endangered animal species. In my opinion, zoos offer an entertainment and education.
On the one hand, there are various reasons why people hold the view that zoos treat their animals cruelly. The primary reason is putting wild animals into the cage or special areas like zoos can lead to those species losing their natural instincts and behaviour. Take a tiger as an example, in natural surroundings, this carnivore animal always stalks and hunts for its prey, but in artificial places all carnivores are served with meat, which means they do not have to attack other animals. This is why, these natural characteristics take away. Another point is large mammals require vast territory for survival; zoos fail to fulfil this condition that they may end up returning to their natural habitat.
On the other hand, as others claim zoos have a crucial part to play in animal conservation. Zoos can be a place where those endangered animals could be reproduced by captive breeding and help them not to become extinct. To do so, professionals such as biologists and veterinarians are also available to treat sick and injured exotic species at zoos. Moreover, by studying those closely, scientists can observe animal’s behaviour like mating and nutritional choices. In this way, their survival will be ensured. Zoos and other nature preserves are crucial to keep all the endangered animals.
To my mind, zoos are essential both to protect wild animals and to educate young generation. Today, majority of youth live in cities where there are lack of natural reserves and habitats, so zoos are places where those young people can visit and learn much about wild animals by seeing them in real life. During the visit, zoo staff can give valuable knowledge about how to breed, look after, and feed. In this process, children may be allowed to feed them, so this will be unforgettable, exciting experience for them. This exposure usually cannot be taken form school lessons. Therefore we need zoos.
In conclusion, although people may argue against zoos for some reasons like threatening to take away wild animal’s natural instinct and behaviour, for others they still have a vital function in saving animals from extinction. I believe that zoos role in teaching young generation is important so we have to develop them by enlarging their size.