A Thought for the Animals
- florencesanjaya
- Aug 2, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 16, 2021
Written by: M. Florence Sanjaya
Edited by: E. Charlene Sanjaya
Whenever we hear someone talk about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we immediately think of lockdowns, orders to work and study from home, obligatory masks, death tolls announced in the news, and all other negative implications toward society. Everything seems to be going really bad for humans, but have we ever thought of how animals are impacted?
Some animals in the zoo are neutrally or negatively impacted while others are positively impacted. For social animals used to humans being around (no direct contact other than their caretakers), they miss seeing people, and so staff in the zoo need to spend more time with them, but for animals used in wildlife tourism (direct human interaction with visitors), the absence of humans could be heaven to them.
Ever since the closing, temporary or permanent, of many public spaces and facilities, people have not gone out of their houses much for fear of catching the virus. As a result, the once crowded zoos are now deserted, leaving the place’s residents to “seek out interactions with keepers, or ‘look for’ the public” (E. Williams et al. 140). However, this behaviour is only observed in some species such as Chapman’s zebra, Rothschild’s giraffe, and primates (E. Williams et al. 140; S. Williams par. 3). Other species like the Amur leopard and garden eel show avoidance of human interaction early on in reopening periods, and wallabies and red kangaroos, species in “walk-through exhibits”, “engaged in increased vigilance behaviour” as the zoo transitions from being closed to finally opening (E. Williams 141). Since the presence of visitors helps keep many animals active, closure of zoos can affect their wellbeing significantly. “Decreased activity leading to potential weight gain and potential foot health complications” like “hoof overgrowth in [giraffes]” are only a small part of the many ways their health can be impacted negatively (E. Williams 140).
In addition to the animals’ compromised welfare, zoos have been struggling financially due to the absence of visitors, causing efforts to conserve rare species to be hampered. According to Helen Briggs, an environment correspondent at the BBC, only “one zoo out of around 300 in England has successfully made a claim from a £100m government recovery fund,” which says a lot about the government’s willingness to help zoos and, ultimately, the animals (par. 8). The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified “at least 77 species of (endangered) plants and animals” as “extinct in the wild”; if zoos cannot support themselves and no one will help them, more of these species will end up in the growing ‘extinct everywhere’ list (Briggs par. 16).
Not all animals in the zoo are impacted negatively, though. In 2019, a report by the World Animal Protection revealed certain places that allow visitors to “stroke, kiss, and cuddle with big cats,…’surf’ on the backs of dolphins,” and watch “elephants paint pictures with their trunks” (Fobar par. 26). Director of government affairs for the Animal Welfare Institute Nancy Blaney stated that “these experiences are inherently stressful for animals” (Fobar par. 27). This statement is also supported by Neil D’Cruze, global wildlife advisor for World Animal Protection (WAP), who asserts that humans should not be disturbing wildlife (i.e., keeping and treating them like domestic pets) unless they would not survive if released back into the wild. This starts to become an issue, however, if “an organization ‘slips over into commercial use and entertainment’” (Fobar par. 29).
Considering that the above situation was recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic, where people can visit zoos without being restricted in number, we can think of this period as a moment for these exploited animals to recover from the extreme stress they were put under. Some people think that wild animals perceive love the way pets do without realising that this is a misconception; what we think is friendliness could be deciphered as a threat to them.
COVID-19 has certainly caused a lot of losses for many animals at the zoo, but others are benefitting from it instead. This fact raises the question, what can we learn from COVID-19? How can we improve the lives of animals that are negatively impacted and maintain the quality of those positively impacted post-COVID? These questions are yet to be answered, but properly educating staff in wildlife physiology and psychology, as well as training to prevent inflicting stress on wildlife from both staff and visitors, is a good first step to making the world a better place for our animals.
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