Towards a Futureproof Zoo

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Today, the animal world is under increasing pressure given the magnitude of anthropogenic environmental stress, especially climate change and habitat fragmentation. As a result of these global environmental changes, animals are becoming increasingly dependent on care in conditions of temporary or permanent captivity. Hence, today’s zoos are tasked with a growing obligation to foster and promote the conservation of threatened and endangered species. To successfully fulfil this task, the zoo must strive to find a morally acceptable balance between animal welfare concerns and species conservation commitments—a difficult challenge, especially as both wildlife conservationists and animal protectionists tend to oppose any attempts at such a value balancing. ABSTRACT: To develop an adequate ethical framework for a futureproof zoo, we have to employ what I would call a ‘bifocal’ view, in which zoo animals are seen simultaneously as individuals in need of specific care and as members of a species in need of protection. From such a bifocal view, the zoo’s policy should aim to strike a fair, morally acceptable balance between its effort to ensure the welfare of individual animals and its obligation to contribute to species conservation. I will argue that the prospects of the zoo to achieve such a balance are promising. Since early 21st century, zoos have made serious and sustained efforts to ensure and enhance animal welfare. The zoo’s huge animal welfare concerns are reflected in the development of animal enrichment programs and the increased use of training technics. At the same time, the zoo’s contribution to species conservation has also improved considerably. Zoos have found solutions for the problems created by their lack of space, such as innovative enclosure designs, specialization, regional and global cooperation, the interactive exchange of in situ and ex situ populations, and the shift away from large charismatic mammals towards smaller species. Zoos have also improved their conservation performance by broadening their conservationist role to include research, training, education, awareness campaigns, and direct financial and technical support for in situ projects. I will occasionally illustrate certain developments using examples drawn from ARTIS Zoo, the fifth oldest zoo in the world, located in the centre of my hometown Amsterdam.