How Do Zoos Cope Up With Deaths of Their Animals?

The general populace has mixed feelings about zoos, but there are those who support their claims that they are essential for protecting endangered species, and that the keepers form strong bonds with the animals.

Long-standing zoo inhabitants

(Photo : GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP via Getty Images)

The Twycross Zoo staff endured a difficult year last year.

The Leicestershire Zoo reported in September that Kibriah, a rare and endangered orangutan born there in 1977, had passed away, as per the BBC.

The zoo claimed that Kibriah's four offspring, including the two that remained there, had been crucial to efforts to protect the endangered animals.

The zoo lost another notable character the following month: Noddy the chimpanzee. A 50-year-old mother of three was one of the first chimpanzees at Twycross Zoo, which was acclaimed as a World Primate Centre when she arrived there in 1973 at the age of two.

Noddy was one of the first chimpanzees at Twycross Zoo, and both staff and visitors will miss her greatly, according to a zoo spokesperson.

She played a significant role in the European breeding program. Having lost such a beloved character leaves a massive effect on zoos, as keeper Ang Matthews indicated.

Igor, a 16-year-old Amur tiger, passed away at Colchester Zoo in Essex last summer.

The zoo stated at the time that the loss left big pawprints on their hearts.

Igor, who was transferred from the Vienna Zoo to Colchester while he was a year old, fathered three cubs through 2019. After veterinarians discovered an untreatable tumor on his head, he had been put to sleep.

Igor is still brought up by visitors to the zoo, who inquire about how his enclosed friends are doing without him.

In November, veterinarians at the ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, put Clara, a 40-year-old southern white rhino, to sleep.

According to an animal manager, Matthew Webb, Noddy was missed, as well as by her herd at the zoo because they are social beings.

Thankfully, the behavior of other rhinos did not significantly change after Clara pass away.

"Once you lose an animal who's been a significant part of your day for, possibly years, and someone you have worked so hard to feel empathy for, it's natural to experience a feeling of loss." Webb said.

"Additionally, many more of our animals have strong personalities, so losing one of them is more than just a rhino you care for; it also means losing Clara, a person you have come to know and love," he added.

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Conservation for zoos

According to Achim Johann, director of the NaturZoo in Rheine, western Germany, the species prioritized by EAZA are ones that the zoo community believes have a function, a significance that goes over and above zoos, as per Borneo Bulletin.

Although the zoo director stated that no animal will ever have to be caught to be placed in a zoo these days, the association seeks to establish an exchange population in addition to those roaming freely.

There were only 55 Ethiopian blood-breasted baboons living in six different zoos 35 years ago when Johann began captive breeding for the species.

Since then, the number of baboons in Europe has increased to 500, with 100 of them residing in Rheine.

The zoo director is pleased to note that since 1972, these species haven't been taken out of their natural habitats for a zoo.

Bringing up the fact that zoos house far more animals than are ever released, despite the fact that species are still going extinct.

Zoos are always bragging about their alleged protection of species, and yet all that the breeding programs really produce is supplies for their exhibitions, said Yvonne Wurz, a representative of the animal protection organization Peta.