Zoos are Valuable in their Educational Role

As we know, there are some protected areas or animal reserves which are large sections of land used to conserve our Earth's natural habitats and rare and endangered wildlife. However, not all of them are allowed people especially public to enter base on the laws. Even some protected areas are open to public, they are not available all the time such as at night. Also, please note that it is impossible for everyone to travel to other country for studying wildlife animals because of the money or location. Moreover, the visitors who aim to study animals may cause negative effects to the environment in wild due to their behaviour. In contrast, zoos are always available for everyone and many rare animals that come from lots of different countries are involved but not only the local species. Moreover, zoos provide a larger opportunity and more effective way to people to study animals. For example, many animals are hard to see in the rain forests but people can easily find them in the particular sections in zoos; also, the zoos would provide information of those animals so that people will not get confuse about the species and animals can be studied more effectively. Furthermore, the environments in zoos have been maintained under the management of staff and hence animals studying do not lead any bad effects to animals. On the other hand, I would like to talk more about how the animals can be studied through the education and research in zoos. First of all, Zoos don't just entertain, they also aim to educate. With formal education and community programs geared toward children and adults, zoos teach people about the needs of animals and the importance of conservation. This inspires people to make a personal contribution to conservation. And if people get excited enough, they may be more willing to donate money to conservation efforts. Many schools choose the education programs and workshops that held in the zoos because these are safe, convenient, educational and funny. For example, now many zoos, such as Taronga Zoo in Australia, provide zoo camps that people can sleep overnight there to study animals which are active at night only. Also, people in some zoos can interact with the animals in a short distance, this increases the interest of animals study, while it is impossible to do that in wild since those animals do not have any training. If zoos are a valuable educational resource and can encourage visitors to be interested in animals and their conservation, why do we not study animals in a safer environment? Nevertheless, Zoos present an opportunity for scientists to conduct research to increase knowledge of animal physiology and ecology. In 2002, zoos participated in 2,230 research and conservation projects in more than 80 countries. The information they gather helps them to develop new medicines and techniques to improve animal health. In addition, Zoos allow important research into animal behaviour by acting as major research centres. They provide safe and 24-hours available place for research. The most important thing is zoos provide the essential and suitable facilities that cannot set up in wild environment to gain data. In any case, the expertise and understanding gained through the protection of one species can later easily be transferred to the protection of other species. There are many example, zoos have been integral in saving the Giant Panda. The knowledge gained from this experience is currently being applied to the Spectacled Bear, which though much rarer and less well-known, is an equally important species. Last but not least, Zoos are valuable in their educational and biological role. Without zoos, and the opportunities they provide, people would be less likely to support animal conservation, or to appreciate the value of animals to humans and the research would be incomplete or incorrect. The zoos are not only directly help the animals study, but also indirectly help to protect the animals.

Cite this page