Zoos and danger

This topic about the zoo came as a coincidence with my thoughts because I saw a post on Facebook yesterday about a lion in a cage, and I began to wonder if there's actually any reasonable reason for wild animals to be kept in the zoo.

Okay, the video showed a lion through a zoomed-in camera inside a cage. A hand stretched out and threw some animal flesh toward it. Just when I was about to believe that the lion was one of those that are tamed and remain respectfully in the zoo, the lion roared and forcefully reached out in the direction of the hand that threw the flesh, and the gate of the cage was slammed shut and locked. If the person’s hand had remained there, the lion would have chopped it off. The lion angrily started hitting the gate of the cage, fighting its way to come out, but the cage was securely locked.

Okay, maybe the lion was captured and put in the cage against its will. But come to think of it, has there ever been any animal that would willingly agree to be captured by humans and locked up? No, I doubt that.

My question is: with the way the lion was displaying anger and hunger, wouldn’t that creature feast on humans if, by chance, it succeeded in coming out of the cage???

This is the question I ponder a lot whenever I see videos of wild animals in the zoo. I haven’t been to a zoo that has wild animals; I’ve only been to places where slightly domesticated animals such as ostriches, monkeys, and others are kept.

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I know having a zoo is a good way to preserve wild animals, but I don’t really see the need to have them around and pose a danger to human lives. As much as some wild animals are mostly tamed in their cages, we can’t overlook the animalistic instincts in them. I have heard stories about how zoo attendants were attacked by the animals they’ve been nurturing. If the attendants who feed them and show them love can be struck or even eaten, what makes us think that if they find their way out, they wouldn’t cause havoc? They would!

Okay, having a zoo is good. It serves as a recreational centre, it allows us to see animals we would never have had the opportunity to see, and it also helps to maintain the availability of different species. Aside from these, is there any other reason why wild animals are kept?

These animals can actually be preserved in the wild if laws prohibiting the killing of wild animals are enforced. With this, they remain there, live their lives naturally, and do not pose any danger or cause fear around human settlements.

Actually, these animals fear humans when they come across them in the wild. Oh yeah, I have encountered so many wild animals in the bush back in the days I was living in the village where we did farming. I saw big snakes, leopards, bush pigs, monkeys, and the rest. All of them ran away immediately they noticed my presence. The only ones that didn’t run away were the monkeys, because they believed they could jump from one tree to another and humans wouldn’t be able to catch them. I remember a particular season when we had our farm close to a bush mango plantation. These monkeys would pluck the bush mangoes and throw them at us while we were working on the farm. It used to be fun because we would throw back at them.

I must say, it’s even more entertaining and adventurous when we encounter these animals in the bush—their rightful habitat.

Thanks for reading.

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This is my entry to Week 173, Edition 02 of the Weekly Featured contest in Hive Learners Community

Image used is mine