Are zoo's good or bad? This essay explores the good and bad things about zoos. Very good essay for anyone in middle school or lower level high school.

Are zoo's good or bad?

I think that zoo's can be good and bad. First I will tell you why I think that they can be good. One reason that zoo's are good because people get a chance to see animals that only live in certain parts of the world. A lot of cool animals live in other parts of the world and many people have never seen them in the wild. Seeing those animals in the zoo is the next best thing to seeing them in the wild. Another reason is that a trip to the zoo can be very educational. You learn about the animal and you can see what it looks like. Every zoo that I've seen had a little sign in front of the animal telling a little bit about the animal and where its from so you learn a lot about the animals that you may have never known without visiting a zoo.

Lonely Monkey Ape at Zoo

Zoo Parc Beauval

Bahnoff Zoo

People often learn more when they actually get a chance to see the animals rather than in pictures. My next reason is that some of the animals in the zoos are orphans and would not have been able to survive in the wild. Zoos give those animals a chance to live. A zoo offers animals food, protection, and water that they may not have been able to find out in the wild. My final reason that zoos are good is that animals are protected from poachers and other dangerous animals. Some animals may be endangered and need some protection. A zoo gives animals protection and can help to increase the animal's population because they have no threat of being killed.

Now I will list the reasons I think zoos are bad. My first reason is that the animals often get bored and you can see them walking back in forth in their pens looking for something to do. Many animals need more room to run around and get rid of some of their energy. Keeping an animal in a small area can cause the animals to get depressed and stop eating. Another reason is that the animals need their natural habitat. Zoo keepers try to make the animals feel like their in their natural habitat but a lot of times it's not close enough to the real habitat for the animal to feel at home. This could cause an animal to act differently than it would in the wild. Next, The genes might not be as strong because animals have less choice of which animal they can mate with. A dominant animal may not be able to find another dominant animal to mate with and the animal may, over time, become weaker.

In conclusion, I think that zoos can be either good or bad. It is most likely we will always have both animals in zoos as well as animals in the wild and there will always be pros and cons to both.

Zoo Parc Beauval

A Yip in its natural habitat