The Oregon Zoo was just blessed with a baby elephant [1]. Georgia calls him “Little Cutie-Pie” and we’ve followed all the news about his birth and growth. His was a difficult start. Born to a mom who’d never witnessed a birth, and who had endured a 30-hour labor, he was nearly trampled until the keepers moved him out of danger. Slowly and cautiously, the keepers introduced him back to his mother, and now mom and baby have bonded, he’s nursing, and Little Cutie-Pie is healthy and curious.
Georgia and I have followed the news reports, with some Momsterized edits and editorializing, but I’ve also been following the letters that bring up the issue of zoos and breeding programs. Some people have written that animals, especially elephants, shouldn’t be kept in captivity. Others, me included, think that good zoos offer hope for sustaining species that are dwindling in the natural world. Many thousands more couldn’t care less and just want to see an adorable baby wobbling on its cute, unsteady newborn feet.
Little Cutie-Pie is undeniably adorable. When we got to see him, he was tottering about, trodding on his trunk and jumping back, seemingly surprised that it hurt, and then everyone awwwwed as he scratched his rump on the “baby gates” the keepers had set up. Our elephant-breeding program is renowned, and from all I know of the zoo (Hova works there and gets an insider’s view) the keepers are passionate about conservation and the health and welfare of animals, wild and bred.
When Georgia and I go to the zoo, we talk about the world, and about what we can do to help the remaining animals that are wild. Georgia has an understanding that the zoo is a place where we learn about animals and are inspired by them, and that some animals are endangered and that animals behave differently in zoos than they would in the wild. Mostly because they don’t have to worry about food or predators!
I don’t think you’d find anyone who agrees that animals are better off in zoos than in their own wild, natural habitat. But there is little wild, natural habitat left, and it’s not like there’s time to “wait and see” if animals die out, and try to breed the last two in Noah’s Ark fashion. The California condor would now most likely be extinct if it weren’t for zoo breeding programs. And species like Visayan warty pigs and Amur tigers could be extinct in the wild in our lifetime. The question is, are animals better off alive in zoos or extinct because of our human appetite for more space and more resources? Isn’t it better to have zoo-bred zoo elephants than no elephants at all?
Photo courtesy Oregon Zoo