¿Qué es una jirafa? Educación, investigación, cuidado de los animales y entretenimiento en los zoológicos

Abstract

The zoos justify its existence in four fundamental tasks: the education of the public; the research done on the behavior and conditions that guarantee the health of animals in captivity; the care of the animals, both those in captivity in the zoos itself and, from a broader perspective, those in danger of extinction; and the entertainment of the public. In this paper, I briefly examine these tasks and conclude that only the task of entertaining the public is performed with some success and, often, at the expense of the other tasks. But it is also necessary to recognize that zoos today operate in conditions of serious environmental deterioration, which suggests that they could renew their commitment to the care and conservation of animals. I argue that this task too faces great difficulties and that we no longer know what is an animal in captivity.