Jungle Not Jail for our Captive Cousins

After many decades of breeding, hardly any great apes bred in UK and European zoos have ever been successfully released into the wild. The probability of great apes that are bred in zoos being released to the wild is almost zero.

Zoo-bred apes are typically not suited to release. They are often hybrids (crosses between different species or sub-species), are habituated to people, are sometimes prematurely removed from their mothers, and lack the social learning opportunities and environmental complexity to develop the natural behaviours they need to survive in the wild. The future of the thousands of great apes in UK and European zoos is bleak and serves no meaningful conservation purpose.

Real conservation takes place in the wild, where great apes should be.

The conservation claims of many zoos are exaggerated, ambiguous and in some cases entirely unjustified. Few people realise how little of their entrance fee may actually go towards helping conserve threatened species in the wild. Our 2021 Financing Conservation or Funding Captivity? report revealed that even members of the Consortium of Charitable Zoos, which represents some of the largest zoos in the UK, only contribute on average 4.2% of their revenue to in situ conservation. Maintaining animals on display in zoos is an inefficient way to generate funds for conservation and may even distract from the real need to focus on genuine conservation activities in the wild.

While zoos claim to maintain back-up populations of threatened species, our 2021 Conservation or Collection report found that 73% of species and sub-species housed by zoos belonging to the UK Consortium of Charitable Zoos were not classified as being of conservation concern. A very limited number of successful wildlife reintroductions can be linked directly to a very limited number of zoos. Real conservation takes place in the wild, where great apes and other wild species should be.

The space provided, social interactions, diet, climate, and proximity of humans that great apes experience in zoos are a far cry from the lives they have evolved to lead in the wild.

The damaging effects on individual captive great apes can be huge with many bored and frustrated animals developing stereotypical behaviours such as repetitive pacing, overgrooming, coprophagia (eating their own faeces), and other health-related problems. Many captive great apes have to be given anti-depressants in an effort to mitigate some of these issues. These behaviours, which are rare in free-living wild animals, have been observed in all species of great apes in zoos throughout the UK and around the world.

The biological needs, learning opportunities and social interactions of great apes cannot be fully catered for in a zoo. Many natural behaviours and complex social interactions can never be expressed in a captive environment; their lives are compromised at every turn. Where they are, who they live and mate with, what and when they eat, and where they sleep, are all dictated by people. The small enclosures in zoos compared to their expansive natural home ranges, and the lack of environmental complexity in those enclosures, are real causes for concern.

Great apes spend time in the wild foraging, nest-building, and interacting with family members, thereby building their physical, social and mental skills. All too often in zoos they are kept in unnatural social groupings with little or nothing to do and cannot easily escape the constant gaze of people.

The frustration from a lack of opportunity to exercise autonomy and choice and express normal behaviours often leads to so-called ‘stereotypical behaviours’ such as excessive grooming and self-mutilation, regurgitation of food, coprophagy (eating their own faeces), pacing, rocking, digit sucking, self-grasping, and extreme aggression or submission, which are rarely if ever seen in free-living wild great apes. Captive apes also suffer high rates of heart disease and obesity, and are vulnerable to infectious diseases from other animals or the people with whom they are in unnaturally close contact.

Breeding programmes for great apes in zoos can also result in traumatic births, high rates of stillbirths, maternal rejection and instances of infanticide.

There is a big difference between providing the basic necessities to keep great apes alive, and meeting their complex behavioural, social and psychological needs to keep them happy and healthy.

A genuine sanctuary, where the priority is to provide for the welfare of the animals with limited human disturbance, can usually provide the best specialist lifetime care for captive great apes that need a home. The best sanctuaries for great apes are located in or near to their natural wild habitats, where the climate, vegetation and landscape is akin to that which they have evolved to live with.

The gradual phasing out of the keeping of great apes in zoos could never simply be a case of opening the cages and freeing all the animals. It would require an end to captive breeding and animal imports, as part of a strategic and humane wind-down. As the numbers of animals in zoos gradually reduce, those remaining should be kept in the best conditions possible and continue to receive lifetime care until their passing.

We believe that zoos present a distorted view of the lives and behaviour of wild animals. It is not necessary to subject an animal to life in captivity in order to teach children and adults about wildlife.

It is clear from the behaviour of zoo visitors that most do not linger long enough at enclosures, if the animal is not active, to gain any real insight or understanding of the animals on show. We don’t believe it is necessary to see an animal in the flesh, as many zoos claim, to stimulate a passion for wildlife and conservation.

There are a number of factors which influence whether a child will acquire and retain an interest in something, beyond just seeing it in person. Many children are knowledgeable about and fascinated by dinosaurs and yet most have never even seen skeletons in museums; the fascination has instead been inspired by books, films, and online resources.

When people love animals, we understand that they want to experience them up close. However, it’s important to remember that experiencing wildlife that is native to another country is a privilege, not a right. Evidence also doesn’t indicate that zoos have a long-term positive educational impact on children or adults, and viewing wild animals in small zoo enclosures can present an extremely distorted impression of the nature and behaviour of animals and their place in the natural world.

Instead, we encourage people to experience native UK wildlife at nature reserves, greenspaces and in their gardens and backyards.  TV programmes like Planet Earth are also a great way to learn about wildlife and nature around the world.  We can all learn about and enjoy wild animals in a way that doesn’t harm or exploit them.

In the short term, the welfare of great apes in UK zoos should be prioritised through the robust and thorough implementation of the Great Ape Appendix within the recently revised Standards of Modern Zoo Practice for Great Britain, which comes into force in May 2027. However, we should recognise that this is a temporary fix and that the new standards still fall woefully short of what might be regarded by many great ape experts as a basic minimum.

In the medium term, whilst prioritising the welfare needs of the individual animals concerned, UK zoos and other stakeholders must work together to phase out the keeping of great apes in captivity and redirect their efforts towards the genuine protection and conservation of wild great apes and their habitats.

In the long term, we call on national governments, regulators, national and regional zoo associations and NGOs (non-governmental organisations) to completely recalibrate their approach to great ape conservation, and to work together, humanely, compassionately, and respectfully to phase out the keeping of great apes from zoological collections within Europe, and around the world.