Kremicki 1 Darren Kremicki Hamalian English 115 11 December 2013 Captivity for Survival The film Blackfish directed

by Gabriela Cowperthwaite brought up countless arguments that went against whales in captivity. This film revealed to the audience various events that involved whales attacking their trainers and also whales prematurely dying in captivity. This sparked a debate of whether whales, and other animals, should be held in captivity. Zoos have slowly been given a bad reputation from organizations like PETA who stand up for animal rights. There is a constant argument between the inhumane care for the animals and the resourceful and easy accessibility of zoos. Animal captivity may have some negatives but through captivity we have gained a further understanding and passion for these animals. Preservation and education are two vital aspects of animal captivity that not only helps the human population grow in understanding but it also help maintain certain species. Species preservation is an act of saving a certain species of animal from extinction and it is something that is very important all animal activists and most of society. The world is changing everyday, from climate changes to urbanization. Urbanization populates areas with new people and surroundings and it modifies the environment around it through pollution and other wastes. Land changes associated with urbanization drive climate change and pollution, which alter properties of ecosystems at local, regional, and continental scales (The Changing Landscape 264). Through these new changes ruin animal ecosystems and causes certain animals

Kremicki2 to die out. These animals may not be endangered but the fact that they die off hurts other animals around the same ecosystem or even feed off the nutrients in the area. Nitrogen loading and ozone exposure cause changes in plant chemistry, photosynthesis, and ecosystem carbon balance in sensitive ecosystems. (266). For example, if a fish population or certain plant dies off it also hurts the bird population that survives off those plants and animals. Soon that certain species of bird indigenous to the area slowly dies off becoming endangered and possibly extinct. Animal captivity helps out with this problem of failing ecosystems. They are able to take in the dying species and nurture them back to health. There are many countless examples of animal species being saved through captivity from the California condor to the giant panda to the Asian elephant (Captive Breeding Population). Animals who are have been hurt from failing ecosystems are brought in to captivity and the species is maintained through captive breeding. After 10 years of working to strengthen the population numbers of the endangered California condor, a type of vulture, the Los Angeles and San Diego zoos were able to rebuild a population of fewer than two dozen birds to around 170 birds (Horton). Zoos are able to recreate a realistic environment for these animals and this allows for a more efficient reproduction of the failing species. Captivity not only helps animals but they also give humans an accessible way to educate themselves. Animals held in captivity allow for an easy and accessible education for all age groups of humans because of the accessibility to see a various amount of animals. When animals are held in zoos or other forms of captivity they are available for anyone to see at anytime. With this availability people are able to see these exotic animals and learn about these animals on their own time. Captivity is one of strongest reasons why we understand animals they way we do

Kremicki 3 today. Through zoos and captivity a scientist or animal enthusiast can get a personal understanding of how an animal can interact. It allows us to see the intelligence of the animals through their interaction with humans. Orca captivity has shown society so many attributes of the whales that we never knew before. People have learned how these creatures have social interactions with each other and how they are able to express certain feelings and emotions. It also gives passion to people who may not be able to see these animals. One of the biggest issues towards marine mammals, like orcas and dolphins, is that the pools that hold them do not assimilate a true ocean environment. The ocean takes up more that 70 percent of world and is a vast body of water thousands of miles wide and deep. There is no way humans can create pools that come close the size of the ocean. Now the argument is that these marine mammals are used to this vast body of water and instead they are put into a much smaller environment. This supposedly cuts the life expectancy of these marine mammals in half. If the idea of smaller life expectancy is true it still does not account that hundreds of marine mammals have been bred in captivity (The Cove). The whale and dolphin populations are not on the endangered animal list and by taking four or five of these species we have created a new society of marine mammals (NOAA). The lifestyle of animals in captivity is so different from the lifestyle of wild animals that even if the whales were freed into the wild as the animal activist would want then the animals would not even have the right tools to survive. The World Zoo Conservation Strategy explained that there is a problem with, the complexity of the original biotope, and the complexity of the relationships of the species within its natural surroundings. Species which originally lived in complex environments and had complex interactions may not be able to return to the wild after total disappearance of their biotope. (Laidlaw 7) They were

Kremicki 4 brought up with food hand feed to them and everything given to them on routine. They also never experience the true societal structure of packs in the wild. If the orca whales found in captivity were freed they would not be able to adapt to the wild and die off. Being in captivity preserves the new domesticated version of these marine creatures and it allows them to live their lives day to day and also allows humans to easily access them at anytime. It is difficult for the everyday human to go out and see these certain animals in the wild. The animals one sees in the zoo are from all over the entire world. Captivity brings all these animals together in one area and through that variety one can learn and visually see these animals at the same time. Through this mass amount of visual stimulation and education of exotic animals a person soon gains a new love for animals. If one thinks back to when they first saw an animal in captivity they did not think about why that animal was held in captivity, but rather they gained a new passion for the animal. They saw the creature for the first time and this raised their desire to learn more about them. Without captive animals most of the world would not even have they passion for animals that they have today. Animal captivity may seem inhumane and cruel toward animals that live in the wild, but animal captivity is vital to the education and preservation of these exotic creatures. Animals found in captivity are not prepared for the interaction found in the wild because they have adapted to captive routine. Also animals are not being killed in captivity but rather they are being preserved. Most animals held in captivity are not even taken from the wild. Most captive animals were ones that were injured or sick from their failing ecosystems and they are brought into captivity to nurse them back to health. Captivity is a vital part of animal preservation and the expansion of passion and education for humans.

Kremicki 5 Works Cited Horton, Jennifer. "Are Zoos Good or Bad for Animals." Animal Planet. Animal Planet, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2013. <http://animal.discovery.com/animal-facts/zoos-good-or-bad1.htm> Majkowski, Nancie. "Snow Leopards Thrive in Zoos Around the World." Editorial.National Geographic 20 May 2008: n. pag. National Geographic. National Geogrphic, June 2008. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/geopedia/Snow_Leopards/> "Killer Whale (Orcinus Orca) - Office of Protected Resources - NOAA Fisheries." Killer Whale (Orcinus Orca) - Office of Protected Resources - NOAA Fisheries. N.p., 1 July 2013. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. <http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/cetaceans/killerwhale.htm> The Cove. Dir. Louie Psihoyos. Perf. Richard O'Berry and Hardy Jones. Lionsgate, 2009. DVD. Grimm, Nancy B., David Foster, Peter Groffman, and J Morgan Grove. "The Changing Landscape: Ecosystem Responses to Urbanization and Pollution across Climatic and Societal Gradients." The Ecological Society of America (2012): 264-72.Connectivity. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. <http://www.frontiersinecology.org/current_issue/special/grimm_web.pdf>. "Captive Breeding." Smithsonian. Smithsonian National Zoological Park, n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2013. <http://nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/endangeredspecies/capbreedpops/default.cfm>

Kremicki 6 Laidlaw, Rob. "Reintroduction of Captive-bred Animals to the Wild: Is the Modern Ark Afloat?" Who Cares for Planet Earth? The Con in Conservation. N.p.: Alpha, 2001. N. pag. <http://www.zoocheck.com/articlepdfs/Reintroduction%20of%20Captivebred%20Animals.pdf>