There has been some discussion on how popular zoos still are with the general public. The German-speaking zoo association asked Forsa, a renowned German polling firm, to conduct a survey on zoo popularity. The results are overwhelmingly in favor of zoos, with only very small minorities saying they are against zoos. Off-course this study was funded by a pro-zoo organisation, but these results are most likely much more representative of the real situation than facebook feeds. So on to the numbers: Germany: 82% pro zoo, 12% against Austria: 81% pro zoo, 12% against Switzerland" 74% pro zoo, 14% against There was much more polling done and this showed that people are overwhelmingly say that zoos provide a completely different experience than watching a wildlife film. An overwhelming majority was also in favor of public funding for zoos. There was also a majority for minimum enclosure standards that zoos should follow. There was also a whole load of other polling done and the reports are fully accessible below (German only though): German study: VdZ - Verband der Zoologischen Gärten e.V.: Forsa-Studie Austrian study: https://www.vdz-zoos.org/fileadmin/PMs/2020/VdZ/Forsa-Broschuere_Die_OEsterreicher_und_ihre_Zoos.pdf Swiss study: https://www.zoobasel.ch/uploads/files/website/Forsa-Studie_Die_Schweizer_und_ihre_Zoos.pdf
Interesting, I'm not staying it's a fact, but I think that german's, austrian's and german speaking switzerland's zoos have higher standards than many zoos in France for example. I think if they were to conduct such a survey in France, the results would be drasticly different.
I think every zoo in German-speaking countries should write this on a poster, and every zoo director should tell it at the every press conference. There are still activists who use argument that 'zoos are outdated' and they can easily make big damage to zoos and conservation. An example is voting down a Basel zoo's oceanarium in 2019.
I think these statistics should be celebrated publicly by zoos of course they should. However, I don't think this would necessarily stop or shut up the "animal rights activists" or convince them that their arguments are misplaced / wrong as they are very entrenched in their dogma / bias.
I agree with @Onychorhynchus coronatus : anti-zoo lobbyists do not care about data contradicting their belief. They'd probably counter with: "In the 18th century, the majority of people probably also thought slavery was great" and other far-fetched "arguments".
Yes, sadly I agree with you Batto that this would be the kind of nonsense that they would counter with even with presented with evidence of the role zoos play in conservation.
Hi, There will always be crazy people. The point is isolating them and showing to the public and authorities that they are, indeed, crazy. We live in a democratic society. While everybody is entitled to any opinion, be it that zoos are prisons or himself is Napoleon Bonaparte, ultimately the society allows or disallows what the majority believes.
I think that the best way of doing this is for zoos to really be at the absolute top of their game when it comes to education of the public and ex-situ conservation management of species (and of course supporting in-situ conservation initiatives wherever possible).
I don't know any local poll but the Detroit area has a millage, twice offered to the voters and twice approved, that gives money to the zoo, the art museum, and one or two other institutions, and it's passed comfortably both times.
I think that zoos would benefit if they differentiated whether a species would benefit from in-situ or ex-situ conservation. Generally speaking, species that can't be reintroduced into the wild should be in-situ species, while species that can be reintroduced into the wild can be ex-situ species. There should be no species with thousands of individuals in zoos and few, if any, in the wild because of a forlorn hope that habitat destruction will cease and the human population will fall. I would like that to happen, but it seems extremely unlikely, while the alternative scenario is likely. I agree with the frozen zoo concept, just in case humanity comes to its senses and reintroduction of some large species is possible. At the moment, I would prefer zoos to prevent smaller animals from becoming extinct and use audio-visual and other forms of education to interest people in animals they don't know about.
