You guys are hilarious, and both have solid points. I brought up the gorilla situation at Howletts primarily so that it would generate some solid discussion...and it worked! Night quarters is a whole different topic, and one that particularly vexes me. Often animals are locked in after zoo hours (why do they have to be locked in?) and kept in barren little cells for over half of their lives. In zoos in the northern hemisphere many species spend 100% of their time being locked inside due to inclemental weather...but where is the "conservation" or "education" in that?
Many zoos say the reason for locking animals up is safety (for the animals themselves, so they don't start fighting with no-one around, won't espace, stuff like that) or climate reasons. I doubt it is always as usefull. I've seen quite some night quarters, and they seriously bug me, even in some very good zoos (however also some very good ones do exist). Look, either you have good night quarters for animals that need them (for others too) or you don't lock the animals up if not needed. They need to rethink these cages ; they're still an easy pick-on for activists.
