Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Es muy
fácil
hacer palomitas de maíz perfectas si sigues el procedimiento correcto. Primero, ponga tres
cucharadas de aceite en una
olla grande. Luego, caliente el aceite a fuego alto hasta que aparezca un grano de palomitas de
maíz
déjalo en el aceite caliente. Ahora, vierta un cuarto de taza de palomitas de maíz en la olla y cubra
la olla
con una tapa. Reduzca la llama y agite suavemente la olla. Continúa sacudiendo hasta que el maíz
tenga
apareció. Finalmente, vacíe las palomitas de maíz en un recipiente grande y agregue la
mantequilla derretida y
sal. Como puedes ver, hacer palomitas de maíz es muy simple si sigues los pasos
encima. ¡Disfruta tu película!
A man I know once said “zoos do not SAVE animals from extinction, but because
of zoos, many animals are SAFE from extinction”. I think how true and tragic
those words really are when I hear arguments like this. The purpose of zoos is to
bring the public closer and gain a better appreciation for these magnificent
animals with which we share our world. Can you learn about these animals from
a textbook or a video online? Yes. But this isn’t just about learning, it’s about the
impact of the experience. I actually witnessed the comparisons in two very
different scenarios. Both were children roughly 10-12 years of age. One was at a
marine life park, the other on a whale watching tour. The kids who watched the
killer whale show and got splashed by the whale came back to their parents
soaking wet, exclaiming “THAT WAS COOL!” After a two hour tour on the water,
watching a pod of killer whales for 30 minutes, and keeping our distance of 400
yards or whatever is the law, a parent asked her child how he liked the trip. He
shrugged and went “yeah, it was cool.”
So, while both experienced the same animal, and learned the same things about
each animal, let me ask a hypothetical question. If you were to tell each of those
kids about how they could help protect orcas in the wild, which one do you
think would be more inclined to act in a positive way to help protect orcas and
other marine animals?
THAT is why zoos exist. Because moments like that happen every single day at a
zoo. A life is changed, and the world is instantly made better because of it.
Another good friend once said, and I beleive it is so poignant, “everyone talks
about making a better planet for our children. Why don’t we make better
children for our planet?” That is the type of message I see taken away from
visiting a zoo. People want to do better, and be better for the planet.
Why is that such a horrible thing for zoos to strive to achieve? Why can’t they
utilize their animals in entertaining and fun ways to bring their message across?
What’s wrong with that? Do you really belive that nature shows show every
boring detail about animals’ lives? Or do they show interesting, heart racing
scenes to get an audience? Why is that okay for TV, but not for zoos? It’s okay
for a film crew to harass a wild animal for months and months to get 1 hour of
footage, but to utilize animals raised around humans to get the same message
across, that’s horrible.
I will stay with the zoo, thank you.
The main importance of zoos is their ability to educate visitors and impart a
connection to wild animals. If no one had ever been amazed by the sight of a polar
bear diving after a toy into the water just feet from their faces, they wouldn't care so much
about news reports that polar bears will be extinct in about 50 years because of habitat
loss. The connections that people make with wild animals when they visit a zoo help them
to care about animals, and overcoming apathy is half the battle towards conservation.
Some zoos do contribute meaningfully to conservation, but by and large zoos mostly just
talk a big game about it. No zoo is perfect, but I think that we are improving zoos
towards the ideal every year. So, to address your question about if we should replace zoos
with something better: we are. We are replacing zoos with better zoos.
You suggest that most animal enclosures do more harm than good to the animals. I
strongly disagree. How well an animal does in its enclosure is dependent on the zoo and
the species in question. It is true that some zoos don't care for their charges as well as
others. This is a problem with individual zoos, not zoos in general. Also, many species
thrive in zoos- a few do not. There are serious questions about whether or not whales and
porpoises are fit for captivity, but most animals- when kept in enclosures that meet strict
established standards- are perfectly happy in captivity.
How can I say that they are happy? Obviously we can't ask an animal if it is happy. We
have to measure their happiness by monitoring their behavior. If they are behaving the way
that the species would normally behave in the wild (eating, bathing, interacting with each
other, breeding, playing) we can reasonably assume that they are happy. Many times I have
seen people regard the serious face of a gorilla and declare that the gorilla appears
depressed. I ask them, "have you seen the expression of a wild gorilla?" That is just the way
gorillas look! Either all gorillas- both wild and in captivity- are chronically depressed, or
gorillas don't express their happiness exactly like a human does.
Zoos have many other positive reasons for existing besides education: they advance
veterinary medicine, they increase our understanding of animal behavior (which helps in
conservation), they contribute to conservation efforts, they provide wholesome
entertainment, they create jobs, and they participate in breeding programs that help
ensure that if animals do go extinct in the wild, we will still have genetically viable
specimens in captivity.