- Zoos vs sanctuaries
- A short history
- The three rules
What's the difference?
Zoos have existed for thousands of years. Animal sanctuaries are a much newer idea. The two are not the same, even though some places blur the line on purpose.
Zoos came first
Three and a half thousand years ago the ancient Egyptians were keeping hippos, hartebeest, elephants, baboons, wildcats and other wild African animals in menageries for public exhibition. King John created a menagerie of exotic animals, including lions, at the Tower of London in 1204. Henry III was recorded as receiving three leopards as a wedding gift from the Emperor of Rome.
The word zoo came into common use after the London Zoological Gardens opened in Regent's Park in 1928. Today there are more than 1,000 major zoos and many more smaller ones worldwide. Their primary objective is to attract visitors, which is why around 80% of the world's major zoos are in cities.
Zoos have also exhibited people
In 1906 the Bronx Zoo in the United States displayed a Congolese man named Ota Benga in a cage with chimpanzees. The directors thought it would be interesting for the public to see what they called evolution at work.
African people were also displayed in cages at the 1931 Paris Colonial Exhibition. As late as 1958, Congolese people were exhibited in a cage at the EXPO 58 exhibition in Brussels.
We mention this once because it makes the underlying logic of a zoo, exhibition for entertainment, easier to recognise when the species changes.
The numbers don't support it
25%
Of zoo animals replaced each year
75%
Of wild apes die within 20 months in captivity
1,000+
Major zoos worldwide
80%
Of major zoos are in cities
Around a quarter of the animals on display in a typical zoo were bred there, and many of those have displaced older animals that have become unwanted surplus. Some zoos use unwanted animals as feed. Others sell them on. What happens after that is usually no longer the original zoo's concern.
Zoos also import new animals from the wild to maintain genetic diversity in their breeding stock. Approximately 75% of wild monkeys and apes die within 20 months of entering captivity. The animals that survive are extremely unlikely to ever return to a viable life in the wild, because they will not have the survival skills, the resistance to disease, or the social knowledge to do so.
Many zoos have rebranded as conservation parks, bioparks, or even sanctuaries to distance themselves from the term zoo and emphasise their role in conservation. The honest measurement is what fraction of zoo income actually leaves the zoo for in-the-wild conservation work. It is small.
What makes a sanctuary
The standard isn't ours. It's the working definition used internationally to distinguish a sanctuary from a zoo with a softer name.
- Rule one
No breeding
A true sanctuary does not run a breeding programme. Breeding perpetuates captivity.
- Rule two
No wild imports
A true sanctuary will never import animals from the wild. That would create captivity where it did not previously exist.
- Rule three
No supply
A true sanctuary will not act as a source of supply of animals to other organisations or individuals.
This sanctuary follows all three
Wales Ape & Monkey Sanctuary keeps to all three rules. We do not breed, we do not import from the wild, and we do not supply animals to other organisations. We try, by educating people, to reduce the number of animals taken from the wild or bred into captivity, and we would be glad if one day sanctuaries were no longer required.
Sanctuaries tend to be the poor relations when it comes to funding because they aren't built as public attractions. Most exist on the goodwill of their operators, volunteers and public charity. We welcome visitors and put admission charges and donations directly into the welfare of the residents.