Zoos as wildlife conservation
In
the 1960's, people began to realize that we were changing so
much of the world's natural environment, that the future of
animals in the wild is in great danger. There
are so many species of animals who are either extinct, or in
danger of becoming extinct, that future generations may
never see these animals alive. Zoos
now came to be seen as a place where threatened species
could be kept alive, and preserved in captivity, when they
could not survive in the wild. Not
all zoos changed at that time. This silverback gorilla,
called Willie B, was captured in Cameroon in 1961, and taken
to a zoo in the United States. He was kept for 20 years in a
tiny cage with only a black and white television for
company, and a tyre swing for exercise. But
in 1988, the zoo built a rainforest habitat, and put Willie
into it, where he was free for the first time in over 25
years. He had other gorillas for company, and he became a
father to five gorillas before he finally died.
