1/ The Tbilisi disaster reminds me of my deep ambivalence about zoos. Half the animals are dead: drowned or killed. washingtonpost.com/news/morning-m
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2/ On the one hand, like most urban people, I have great memories associated with zoos. I've twice organized a conference at a zoo.
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3/ Realistically, there's no other way to get large urban populations up close and personal with the huge non-farm-animal world out there.
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4/ Outside of outliers like Serengiti, 90% of wild world is simply too hidden. You can spend days in jungles full of wildlife and see none
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5/ And this assuming you can even make it affordable for large populations to enjoy cheap field contact with wildlife without destroying it
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6/ But OTOH, it seems clear to me now that even the best zoos are prisons that are not worth the cost in misery of, and risk to, animals
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7/ What we really need is virtual-reality type live/real-time wilderness exploration technologies
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8/ A good example is spy-in-the-jungle documentary about tigers imdb.com/title/tt122061
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9/ A world of difference between that and watching a tiger unhappily pace in a cage and kill a zoo visitor if it gets out accidentally
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