Animal Captivity & Welfare

Don’t hike so close to me: How the presence of humans can disturb wildlife up to half a mile away Authors: Jeremy Dertien (Clemson University), Courtney Larson (University of Wyoming), and Sarah Reed (Colorado State University) Millions of Americans are ...

There's a Bat in My House! What Do I Do?... Bat in the House!!! Wait! There's no need to panic—you can remove him or her safely and humanely. [WPSM_AC id=14634] Did you know that bats are the only flying mammals ...

Is that selfie really worth it? Why face time with wild animals is a bad idea The phenomenon of kangaroo selfies hit the headlines earlier this month, when several tourists were injured while feeding wild kangaroos in Lake Macquarie, ...

What the grieving mother orca tells us about how animals experience death For many weeks, news of a mother orca carrying her dead infant through the icy waters of the Salish Sea captured the attention of many around the ...

I’ve heard that a lot of companies are just a front and aren’t really about volunteering. Is that true? Yes, that is true and even more so when volunteering is about supposedly preserving species that happen to be majestic, beautiful and/or ...

We, who visit places that host captive wildlife, can switch our attitude from one of a passive consumer to one of active empathy and compassion so that we actively help them. That enclosure does not look quite right? That ...

You see something that you don't understand, or that concerns you... Should you ask? Is there such thing as a naive question? The answer is 'Yes' you should ask. And 'No' there are no naive questions when the welfare of ...

In April 2017, Responsible Travel became the first travel company to stop promoting any holidays that included a visit to a zoo. Their reasons are centered around the education value of zoos, how much is spent on conservation efforts and ...

Increasingly zoo experts are questioning the effectiveness of isolated ex situ breeding for conservation. Some have argued along these lines that “there are far too many endangered species and not nearly enough space to breed them all in captivity and, ...

Our enthusiasm and indulgence for animal captivity is changing yet very slowly. But we can accelerate our pace because it can only be a win-win for science, for the animals, and for us as moral individuals… 'Are zoo animals happy? There’s ...