In a comically unfortunate series of events, five African lions recently escaped their enclosures at Sydney's Taronga Zoo during an overnight guest program.
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During the recent Sydney zoo breakout, four lion cubs and one adult lion wandered out of their exhibit before being swiftly captured.
In 1935, more than a hundred rhesus macaques escaped an enclosure on Long Island in New York state by crossing a moat via a plank left by a keeper. The macaques ran wild in the surrounding community, climbing on houses and blocking train tracks, according to a news article in the Evening Post.
The life span of tigers in the wild is usually between 10 and 15 years. In human care, or on rare occasions in the wild, a tiger can live up to 20 years. However, approximately half of all wild tiger cubs do not survive past the first two years of life.
There are dedicated species survival programs which have helped species come out from the brink of extinction, good examples of that being the black-footed ferrets, the red wolves, the Przewalski's wild horse, and the California condors.
Escaped animal proceduresWhen an animal escapes, guests are immediately evacuated from the area and escorted to secured buildings on zoo grounds by the zoo's emergency response team (veterinarians armed with tranquilizer equipment, zoo firearms team and animal management staff).
In summary, lions in captivity suffer a high level of stillbirths, a much higher frequency of behavioural abnormalities compared to smaller carnivores, and skeletal deformities likely to cause neurological complications.
Even a lifetime in the most humane zoo will have left animals too affected by years of sheltered existence. Captive animals seldom learn crucial survival skills and often are too habituated to human contact. Lacking a natural fear of humans, they are vulnerable to poachers and ill equipped for life in the wild.
Zoos follow a fundamental principle: You can't sell or buy the animals. It's unethical and illegal to put a price tag on an elephant's head. But money is really useful — it lets you know who wants something and how much they want it. It lets you get rid of things you don't need and acquire things that you do need.