The return of Mongolia's "wild" horses - Nigel Rothfels
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- čas přidán 24. 04. 2023
- Dig into the breeding program that saved Takhi horses from extinction, and explore the role of zoos in animal conservation.
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For thousands of years, native Takhi horses roamed the steppes of Central Asia. But by the late 1960s, their extinction seemed inevitable. To prevent this, scientists and zoos started a breeding program and soon began releasing new generations of Asia's ancient wild horse back into their native habitat. Nigel Rothfels explains the twists and turns of this complicated conservation effort.
Lesson by Nigel Rothfels, directed by Anna Benner.
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Animator's website: annabennerstudio.com
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Nice to see that Ted is making so much effort for animating and collecting information just for informing the public, and doing it all for free. Appreciate your efforts, Ted Team.
No information is provided truly for “free”. To quote economists, “There ain't no such thing as a free lunch”.
@@Mischiefcity2013 That is obvious, since Ted does earn revenue through CZcams, and it requires cell service to access the video, but, I don't think that the main motive of Ted is to earn profit through CZcams.
If it's free you are the product
@@readmydescription5533 *_THEN-_** THEN WHO AM I GETTING SOLD TO?!?!*
@@goldngamer1365 you are forced to see ads like Instagram youtube facebook etc are free and your privacy is the product being sold. Your personal information is being sold to every private corporation that wants to put their ad on anywhere on internet and any company who is ready to pay for your data it's there they can buy it your privacy is the product here
The video mentions the key problem already. The animal species we protect and breed in Zoos are not necessary the most important ones. They are the most charismatic. Generally, the rule of thumb is that a population needs 50 different individuals to avoid inbreeding and 500 individuals to avoid genetic drift (extinction of different traits in a population). The Przewalski's horse had a population of 11 animals, when they started breeding them. The alpine Ibex in the alps had a similar story with under 100 individuals, when they started breeding it for reintroduction.
There are estimated that Zoos could preserve ~ 900 vertebrate species if they keep 100 to 150 Individuals per species, or 200-300 species if they keep 500 individuals. Too few individuals will lead to inbreeding in the wild and has the risk of being unstable in the wild, depending on the habitat.
However, there a many animal species that are crucial to their respective habitats and need more attention, for example insects, reptiles and amphibians. These tend to get overlooked by the public, which results in lesser effort to preserve them. Protecting habitats is more difficult, but has the benefit of preserving ALL the organism, including the plants and microorganisms we may not even know of and not only the one we would like to pet.
Source: Primack 1995; Bozzuto, C. 2019
Thank you for the knowledge. I just learn something new about the specific number of breeding an animal
This comment is super knowledgeable and logical and I am grateful! 🙏
Nice
awesome info and thanks for including a source!!!
Thank you so much for this add on! It definitely supplements the video a whole lot. 😊💕
Gosh, Anna Benner killed it with the animation in this one. It felt almost Okami-like. Bravo
I was thinking that, too! Very painterly.
I've always wondered about the idea of zoos raising animals with the intention of releasing them into the wild for the purposes of increasing the wild population -- don't a lot of them (especially more intelligent and/or somewhat social animals) need to learn how to survive in the wild from their parents/community?
Yeah, if I recall rehabilliators have to spend years teaching orphaned orangutans how to orangutan before releasing them
Former zoo educator here, it depends on the zoo! And This is an American zoo perspective by the way. A lot of endangered species have SSPs (species survival plans) where breeding to increase the gene pool is top priority. But reintroduction is not common (though wildlife rehabbing sometimes is). Like you said, some species can’t be reintroduced (not through traditional means) due to social structures. But it’s also not very safe in the wild yet. One example of a zoo I love that does prioritize reintroduction is The Wilds in Ohio and part of the Columbus Zoo. They breed and reintroduce herd animals like Taki
This depends on the species. Horses don't really need any training, which is why they go feral very easily. Some do need training, but we have recently figured out how to train animals for release where we didn't think was possible just 50 years ago, like big cats raised entirely by captive parents, but where the enclosure is kept in the native habitat, and prey animals are introduced to the enclosure so the young captive born animals learn how to hunt before release. Lions, tigers, jaguars, and cheetahs have all been successfully released this way, as have very intelligent animals with very complicated social lives, like elephants and great apes. We have a framework for how to do this now, which is really great! Some species that have not been released this way probably could once a species-specific method is devised through some trial and error.
It depends. Most of the animals that will be send back to wild get special training, others go the semi wild first
Zoos don't care about that since they are profit driven. Support sanctuaries.
My only concern with zoos in these situations are the ones who don’t prioritize the animal’s health and quality of life. As long as the animals are healthy, happy, safe and have good care I’m supportive of the zoo or other form of captivity.
I’m not sure how much has improved in recent years so I hope it’s getting better.
there's higher standards now, depending where you are. Animals in accredited zoos and aquariums (AZA or BIAZA, for example) receive literally the best care that professionals can conceive of - while most animal sanctuaries have pretty low oversight.
As a mongolian, thank you Ted-ED for calling these horses by their native name "Takhi (тахь)" and not of a tourist who just happened to visit.
I'm not Mongolian, but definitely appreciate it too!
I agree.
Przewalski was an explorer and a geographer, not a "tourist". This horse is also named "Equus ferus przewalskii" in the zoological nomenclature. Following your logic, we should call North America the way it was referred to by the Indigenous peoples (say, Anowara:kowa, Khéya Wíta, Ragwis Yuwena, or many other possible variants) because Amerigo Vespucci was another "tourist".
@@Toppu /accidentally right:
@@Toppu scientific names is all about from the european perspective.
imagine, you know an animal species, but some random european name "johny" come to near your village and name that species like.. "Pongo jonii". bruh...
edit: and yes, it happen in reality.
the big stinky flower with scientific name "Rafflesia arnoldii" for example, its name is purely so europeancentric.
Rafflesia, is the name of Raffles, a famous (general colonial thing)british in southeast asia archipelago(malaysia, singapore, indonesia). and "arnoldii", is for his assistant.
The beautiful flora and fauna of this elegant ecosystem are the wonders of mother nature. Such delightful and ascending balancing of our earth is magnificent.
Fortunately, many 'modern' ZOOs actually do exactly what is hinted at in the video and run so called in-situ conservation programmes aimed at preserving the wild populations and their natural habitats. From my experience (been to all the EAZA backed ZOOs in my country + bunch of others in Europe and elsewhere) there are nowadays a lot of very smart and dedicated people who think about nature conservation in complex ways and often spend a lot of time working in the wild (collecting valuable data, fighting wildlife crime etc.). Aside from the example in the video (which I know well since Prague ZOO is known for being heavily involved with the horse's breeding and re-introduction activities) there are other cases where arguably ZOOs helped preseve a species so that it could make a 'comeback' in the wild.. and yet, altough there's surely some wisdom and sense in keeping 'emergency' captive populations + species studbooks, it can be argued a lot more effective and 'smart' strategy is to not wait for these 'last moment miracles' but rather to 1/ consistently keep educating public (young ones perhaps especially) about the many benefits of having nature and wildlife around both in local and global context 2/ improving quality of life for animals in captivity as otherwise many people might find it 'confusing' how there's a cry to save wildlife and then at the same time you see tigers, bears etc. running around on few square meters even in rich ZOOs 3/ focus tremendously with as much local support as possible on well planned in-situ conservation projects that actually help us understand, monitor, stabilize and ideally improve the situation of the wild animal populations which are critical and should be No1 priority. Once a species is gone from the wild, I would argue it becomes that much more difficult to re-introduce as people in particular will 'get used to it not being around' and hence might not want it back, and also other animals might 'steal' its niche and unexpected changes can happen that might make the re-introduction all but impossible.
I had the privilege of studying taki (p horses, as they’re sometimes called) in the field in Mongolia. Scientists go out searching for the herds (in this case in a national park where taki can come & go but prefer to stay) and sit at a distance collecting data on them. Even though they’re being monitored doesn’t mean they aren’t in the wild! How silly. Ted also missed the opportunity to gush about the amazing fact that taki have been discovered to be thriving in Chernobyl. Now THATS wild.
Taki are just one of many zoo species saving & reintroduction success stories. However, for many endangered species breeding is incredibly difficult and reintroduction difficult even if the conditions that drove them to extinction in the wild are solved. In conclusion, it’s a mixed bag. Not every is zoo bad but they can all certainly be better and are increasingly respectable centers for conservation science and education.
good points! perhaps if they'd focused the video on red wolves, the case for the wild population being hyper-monitored would've been stronger (but then the video would be really sad, with how it's actually their wild habitat that is preventing the species from recovering and all)
**Taps head** don’t need to worry about lack of genetic diversity if you’re near a nuclear reactor.
Woah this animation was so smooth and beautiful.
Nice animation. Congrats for working with putting so much efforts, ted team. I was waiting for such video on my favorite subject to be released.
Beautiful animation, animating a horse is very difficult and expensive so I appreciate the production value 😮
Yesterday I discovered “Where the wild things are” has monsters because horses were too difficult for the author to draw.
I have seen Takhis up close many times, they are really beautiful animals🥰
The last scene of the horses rubbing their faces together is so cute and beautiful ❤
Great work, Dr. Rothfels!
There are several types of zoos in the world. Some are good and some are bad. On the one hand there are still bad zoos which only care about money. But luckily there are good zoos that spend money and effort to sustain populations in captivity, protection of habitats and the encourage people to help the remaining wild animals and ecosystems themselves. Sure not everything is perfect, but if it wasn't for a nearby zoo in my hometown, I never discoverd my love for animals and nature.
The animation In this episode is magnificent
gorgeous animation!
I'd like to see you compare trophy-hunting to eco-tourism, in terms of what raises more money for conservation. Many studies have said that a living animal generates way more revenue over a lifetime than one-time hunting licenses can net.
I'm not sure if I agree with this video's conclusion. Can we not invest in ethical zoos/breeding programs and conservation projects at the same time?
Both are important! More and more zoos are talking about this too, even creating educational experiences/displays to explain this.
Many zoos are involved in conservation measures that include more then captive breeding of species. Many make considerable donations to conservation organizations or have there own where they work in the field and with the local governments to try and protect not just individual species but the whole ecosystem. Many zoos also focus on less charismatic species but most people generally only care if it’s something big and “appealing “ like a tiger or elephant instead of rodents or bats so those are the ones they mostly talk about to get peoples attention. Zoos also generally focus heavily on educating the public on species and the importance of them for the environment. In the case of releasing individuals back into the wild it’s actually a very long and complex process generally as they usually start in enclosed areas in the environment where the animals can get accustomed to the sights, sounds and the other species and wild foods they will encounter while also ensuring that they are protected from predators, poachers. During this process they are also offered supplementary food while they learn to forage on their own. Once they have been appropriately accustomed to the environment they are released in a monitored area so scientists can still keep tabs on them for survival rates. So if they aren’t surviving the reason can be deduced and the whole process can be revised. Conservation of species is a long and often complex process that most people don’t understand or really care about so it’s a uphill battle.
agree!!!
É com grande alegria que escrevo sobre a minha participação na tradução desse projeto para o português brasileiro. Ter a oportunidade de colaborar para levar essas ideias a um público mais amplo é uma experiência incrível e gratificante.
A importância de traduzir projetos como esse para a língua portuguesa vai muito além da simples compreensão do conteúdo. Trata-se de uma questão de acessibilidade e inclusão, uma vez que a língua portuguesa é falada por milhões de pessoas em todo o mundo, sendo o Brasil o país com o maior número de falantes.
Ao levar essas ideias para o público brasileiro, estamos ajudando a difundir conhecimento e tornando-o acessível a todos. É importante destacar que essa iniciativa não só contribui para a formação de uma sociedade mais informada e crítica, mas também ajuda a promover a igualdade de oportunidades, proporcionando a todos a chance de ter acesso à informação.
Ao participar desse projeto, pude aprender muito sobre a importância da colaboração e da comunicação efetiva na construção de um trabalho de qualidade. A tradução envolveu um trabalho árduo, mas foi extremamente gratificante ver o resultado final e saber que contribuí para tornar esse conteúdo disponível em português.
Enfim, é com imensa satisfação que concluo este texto, expressando minha felicidade por ter participado na tradução deste projeto para português brasileiro. Acredito que a divulgação de ideias e conhecimentos é fundamental para o desenvolvimento de uma sociedade mais justa e igualitária. Espero que esse projeto ajude a disseminar essas ideias e a fazer a diferença na vida de muitas pessoas.
Agradeço ao gentil revisor Custodio Marcelino que me ajudou com diversos ajustes. Tenho certeza que ele também está feliz com esse projeto.
Atenciosamente,
Alison Castanha.
Zoos are too small to save every animal from habitat loss. What zoos can do is create public interest. It's hard to care about an animal you've never heard of. Displaying and allowing the public to interact with animals will increase the population's willingness to protect animal habitats. And creating breeding programs can help preserve the gene pools.
Love these animations.
Brilliant animation 👌
Zoos and their marine counterpart, aquariums, are some of the most fascinating places to visit but I've never really felt like those places are moral.
Very astounding 😃
Extinctions caused by modern humans should definitely be researched to see if resources are available for that animal to be returned to their native habitat. I really wish corporations would get on board with revising how manufacturing is handled; we can't just keep expanding with little regard to the other creatures around us.
The animation in this video was absolutely stunning! I love the detail, and animating horses is especially difficult. Was it rotoscoped? Such a cool technique, if so!
Thank you for the nice and good researched video. I would like to comment on some of the statements. Monitoring, especially if it is non-invasive, does not influence the status as a 'wild animal'. Since, as it was stated in the video itself, one of the bigger problems is the human wildlife conflict, monitoring and, in extreme cases, protection against negative anthropogenic influence is a reaction towards a conservation reality. The 'charismatic species' kept in zoos often also represent keystone species (the takhi e.g., is an 'ecological modifier') and megafaunal species with a high vulnerability towards habitat loss caused by their ecological need for large wilderness areas. This megafauna often goes extinct first as we know from (pre)historical findings. So, it makes sense to focus on species that are harder to protect in wilderness areas that are getting smaller by human occupation. Often even today's national parks might be big enough to sustain smaller species - but not megafaunal species. Zoos can be a back-up for a limited number of species until we are able to stabilise conditions in situ. This alone will of course not fix the holistic problem, but why should we turn down something that contributes to overall conservation. I totally disagree with the statement that zoos would contribute better to conservation if they would focus more on habitat or even climate protection. Zoos are just a piece in the puzzle of conservation. Their competence lies in natural education, breeding programs, animal behaviour, conservation research and in animal husbandry as well as wildlife veterinary medicine including animal handling. The latter points can become very important in in situ conservation as well. You also don’t ask a dentist to legally fight the sugar industry. You call a lawyer or a politician, which have the skills to deal with legislations, while the dentist keeps fixing caries. That does not mean that zoos cannot contribute to in situ habitat conservation. Since one of their missions (partly even the legal basis) is environmental education (scientifically managed zoos understand themselves as conservation centres), zoos can be the location where people, especially in urban areas, can learn about conservation and why it is important to protect natural habitats. Here, charismatic flagship species can play a major role in getting not only attention but also raising money! This communication strategy is utilised by the majority of successful NGOs as well.
Asian Wild Horse (Equus ferus przewalskii) - also known as the Przewalski's Horse, and in Korea, these Equines are called "the Baekdusan Wild Horse," many People called these Animals as the Mongolian Wild Horse, or indeed, use the Mongolian name, which is the Takhi.
These are my guilty pleasure
Animated horses are freaking awesome man
"These pretzels are making me thirsty!"
If you're curious about the deeper nuances of conservation, and its purpose philosophically, you should read Wild Souls by Emma Marris. It's quite an interesting and enlightening book.
Regulation of the red data book would be much more helpful and more updating of conservation is needed. Animale welfare is us balancing the irregular disturbance in this elegant and delightful ecosystem of mother nature.
I mean it's better than nothing. Yes, it's a Takhi with human favored appearance traits but it's still a Takhi.
If it weren't for zoos, pet owners, and private breeders, axolotls would be pretty much gone now. While they are widely bred and kept as in captivity as aquarium pets, their native lake habitat in Mexico has almost been completely destroyed and because of that there are very few still left in the wild to reproduce and carry on the species naturally.
0:43 Was expecting a velociraptor to jump out at that point.
Nice!
One time I saw the Takhi horse with my own eyes at Hustai National Park in Mongolian. Takhi wasn't larger than a average Mongolian horse. Takhi is basically just a wild untamed wild horse.
this video has put me off Takis, i’m doing my part 🫡
No idea what they are, but good on ya solider 🫡
😂😂😂
@@HeroBear64 a US snack i think
Reserves better than zoos, for sure! Just admiring animals from afar, from observation spots, with those lenses to look them close, but from far away and safely.
The less we interact with them, the better.
I want humans to leave me alone too
The scientists who fight to save this species are hero’s.
I think there's only so much zoos can do to preserve habitats, especially when many of the ones that are good (and thus would like to do that) are charitable organizations, nonprofits, conservation organizations, and other such organizations which would not earn the amount of money needed to support habitat preservation efforts. I think that should definitely be a part of what zoos do, but what they currently do in providing conservation and habitats within captivity seems far more within their capacity.
this is a very interesting topic to me, since here in germany, animal rights and in that context, zoos, is a topic that as recently caught some attention on the media, especially with younger people.
it’s great that TED is out there debunking and informing for free about things like this.
I swear, no one hates conservationists more than conservationists themselves. I have no idea how people can even begin to argue against programs like these when it is so much better than the animal just flat out going extinct. I witnessed the same thing at the nature centers I've worked at. Zoos do so much more for conservation than most other entities. You can't expect them to do everything and always get everything right. They exist to educate the public and get people to actually care about the animals and that is an incredibly difficult and important thing to do!
Exactly! I swear if the wild was a permanently safe place for every animal and no species was threatened, modern zoos would disappear! Animal welfare always comes first, miles before guest experience!
This reminds me of Heck cattle!
Wow!
M8 at uni did work on this, and yes
can you make a zoo the size of a planet like earth to keep all animals and plants?
When I saw the name Nigel my heart jumped bc i thought it said Nigel Marvin 😂
Another success story of animal preservation is ... PANDAS!
1:59 What was that sound?
I like zoos. For billions of people, the zoos are the only way to see those beautiful animals with our own eyes. I hope they provide the animals nice habitats to live.
Exquisite animation....they had no reason to go this hard
So... None of the script writters caught the absolute contradiction that is the fact that the fact that released takhi need to be monitored to ensure their survival is considered an issue while also making the (completelly correct) point that conservation should be focused on preserving the animal's environment?
Yes, you NEED to protect natural environments, but said natural environments still NEED to have an ecosystem to protect, so re-introducing megafauna to areas where it was recently extirpated from is the only way to be able to obtain an ecosystem that functions at least similarly to the original ones, with the caveat that the very fragmented natures of this habitats will likely necessitate from a close management.
Animal welfare is common sense and not should be done as help but it's not done as well enough. We are doing bad things but managing very well by super sharp planning of protecting and conserving both plants and animals.
This narrator is my favorite! Anyone know who it is? A name?
Sometimes, I feel we need to redesign the concept of zoos to save animals. Maybe changing who is in the cage to who is out may work.
Yes they can, and yes they have.
Yes. Yes they can
It's by no accident these times were called The Anthropocene!
THERE IS LOGIC IN WHAT YOU SAY, SO THERE IS SOME TRUTH IN IT.
I'm so early for once idk what to say so pretend I said something important.
I agree with you
Preach bro ❤ real talk
This hits close to home. They were my favourite growing up
This is why i resent the concept of 'all zoos are bad'. I agree, there are many terribly unethical zoos, which should be called out, but ive seen so many people have this notion of 'they look so sad, these animals should be out in the wild' when at times there are little to no animals out in the wild due of major human interference. Almost makes me wonder if the animals are safer being in zoos all together, since deforestation, wanton hunting for sport, etc. have forced them to be there. All ethical zoos want animals out in the wild if they can be, so maybe consider why they are there in the first place and not making uneducated blanket statements.
We need Bo, especially for specie that are already close to extinction.
Przewalski is pronounced (approximately) as sheh-VAL-skee.
The name has a long history of its own, and is being pronounced here as it is believed he would have pronounced it. There was a great deal of discussion about this! 🙂
@@nigeltr1 Oh, right. He was of Polish descent, but he Russified his name.
This looks like a Miyazaki movie
He said, "Wild asses." lol, yes, I'm childish
the horse of theseus
❤
This kinda reminds me of the controversy of trophy hunting. Those who argue for it say that the money made from allowing rich people to pay a stupendous sum to hunt animals is used to preserve other animals and thus preserves animals overall, while those who are against it find that argument untenable. Zoos may preserve some animals, but I think overall, they do more harm than good. And as someone already noted, zoos focus on preserving the "cuter," "popular" animals, so the animals saved are very selective based on looks and/or popularity.
Can you Bring German subtitles back pls. I can understand english but would be easyer to read it in my main language
Thank you for calling them Takhi (Mongolian name) instead of Przhevalsky horse.
I Think is a Wild Przewalski’s Horses, And it’s Made it From in Mongolia.
🏀🐴🇲🇳🏞️🍿🪐🌼💙⭐️❤️🛻
So it all condenses down to greediness of some corrupt people dominating the true science spirit
Rescue. Rehabilitate. Release.
-Finding Dory 🐠
Anything further is Inhumane
Surname Przewalski should be pronounced as "psievalski" (tough si like a word televi*si*on).
Close. Definitely not a z. But not central to this story:)
@@megabajt1808 Yep I know it's just for information, not critique or anything.
Short answer: Yes. We literally have.
What we need is to contain the increasingly human population as a whole... Especially those in Asia, Africa, & Latin America regions.
Conservation? We need to Takhi bout it.
A Zoo is a big business.
Plot twist you live in a zoo this whole time
summary: cages can be a stop-gap, don't ever see them as noble (i'm going off the title btw)
[걸음마 / 나동수]
처음부터 걷는 아기는 없다.
고개를 들고, 몸을 뒤집고, 구르고 기면서
수없이 넘어져야 혼자 일어나 걷게 된다.
아기의 걸음마는
엄청난 고난과 실패의 결과인 것이다.
Okay.. Now I understand why they are called the DoTHRAKI.
I thought this was a glitch 😅
2:29
Average people: "primitive ancestors"
What scientists actually call: Basal Forms
Humans: let’s protest these animals!
Also humans: Haha let’s crowd animals into zoos to make a profit
Also humans: We don't care about things that we cannot see with our own eyes.
Me: i dont care
...Just where do you think the funding for such conservation comes from? Zoo's mostly...
You shut down the zoo's and extinctions WILL increases in turn.
Juan
Private zoos and collectors in general already do. The government and their policies are responsible for the vast majority of animals going extinct.
The only thing that can save any species from extinction is the rehabilitation of destroyed habitat. Every other effort combined is precisely meaningless against the whole of conservation efforts. All species depend on complete active ecosystems including humans.
Horse's horse's horse's 🐎
1
Horses
Talking about the impact of some zoos on one single species hardly does anything to answer what role zoos can play in conservation. I would say that this would be a great episode if it was just relating the story of the Takhi but it's horribly mislabelled and doesn't really earn the conclusion that it comes to. Some zoos were only questionably successful in conserving a species of wild horse therefore the people running zoos should instead be preserving habitat is not a coherent argument. It might surprise you to know that not every animal in the world is a Takhi.
Here I tweaked the conclusion slightly and it came out with a completely different tone:
The story of the *White-bellied frog* is not unique.
In many of our conservation victories, it’s *easy* to say exactly what was saved, and the role that zoos play in conservation can be very *simple.*
It's clear that zoos have been and can continue to be significant forces for animal preservation, *even in efforts* to save *non-charismatic* animals from extinction.
*Of course* today, the most direct cause of animal extinctions are humanity’s impacts on animal habitats and Earth’s climate.
So if zoos *are to* truly *be successful in protecting* the diversity of animal life on this planet, *we need to direct more effort* to preserving the natural habitats these animals so desperately need.
the more we take space in this world, the less this world is able to breathe in all its other forms.
Second
I'm confused. The video starts out saying that they went extinct in the 60s, then proceeds to talk about how that they were kept from extinction. Which is it, Ted?
Extinct in the wild
The major problem with the concept of protecting habitat is when there is a lack of political or grass-root support for in-situ conservation efforts. According to the BBC more than one-thousand conservation advocates have been killed in the last year. The brutal reality is when corrupt corporate interests, political agendas, and abject poverty coalesce the results are entire societies that are unable to support conservation. The reason American bison were imperiled was because of the lack of will to protect them. The same is true for any species endangered today. It unfortunately normally boils down to zoos and privates collections and ranches protecting specimens when there is no societal or political will. There is a man in South Africa breeding rhinos and can sustainably harvest rhino horn for the INSATIABLE demand from China for traditional medicine. Sure we might be able to convince the Chinese government to restrict rhino horn… MAYBE. But if you don’t also have an education-based grassroots program the demand from the culture won’t stop and thus the sale of rhino horn will go underground and rely on poaching (as it does because selling rhino horn is not legal). This means for some species protecting an entire ecosystem is a financial commitment that cannot be done and zoos fill a unique role of collecting money from individuals who do not and will not care about conservation. So yes for the guests at the zoo, the zoo might be an entertainment getaway. But the zoo itself is functioning at a much higher level. There are zoos beginning to focus on regional/local level conservation: Oregon Zoo has a head start program for Western Pond Turtles, Columbus Zoo has plains garter snakes and Lake Erie water snakes… it takes immense amounts of money to run a zoo, and so if going to a zoo is wrong in your eyes then don’t go, but spend that money you were going to spend at the zoo okay another NGO that supports ecosystems: whom also have overhead costs like a zoo. Or take all that money and plant native plants in your garden…. To a private greenhouse that grows native plants to pay for their overhead costs, and whom may sell “cultivars” that aren’t “real” wild specimens. Or just don’t buy anything you don’t absolutely need and live with less.