Cross Breeds

How do zoos decide which animals to keep and which ones to not keep?

Is it only endangered animals in zoos, or popular animals, or animals that are considered more domestic or friendly or what!? Heck, is there even a criteria at all?

Public Comments

1. The criteria is different for each zoo. There are many factors for deciding which animals to keep. A zoo must first be able to afford the animal and to build the habitat in which to keep it. Then they have to consider whether it is an animal which may interest the public. If that animal has special dietary or environmental needs (like if they would have to buy more than one animal) that needs to be considered as well. Each zoo is different, has different funding, and has a different public about which to be concerned. Some zoos will have domestic animals such as donkeys and horses because they cannot afford more exotic animals or because their visitors actually enjoy seeing these animals. Some zoos don't bother with these types of animals.
2. zoos can keep all healthy animals. as long as they can serve the right food for the right animals and can take care of them. zoos usually kept popular and andangered animals to push their income. so if the animals are worth and important enaught,it must be keep. noneed any unnecessary criteria at all.
3. It's based on a lot of factors. One factor is zoo attendance. They have to have people coming through the doors so yes, popular animals are important. So are baby animals so a lot of zoos feel a need to reproduce animals whether the animal's status and room at the zoo warrent it or not. The other thing is what animals they're best able to house and/or reproduce. Keeping tropical animals in extreme northerly areas is not financially sensible and many zoos are rethinking these ideas. Also, some zoos are better able to naturally house particular animals - for instance, caimans being raised in a florida zoo work well. And many zoos find they have a knack for a particular animal and are able to reproduce endangered animals particularly well. Many zoos are playing to these strengths in order to not only boost the animal numbers but also to be known as a zoo that has a good reputation for raising a particular type of animal (there are awards out there for that sort of stuff). And the last is that often they can get commercial support from companies for particular exhibits so by interesting a local or national company by creating a unique habitat, they can often get a grant for a large part of the exhibit which is important in this age of budget cuts and cutbacks which affect zoos just as much as any company. So commercial interest in particular animals may play a role in which animals the zoo houses.