Council for animal ethics issues consultative statement on ethics of zoos; my role

Norway´s Council for animal ethics has issues the consultative statement "Etiske grenseoppganger for hold av dyr i dyrepark" (loosely: Ethical limitations for the keeping of animals in zoos). I have been main responsible for composing the text, along with Guri Larsen (though such texts are always ultimately consensus products).

Interview on zoos and life conditions of zoo animals

Last Saturday a brief interview with me featured in a long feature article by Thea Elnan in the weekend magazine (Magasinet) of the Norwegian daily Dagens Næringsliv. The 6 page article was titled "Hageliv" [Garden/park life], but "Fri og bevare" [literally "liberate and preserve"] in the magazine´s table of contents. The online version (login required) is titled "Vil legge ned dyreparkene" [Wants to close the zoos].

Pictures from Langedrag I - wolf pics

The socialized pack, represented by two of them. Animal caretakers approaching...

Enjoying human company.

"Ulvegård" = literally: wolf farm

Waiting for the 'shy' wolves, inside the ulvegård.

Snow in September - 1.000 meters above sea level.

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Cf. also:

Pics and videos from Langedrag

And the wolves they are a-fighting (Polar Zoo)

Scary animals I met in Polar Zoo

Wolf videos (Polar Zoo)

Wolf kisses (Polar Zoo)

Wolf pics I (Polar Zoo)

Wolf pics II (Polar Zoo)

Bear pics (Polar Zoo)

Summary report from Polar Zoo available online

Last week I finished my summary report after my field trip (in March) to Polar Zoo in Bardufoss, Northern Norway (cf. previous posts, including pictures and links to videos). The 23pp work paper has now been uploaded to Scribd.

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Contents:

1. Factual questions (and questions to the human caretakers)

2. The wolves' interaction among themselves

3. The confinement

4. The wolves and other animals

5. Wolf senses

6. The wolves and their caretakers

7. The wolves and the visitors to the zoo

8. The wolves and me

Monkey business (Kristiansand zoo)

Scary animals I met in Polar Zoo

Feeding the lynx: Before entering an enclosure, the zoo keeper has to go through security measures with you. Before entering the lynx enclosure, I was told that they are unpredictable, and "precision hunters". If attacking to kill they would go for my throat. I tried to think of a cat 10 times a cat's size ... which didn't help easing my fear of these Nordic forest cats. On the other hand, they do not commonly attack humans in the wild, and these particular animals are well fed at that.

There's three lynx in Polar Zoo. This female appears to be the most curious/courageous of them. She tried to get to eat straight from the zoo keeper's box with meat, and hissed at him when he wouldn't let her. To the left: A piece of animal feed (meat).

The same female lynx was not afraid of getting close to us - but run off when the zoo keeper pointed the spade at her.

Feeding the musc oxes: Ester (left) came to eat first, Klaus (right) was more wary of us.

Two times he faked an attack at us - first by leaping ahead and stamping with his front feet, and then, after a few minutes, by "running towards us" - for 1 meter. It did the trick for me - I felt scared (although I was well aware that these were only early warning signals). I wouldn't want to run into this fellow unprotected on a plain.