Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to The New Coffee Room. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Should We Let Zoo Polar Bears Eat Their Young?
Topic Started: Jan 10 2008, 07:05 AM (476 Views)
QuirtEvans
Member Avatar
I Owe It All To John D'Oh
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8...00.html?cnn=yes
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
sarah_blueparrot
Member Avatar
Fulla-Carp
No - we are already interfering in their lives so saving an animal against the law of nature shouldn't be beyond us.

When pandas give birth to twins, the mother chooses the strongest cub as she doesn't have the resources to feed both, and lets the other one die. Because there are only a couple of thousand pandas left, the twins in captivity are rotated so they both get fed.

I suppose this is similar.
Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow.

- Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
apple
one of the angels
no
it behooves me to behold
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Daniel
Member Avatar
HOLY CARP!!!
:rolleyes2:
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Moonbat
Member Avatar
Pisa-Carp
I don't know. I imagine you'd need an ethologist to evaluate the effects on subsequent behaviour of parents and their orphaned offspring to evaluate the long term consequences.
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
RosemaryTwo
Member Avatar
HOLY CARP!!!
I'm with Apple.
"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Aqua Letifer
Member Avatar
ZOOOOOM!
Moonbat
Jan 10 2008, 07:34 AM
I don't know. I imagine you'd need an ethologist to evaluate the effects on subsequent behaviour of parents and their orphaned offspring to evaluate the long term consequences.

Dude, it's a zoo. I don't think it matters much, in the grand scheme of things, what they decide to do.

I'm personally of the opinion that zoo animals are entirely different than those found in the wild. If we feed them, keep them from fighting one another and mess with their shelters, I don't see why we can't keep them from eating their young.
I cite irreconcilable differences.
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Larry
Member Avatar
Mmmmmmm, pie!
Lawyers do, why shouldn't polar bears?.......
Of the Pokatwat Tribe

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Moonbat
Member Avatar
Pisa-Carp
Aqua Letifer
Jan 10 2008, 04:03 PM
Moonbat
Jan 10 2008, 07:34 AM
I don't know. I imagine you'd need an ethologist to evaluate the effects on subsequent behaviour of parents and their orphaned offspring to evaluate the long term consequences.

Dude, it's a zoo. I don't think it matters much, in the grand scheme of things, what they decide to do.

I'm personally of the opinion that zoo animals are entirely different than those found in the wild. If we feed them, keep them from fighting one another and mess with their shelters, I don't see why we can't keep them from eating their young.

Oh i don't think it matters in the grand scheme of things, it's not an ideological question to me, (actually no questions about interacting with nature are ideological questions to me) it's just what will benefit the bears.

One might imagine that interacting in this fashion could fundamentally alter the way a bear treats her subsequent cubs (in a bad way), or that bears seperated from their mothers don't do well later in life... i simply don't have the knowledge to have much of a view one way or the other. (Though like everyone else my immediate instinct is to say "No!")
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
sarah_blueparrot
Member Avatar
Fulla-Carp
Of course it does help that baby bears are cute...

Posted Image
Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow.

- Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
katie
Fulla-Carp
The older I get, the less I like zoos.
They exist for who? Kids? For the animals?

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Larry
Member Avatar
Mmmmmmm, pie!
sarah_blueparrot
Jan 10 2008, 11:19 AM
Of course it does help that baby bears are cute...

Posted Image

That's not a bear, that's some kind of chicken.....

But *you're* cute, Sarah.......

Of the Pokatwat Tribe

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Moonbat
Member Avatar
Pisa-Carp
Quote:
 

That's not a bear, that's some kind of chicken.....


Can't fool Larry, Sarah - he doesn't miss a trick.
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Frank_W
Member Avatar
Resident Misanthrope
sarah_blueparrot
Jan 10 2008, 11:19 AM
Posted Image

"Mommmy!!!!! MOMMMMY!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!! I am NOT an animal!!! MYARRRRRRGH!!!!"




:devilgrin:
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Aqua Letifer
Member Avatar
ZOOOOOM!
katie
Jan 10 2008, 08:43 AM
The older I get, the less I like zoos.
They exist for who? Kids? For the animals?

I'd say definitely not for the animals. ^_^
I cite irreconcilable differences.
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Frank_W
Member Avatar
Resident Misanthrope
I hate zoos. Almost as much as I hate places like Sea World. :angry: :no:
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
QuirtEvans
Member Avatar
I Owe It All To John D'Oh
Larry
Jan 10 2008, 11:05 AM
Lawyers do, why shouldn't polar bears?.......

We don't eat our own young, we eat YOUR young.

Watch out for lawyers, young Spider.
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
kluurs
Member Avatar
Fulla-Carp
What zoos are good for...

zoos provide an opportunity for scientists to learn a bit about the biology and care of animals which has enabled some species to survive that might not otherwise survive.

They also enable our young to experience the animals and perhaps develop an appreciation for creatures other than themselves.

They permit people who cannot afford the ability to travel to distant locations to see live animals that they would never have the opportunity to see otherwise - and do so without murdering them off or without having someone build a big resort where the animals used to live.

Zoos are generally getting better in how they care for and present animals though there is clearly a need for better conditions.

It' may seem sad to keep animals in zos - but go visit a chicken slaughterhouse sometime. Visit the killing floor for cattle. Think about how much of the world's aimal population has been decimated by development. Zoos are a bit of life raft - not the best of places - but probably necessary.



Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Frank_W
Member Avatar
Resident Misanthrope
I guess that's true too, Kluurs. I've been to some pretty decent zoos, and I've been to some that are simply awful.
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
TomK
HOLY CARP!!!
kluurs
Jan 10 2008, 03:44 PM
They also enable our young to experience the animals and perhaps develop an appreciation for creatures other than themselves.


Excellent post Ken. We live AT Disney--we go to the zoo.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
sarah_blueparrot
Member Avatar
Fulla-Carp
This is an interesting blog by a thinking person which encapsulates his views about zoos; he's against them but thinks of the pros too.

Some guy's blog

The Life of Pi (Yann Martel) is an awesome read: one of the best books I've read and one that's stayed with me vividly since I first read it.

edit: Despite the fact that it says so at the top, I've just noticed that it's a blog about a particular zoo by lots of people. However, it's very interesting and there are lots of thinking people there! (in my skimming I must have somehow read the same guy a couple of times) Worth a skim anyway.
Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow.

- Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
LWpianistin
Member Avatar
HOLY CARP!!!
The Life of Pi is an amazing book.

I only read it once, but I'd like to read it again, if I can find it....
And how are you today?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
dolmansaxlil
Member Avatar
HOLY CARP!!!
A good zoo has some benefits. I used to go to the Toronto Zoo regularly. There are several species that have been reintroduced to the wild because of zoos. I have my problems with them, too, but they can do some good.
"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

My Flickr Photostream


Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
« Previous Topic · The New Coffee Room · Next Topic »
Add Reply