Philadelphia Zoo Aardvark Sniffing, and Sniffing

One of the aardvarks in the Zoo's Small Mammal House came right up to me and sniffed my camera. You can hear the sniffing, which is actually pretty loud.

I love exhibits like this that allow visitors to be so close to the animals.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Philadelphia Zoo
• zoos
• aardvark
• aardvarks
• mammal
• mammals
• Small Mammal House

[ZooVisitorMM]

@Pestinha92 I prefer zoos to safaris and game preserves for two reasons. One is that the animals are still living pretty much as they would be living in the wild. So they still don't have all the amenities humans and their pets have. The other is that people don't have the opportunity to see the animals up close or often so they don't have an opportunity to bond with individual animals or to be inspired to learn more about them.

[Pestinha92]

@ZooVisitorMM

There's so many wild animals of all sizes, eviroments, diets, that it would be nearly impossible to have them living with us or near our cities. If we already have problems with stray cats and dogs I don't want to imagine adding others to the count.

I agree that zoos should be used as a temporary location to help breed and heal rare animals, but other than that its not going to do much for. I agree more with safaris, or large lands that imitates their eviroments.

[ZooVisitorMM]

@Pestinha92 The difference between most domesticated animals and wild animals is basically that domesticated animals have had the opportunity to adapt to living in a human environment. Considering the way the earth's environment is changing, and habitats are being destroyed, I think it might be a good idea to try to accustom as many wild animals as possible to living near and or with humans who care about them and want to protect them.

[ZooVisitorMM]

@Pestinha92 I don't think of it as being stuck between walls, any more than most humans are basically stuck between walls as they go about their daily routines. We don't usually have a whole lot of options, either. I also think animals don't live very long if they are bored, stressed, or otherwise unsatisfied with their conditions. So that is one way we can read the minds, at least of the older ones. And when young ones are energetic, and eat and sleep well, that is a good sign.

[Pestinha92]

@ZooVisitorMM

(Part 2)

You might dislike cold, sickness, danger, but that is part of life. If we keep protecting ourselves from it, we'll just end up apathic or even ignorant from the world around us, we also loose a bit of respect for nature. If a disaster comes, few are ready to survive it, we lived our entire lives pented up thinking that the world is a safe place, when its not.

A cat and a dog can live like us, inside our houses, wild animals should be free.

[Pestinha92]

@ZooVisitorMM

Depends on your point of view. I find it sad to find predators and energetic animals unable to do what they do best because they are stuck betwen walls for the rest of their lives.

I personally prefer a short but good life, than a long one and filled with sorrows and unable to experience what life has to offer.

We can't really say animals prefer this or that, because we can't read their thoughts though.

[ZooVisitorMM]

@Samegoldays Plus, no matter how long an animal lives, I think whatever life it has will be safer, healthier, and happier if it is in a good zoo.

[ZooVisitorMM]

@Samegoldays That is true. But the only way to be sure which situation would be better for an individual animal would be if we could somehow know exactly how long that animal would have lived in each situation. Unfortunately, we can't know that. All we can know is how long an individual animal lived in whichever situation it was in. So it usually does not seem valid to me to use longevity comparisons in any discussion about zoos - whether people are in favor of them or not.

[Samegoldays]

@Samegoldays Agreed. Zoo's have animals that live longer in Captivity than in the wild.

[ZooVisitorMM]

@Samegoldays I don't hate people who hate zoos. But I do hate the things they say about zoos. Also, you are right that zoos help save species from extinction. But, even if there were no endangered species, I would still prefer to see animals in zoos where they are well cared for and someone is watching over them. In my opinion, most zoo animals have much better lives than animals in the wild have.