Upon entering the gates of almost any zoo, a visitor will be confronted with signs, symbols and displays that implore and admonish, "Please do not feed the animals!"
Many people ignore those signs and offer a tidbit to an animal because it's fun to watch the animal eat, because the animal accepts it and must therefore be hungry, because they wish to help the zoo by providing a between-meal snack for one of the inhabitants or simply because they like animals, and feeding them is a way of interacting with rare, huge, dangerous, cute or funny wildlife.Zoo managers are aware that people enjoy watching animals in action, and they prepare for the onslaught of edibles in a variety of ways. Some zoos permit feeding of animals housed in a special section. These are usually animals that are considered expendable and easily replaced, or they may be surplus stock that eventually end up on a canned hunting ranch.
A number of zoos permit visitors to give animals only such food that is sold within the zoo grounds. This is not a moneymaking scheme but an acknowledgement that visitors have a fondness for offering tidbits to the tenants of a zoo. The direction that many zoos are taking is to ban all feeding of animals by the public; they often post feeding times so that visitors can watch animals being fed.
Where public feeding of animals is not expressly forbidden, veterinarians at the zoo make special preparations before holidays and when heavy attendance is expected. They may give the animals a laxative before the crowds arrive or deliberately overfeed them, knowing that "Do Not Feed" signs have very little effect. As zoos throughout the world attempt to re-create natural environments for their animals, they try to educate the public to avoid interfering with the animal's life in any way.
Animal feeding by visitors is not only unnecessary but often harmful. Unfortunately, the animals are unable to discriminate between good and bad food. Autopsies show that a number of deaths are due to acute food poisoning. Animals that do not normally eat carbohydrates consume large quantities of sweets and end up with kidney trouble, chronic ill-health and premature death. The diets of zoo animals are carefully chosen and prepared, and proper control is impossible if the animals are fed by the public.
Zoo nutritionists suggest that visitors consider that they would not want strangers to feed their children whatever food morsels they happen to have, and the staff at the zoo commissary feels the same way about their charges.
Many zoos have found that a most effective way to educate people is to make them aware of accidents when well-meaning but ill-informed people have thrown inappropriate foods or other objects to an animal.
While eating peanuts, a zoo patron can see no harm in sharing several with an animal that seems to show an interest. But if the peanut sharer has a cold, he or she could transmit fatal pneumonia to a chimpanzee or a gorilla. Often the well-fed animal chooses to play with rather than eat the food, and this becomes an invitation to toss assorted objects into the enclosure.
Exhibits of objects that have been thrown into animal enclosures can reassure each visitor that he or she is "not that stupid." Among the common, potentially dangerous items that have been recovered from animal compounds are: bottles, knives, pens, bottle tops, paper cups, plastic bags, wire, string, pieces of glass, open cans and even sunglasses, wallets, gloves, assorted clothing, caps, practically anything tossable.
A recent autopsy on a seal established that death was due to obstruction of the stomach. The cause was a solid mass of chewed gloves, handkerchiefs and towels thrown into the seal pool. In a London Zoo a hippopotamus died after swallowing a small rubber ball, and a monkey's death resulted from eating a roll of tickets tossed to it by the conductor of a tour bus.
Probably the worst recorded single day of feeding abuse of a zoo animal happened on a June day at the Rotterdam, Holland, Zoo. An adult Indian elephant was offered, by an assortment of visitors, and ate: 1706 peanuts, 198 "sandwiches" (16 with ham, 11 with cheese, 14 with jam, and 28 included chocolate, the remainder assorted and unidentifiable), 1330 candies, five scoops of ice cream in two cones, 811 cookies, 17 apples, 198 slices of orange, 891 pieces of bread, one hamburger, 13 pieces of paper, 3 paper bags, a lady's white leather glove and a shoe lace. All of this was accurately recorded by the director of the zoo and his staff who were hoping to ratify a policy that feeding of animals by visitors would be illegal. They were successful, but the elephant paid the painful price of a mammoth-size case of indigestion that lasted for two days.
Just what part of "Do Not Feed" would an enlightened person not understand?
Phil and Nancy Seff are the authors of several science books, including "Our Fascinating Earth." Their column runs regularly in the Deseret News Science/Technology section.