| The Calgary Zoo’s proposed $120 million Arctic Shores exhibit will be an educational oasis where people will learn to care about Canada’s North, or where, according to some vocal critics, a multi-million dollar boondoggle will unfold with species including polar bears and beluga whales left to suffer.
Weighing in on the pro side of the Arctic Shores camp is Brian Keating, head of the Conservation Outreach Department at the Calgary Zoo. "The area itself will be the size of a football stadium," says Keating. "It invades part of the present pre-historic park. It will completely transform the north gate."
The Arctic Shores exhibit has recently sparked controversy because of the zoo’s intention to house beluga whales and polar bears. Critics of the program have pointed out that in the wild these species cover large distances and including them in a zoo exhibit is inhumane. Keating, however, defends the decision saying that the Calgary Zoo has learned from its past mistakes.
"Arctic Shores will contain a huge pool designed for beluga whales and seals," he says. "And a series of pools designed for polar bears." Keating says the Arctic Shores exhibit will make provisions for the animals to live in an environment that mimics nature. He points to fish spitting machines as one example. The mechanical spitters are designed to offer up fish at different locations in the Arctic Shores space at different times in the day in order to encourage the polar bears and beluga whales to hunt as they would in the wild.
Slated to open in 2010, Arctic Shores will have approximately six beluga whales on display that Keating says will be offspring of adult whales that live at MarineLand Canada, located near Niagara Falls. The polar bears for the exhibit will be purchased from other North American zoos.
"The zoo’s animal care people say they can get these animals from captivity," says Keating. "And so I have to believe that."
The 25-year zoo employee says one of the key aspects of Arctic Shores will be to educate the public about the fragile state of Canada’s North in an era of increasing concern over global warming. "What we have confronting us now is a serious threat to all the populations of creatures up North," says Keating. "Scientists are saying we could lose our permanent Arctic ice within 50 years. We’re looking at the extinction of these creatures. Should we keep a few in captivity? I don’t know. I think we need to do something meaningful and powerful to get people thinking about the Arctic."
One of the key tools the Calgary Zoo is now using to back up its claims that a visit to a zoo can turn someone into a conservationist (who will then take action to protect the Arctic) is a paper titled: Why Zoos and Aquariums Matter: Results from the Multi-Institutional Research Program.
The paper was presented in September 2006 at the annual conference of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums held in Tampa Bay, Florida. One of its key findings is the measurable impact zoos have on visitors. The authors of the paper write, "A zoo or aquarium visit resulted in long-term changes in learning and attitudes. Roughly half made comments related to the educational role of zoos and aquariums and in preserving and protecting animals. Nearly half commented that they took some kind of personal action as a consequence of their zoo or aquarium visit."
The findings are dismissed by Julie Woodyer, campaigns director of Zoocheck Canada Inc., a Toronto-based organization with approximately 15,000 members across the country. "What people are learning about at zoos is what animals look like in captivity," she says.
Zoocheck Canada has mounted a public campaign against the proposed Arctic Shores exhibit that includes asking Zoocheck members to erect lawn signs indicating opposition to the project. Woodyer says at the heart of the campaign to stop Arctic Shores is the goal of preventing further suffering of beluga whales and polar bears. She says both species are "wide ranging," meaning that any zoo enclosure, even one the size of Arctic Shores, will be inadequate.
"The belugas will have no ability to swim any distance or dive any depth," she says. "They will live in what is essentially a sterile environment and die early. Polar bears are one of the most wide-ranging animals on the planet. The fact that you build a larger enclosure does not solve the problem." She says Zoocheck is also concerned about the source of beluga whales for the Arctic Shores exhibit.
"If they get them from MarineLand, as far as I’m concerned they are taking them straight out of the ocean," says Woodyer. "More than 20 belugas have been captured in the wild and brought to MarineLand in the past few years." Adds Woodyer, "Don’t build it. Don’t waste money that’s going to cause additional animal suffering." |
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