The Buenos Aires Zoo closes after 140 years. Now 2500 animals will be free from their cages and will live in Argentina's nature reserves, where they will find a habitat that is truly suitable for their species.
The Zoo of Buenos Aires closes after 140 years. Now 2500 animals will be free from their cages and will live in Argentina's nature reserves, where they will find a habitat that is truly suitable for their species.
The zoo it will turn into an ecological park interactive by the end of this year. About 50 older or struggling animals will remain inside, but they will no longer be displayed for visitors. They will be followed by experts who will take care of their rehabilitation and who will save them from illegal trafficking.
This zoo for a long time represented the most popular tourist attraction in the city, but now the situation is changing and the facility has received severe pressure mainly because, for example, it housed polar bears in an area with a very hot climate.
The last polar bear in the zoo died a few years ago due to inadequate living conditions and high temperatures. Numerous activists have pledged to bring the zoo to a close, arguing that the most important thing is breaking the pattern of captivity e make sure that animals always live free.
Horacio Larreta, mayor of Buenos Aires, explained that 2500 of the zoo's animals will gradually be transferred to nature reserves that will provide them with an adequate environment to continue living. Meanwhile, the zoo will become an eco-park to protect animals and an educational project; it will no longer be a tourist attraction. The city of Buenos Aires will do what the inhabitants have requested: protect the animals, not keep them prisoners.
"This situation of captivity is degrading for the animals, it is not the way to take care of them" - said the mayor, speaking of the closure of the zoo. Some bird species now found in the zoo will live in the Buenos Aires Ecological Reserve.
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Among the 50 animals that will remain in the zoo when it is transformed into an Ecological Park we find Sandra, an orangutan who two years ago made headlines internationally when a court found him worthy of rights as a 'non-human person'. It is a hybrid between a Bornean orangutan and a Sumatran orangutan that cannot socialize with other animals. Therefore he will remain in the ecological park in which the zoo will be transformed, living in a protected situation.
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Now the hope is that other zoos in the world that represent mere tourist attractions will decide to close to the public and become areas of real protection for animals that can no longer return to live in their natural habitat.
Marta Albè
