Mimi Bekhechi: Zoos are awful places for big-cat species

The arrival of yet another miserable animal at Edinburgh Zoo only adds to the living hell that is captivity for big cats and will do nothing to help Asiatic tigers in the wild.

Big-cat species are adapted to roam, to seek out mates, hunt and claim territory – yet in a zoo, the opportunity to do these things is controlled or denied. Instead, these free-roaming predators are forced to spend their lives in unnatural and inadequate enclosures. Despite being nocturnal, they are paraded during daylight hours like playthings for paying visitors.

Zoo habitats are designed to appeal to visitors and not to house animals properly. They place lions, tigers and cougars close together – often in adjoining pens – whereas these big cats would not intentionally share territory in their natural habitats. It’s stressful for them to smell, hear and see animals they would normally avoid while having no opportunity to flee. It’s also difficult for these magnificent animals – which have keen senses – to be in close proximity to prey animals in zoos yet be denied the opportunity to satisfy their need to hunt.

All big-cat species exhibit stereotypical behaviour in captivity, predominantly in the form of continuous pacing. Where soil substrate is provided, some exhibits show not only a path worn by their constant pacing but also the actual paw impressions in the soil where the cats step in the same spot over and over again. An Oxford University study in the journal Nature found that wide-ranging carnivores “show the most evidence of stress and/or psychological dysfunction in captivity”. The study concluded they should be phased out of zoos altogether.

Tigers are on the very brink of extinction, with fewer than 4,000 left on Earth. Yet one of the threats they face is the conservation con of captive-breeding programmes. None of the tigers born in captivity will be released, and so these programmes will do nothing to help wild tigers.

If big-cat species are to survive, our focus must shift from breeding and displaying them in zoos to habitat preservation in the wild. People who care about big cats should never buy a ticket to a zoo or circus that profits by these magnificent animals.

• Mimi Bekhechi is associate director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.