So we keep them on the right social condition. The diet usually is optimal. Very often it’s too good because the keeper is sorry for an animal and gives a little bit more and so, as in humans, many zoo animals are rather too fat. And it’s very difficult to convince keepers and visitors that some animals naturally starve over a few weeks or months during certain seasons. So here, I think we could do better. And Heini Hediger proved in his initial book that a well-established zoo animal considers its exhibit, its enclosure as an artificial territory that is being marked with a normal scent from glands or with feces or whatever they use. And it’s this reason that keepers can not enter enclosures of many species because many species consider known humans as conspecifics and may attack a keeper because he’s an intruder in his or her territory. These are all proofs that zoo animals feel very happy and very natural.
