In the wild, elephants walk up to 30 miles each day, bears are active for up to 18 hours a day exploring their home ranges for up to hundreds of miles, and tigers and lions love running and climbing and will roam many miles to hunt. But when these animals (or any wild animal) are imprisoned in cages or small enclosures at zoos, they don’t get to do the things that are natural and important to them. Instead, animals in zoos are kept in cramped spaces with virtually no privacy and have very few opportunities to exercise or keep their minds active.
Living without these important things often causes “zoochosis,” a condition in which animals act strangely and even hurt themselves out of boredom and frustration.
The signs of zoochosis are easy to spot. Bears and big cats, like lions and tigers, will pace back and forth. Monkeys and birds injure themselves. Giraffes twist their necks and bend their heads back and forth, and elephants bob their heads and sway side to side. This isn’t natural behavior that would be seen in the wild.