'Solitary confinement of animals is the same as solitary confinement of humans'

On Thursday, a two-year-old boy was bitten by a hyena and consequently lost part of his right arm at the National Zoo. The Business Standard contacted prominent wildlife conservation expert Dr Mohammad Ali Reza Khan, ornithologist and the principal wildlife specialist at the Dubai Safari Parks, Public Parks and Recreational Department, Dubai Municipality. 

The conservation expert discussed safety protocol and zoo management in the country, among other things. 

This interview has been trimmed and edited for clarity. 

Can you tell us about the barrier put in place at the National Zoo separating hyenas from visitors? Is it adequate? What about the state of zoo management in general? 

This can't be a visitor barrier. It's a single layer of round bar fence wrapped with possibly 2 sq inch mesh plastic coated GI chainlink. So, a hyena can definitely snap fingers and even wrists, if someone puts his arms on the mesh. 

The management has failed to have a primary fence, which should be at least 1.5 to 2 m high, or a metre plus high wall, or a metre plus high and of equal width thorny hedge barrier (such as kata mehedi or dhurnta, bougainvillea, etc) to deter visitors from reaching the animal holding fence, or a glass barrier of man height. The barrier we see is for keeping animals inside. The same can't be used to deter visitors. 

Photo: Noor-A-Alam

The video [a YouTube video showing recently filmed footage of the National Zoo] shows a single-line barrier that separates both the visitors and the dangerous animals. No world zoo can have such a single barrier. There must first be a barrier to prevent the visitors from reaching the animal restraining barrier. That means all animals must be under a double fence – first to keep the animals calm and quiet in their own fenced private area. Second, usually or at least one m away from the first [barrier], to prevent anybody from reaching the animal barrier fence.

[And], for all accidents, the first responsibility is of the management to ensure the safety of exhibited animals, animal caregivers and then the guests. 

In the absence of a visitor barrier, the management has failed to ensure the safety of the parties mentioned above. Also, the management has failed to train and provide dangerous animal restraining tools - such as pepper spray - to the caregivers. The visitor is also at fault because he or she has not taken care of their own children or relatives.

To tackle such accidents a zoo or a safari must have insurance for the staff, visitors and contractors, to cover the cost of compensation. Most zoos and safari parks in the subcontinent do not have visitor orientation programmes in practice, although they may have it on paper. [Additionally], all Bangladesh zoos lack manpower and programmes for visitor education sis-a-vis zoo management.  

Our zoos need a paradigm shift in their attitudes toward zoo management. A zoo is a place basically for zoologists, wildlife biologists, and vets – supported by nutritionists, pathologists, conservation, promotion and marketing teams, educationists with biological backgrounds; horticultural, maintenance and engineering personnel, and of course a good admin team.

The spotted hyena in question is reportedly 14 years old. Is it correct to say confinement for long years can make animals more aggressive?

The wrong environment, wrong animal keeping, and intrusive behaviour of visitors make animals go crazy, and they might become aggressive towards people, irrespective of whether they are visitors or keepers.

[Moreover] solitary confinement of animals is the same as solitary confinement of humans. Animals go crazy and do not know how to respond to the alien environment provided in a zoo in Bangladesh, where visitors can be within a few inches of the wild animals, shouting, throwing food or plastic, or polyethene items, etc. 

Dhaka or other Bangladesh zoos do not, I repeat, do not uphold the rights of the exhibited animals. Around the world, all modern zoos and safaris ensure, first, the rights of the animal exhibited or kept in captivity, then the visitors, keepers and at last, the management.

Dr Mohammad Ali Reza Khan. Illustration: TBS

What protocols should be in place to counter zoo animal attacks? 

All modern zoos and safaris have [an] animal escape or an accident alert, fire drills that must be done at least once, sometimes twice or thrice. This is to keep all branches of the zoo-safari and local administration – civil defence, police, traffic departments, etc on alert, so that all can respond to an emergency inside a zoo-safari in tandem, without wasting time.

[In the case of the 8 June incident in Bangladesh] when a zoo-safari animal pulled the hand of a baby, a keeper or zoo manager nearby would not have pulled the baby back, because due to the pulling from opposite directions, the baby's hand, wrist or fingers might be severed. That's what happened during the hyena incident at Dhaka Zoo. 

The keeper or zoo manager would have sprayed the hyena with pepper spray or shot the hyena to save the baby's arm. 

In an earlier interview, you spoke about international practices for maintaining safari parks and said modern zoos are owned by zoological societies, not the government. Why is that important?

Almost all the best zoos and safaris of the Western world are managed by the zoological society of the city, state or country. For example, the London Zoo is managed by the zoological society of London, San Diego Zoo is managed by the Zoological Society of San Diego. This means that zoos and safari parks are zoological institutions where wild animals are exhibited because these are the subject matters of zoologists, and not of veterinarians or animal husbandry people. 

[And in the Bangladesh context] almost [all] vets and animal husbandry [professionals] are really experts of domestic animals, such as dogs, cats, cows, goats, chickens, ducks and rarely buffalo, but they have little or no knowledge about the food and feeding habit, ecology, breeding and behavioural traits of wild animals. Around the world, there are wildlife vets who specialise in wildlife, in addition to domesticated animals. This trend is missing in Bangladesh.

During the Pakistan period, some bureaucrat must have put Dhaka's zoos of Pakistan under the animal husbandry/livestock department, thinking after all tigers, and elephants are subjects of animal science/vet people, and not of zoologists. 

However, the best-managed zoos and safari parks in the world are managed by zoologists/wildlife biologists/ecologists/animal behaviourists, where vets and animal husbandry, education, conservation, engineering, admin cadre and others, work as supporting teams. These people are there to support the zoological operations of such institutions.

In December 2021, the government issued a Tk1,500cr master plan to offer Dhaka zoo animals a cage-free life. There has not been any visible progress in two years. If implemented, what can we expect? 

This also brings me to the next question. What is your opinion of the concept of zoos? Are safari parks rather beneficial?

A Singapore-based zoo and safari designing firm has designed a fantastic, state of art, modern zoo master plan for the Bangladesh National Zoo at Dhaka and Rangpur, much like the one in Singapore or San Diego. If this Singapore company-based master plan is implemented these two zoos will have fantastic architectural structures, environment and animal-friendly buildings, exhibits, animal houses, visitor amenities, easy-moving transport, hospitality, education, use of solar power, rainwater harvesting, recycling water and composting all organic waste as manure, and conservation facilities will be there. 

However, who will manage them? None of the zoos has a single zoologist in the management or animal keeping, education and conservation team, nor are the vets trained in wildlife management or treatment.

A human being, as a part of the mammalian fauna, has always been inclined towards living with animals, be that keeping them as pets, domesticated, as companions, working or tamed animals, since time immemorial, because we are all Homo Sapiens. So, there is no harm in having wild animals from captive sources to be suitably exhibited in proper zoos, like Singapore or San Diego, where animal rights get the highest priority. At the same time, the rights of animal keepers and visitors are ensured. 

These can only be done by people with experience, who have worked with wild animals in the wild, and not inside a zoo or safari park. That means zoos and safari parks must be run by zoologists/wildlife biologists with support from animal treatment, nutrition, animal exhibition, creative and other teams, as described by the (American) Association of Zoos and Aquariums or AZA.

[Moreover], around the world, zookeepers are educated people who first work as a volunteer in an animal facility which can be a zoo, safari or captive breeding centre. These would-be keepers may have anything from a high school diploma to PhD degrees, in zoological-wildlife behaviour and ecological fields. 

The progression is from a volunteer to a trainee keeper, to a keeper, and then a promotion to a senior keeper. A senior keeper, over the years, becomes animal supervisor/foreman, head of the animal section to Junior or Assistant Curator to Curator, who could be promoted to General Curator and then an assistant director or Director of a zoo/safari park. 

All others work as supporting teams. 

Muntasir Akash, TBS nature editor, contributed to this report.