Are Zoo Animals Better Than Wild Animals?

Have you ever looked at an animal in your local zoo exhibit and wondered if they were truly better off there than if they were in the wild? A growing number of people are beginning to believe that zoo animals are better off than animals who are left in their natural habitat. To thrive means that an animal is growing and learning to survive in such a way that allows it to flourish. Although animals in captivity are provided with their basic needs to survive and more, wild animals are more likely to thrive and reach their full potential.
Animals in the wild thrive because they face and overcome greater environmental challenges than animals who live in a zoo. An animal living in a zoo most likely has an enclosed area with a consistent climate and nearly everything they need to
Wild animals have learned to handle the stress of environmental challenges, food shortages, sicknesses and injuries, difficult access to food sources, find shelter from predators, and reproducing with a dominant companion all on their own. While zoo animals have been provided with protection from those worries, wild animals obviously are not. This allowed the wild animals’ skull and cranial volumes to exceed that of zoo animals’. If an animal does not have to stimulate its brain because it knows everything it needs is going to be given to it, then it can potentially lose its purpose, and the animal will begin to degrade and eventually even die just as someone who does not exercise can lose his muscle strength. Because animals in the wild are continually faced with these stresses their brain will always be stimulated, which, in turn, helps wild animals to thrive and reach their full potential since brain activity is positively correlated with life