What’s the future for the zoos?

A tourist attraction that helps the economy or a nightmare for the animals in it?

Zoos have been a part of big cities for a long time. A way to help people from crowded places to visit exotic animals, discover new species and entertainment for all the families. That’s the main vision of zoos that has always been sol. But many voices are lifting criticizing the zoos since non originally animals live there, they’re not in their natural habitat and claiming that they’re in pain due to the reduced space where they live in. 

Architectures worldwide are thinking about ways to turn it around and make zoos more animal friendly where people could still visit them safely, and one of them is creating Eco-Parks.  

Many countries are closing the zoos due to the critics that are receiving, for example Buenos Aires. In 2014 the city shut down its zoo and established a 44-acre eco-park dedicated to preserve the more than 2500 animals that were being moved.   

One of the first firms that worked to accomplish these changes was Even Bjarke Ingles Group, who showed the public a project they made in 2014, ZOOTOPIA. It was a zoo with different ecosystems in where both people and animals could move in a safer way. The goal was to find a way in which visitors could study and discover the animals without bothering them, and in where animals could have a comfier and calmer stay in the zoo. The moving options were a few: from riding a bicycle in Africa to flying above America. 

These new eco-parks are a way to turn zoos into the real-life experience of watching the animals in their natural habitat. No more pressing the nose against a crystal to see a snake or to walk through long hallways surrounded by animals in cages. These new parks will allow people to educate themselves better when it comes to different species and how they live in nature.

What do you think of changes? Do you have any idea on how to improve the zoos?