A zoological garden is a site setup and managed around population centres for recreational, aesthetic, research or cultural purposes and containing fully protected and other interestingly wild indigenous or exotic animals. Rearing or breeding wild animals under captive conditions as in zoos can be one of the ways of accomplishing biodiversity conservation. This is known as Ex-situ method, and focuses on species conservation in botanic gardens, zoos, gene banks, and captive breeding programs. It is opposed to In-situ method which uses conservation areas as “warehouses” of biological information.

The idea of zoo keeping originated in the ancient period, when zoo and park lays were either associated with royalty or established by feudal magnates for the purpose of protecting their sport and excluding people outside their immediate circle.

The scope and concept of zoological garden today has changed from mainly sports and recreation to scientific research, education, captive breeding programme, genetic resource conservation and for economic purposes.

What ever be the reason behind the creation of zoos in our society, the basis of such an establishment primarily is to introduce to our urban population the different species of wild animals that exist within and outside our immediate environment. Due to one reason or the other, the urban residents don’t have the opportunity to visit the national parks or game reserves which are generally located some kilometres away.

The concept behind zoo keeping depend on the scope and objectives of the zoo which is determined by the body owning the zoo, but generally zoos are established because wild species and wild animals do no longer have safety guarantee. The only guarantee man can provide is a favourable environment outside the wild setting which must be close to the natural habitat to propagate the wild species existence.

For a continuous viable existence of a zoo, there must be sustainable management objectives. Within the present century, great studies have been made in the development of maintenance methods that will satisfy the physical and psychological needs of the animals. The need for tourist industry, scientific research, propagation of threatened species and recreation after hard day’s work has brought zoological gardens into a new prominence. In pursue of these, some preservation conditions and principles in respect to zoo development and management are being elaborated and should be adhered to.

The aim of this manual is to specify in detail the requirements for housing and care and the measures for ensuring that the welfare and behavioural needs of wild animals under captive condition are met.

The principle underlying this manual is that captive wild animals should be provided with psychological well-being. This implies that they have the freedom to express most normal behaviour patterns. Wild animals require stimulation and display a complex behavioural repertoire.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK IN CAMEROON

According to Law No 94-1 of January 1994 to lay down forestry, wildlife and fisheries regulations in Cameroon, the setting up of a zoological garden shall be by decree of the Prime Minister and Head of Government (see Decree No. 95-466-PM of 20 July 1995 to lay down the conditions for the implementation of wildlife regulations in Cameroon). The setting up of a zoo shall be approved on the basis of a file presented by the minister in charge of forestry and wildlife or a council, corporate body or natural person and comprising the following:

• a site plan endorsed by the services in charge of surveys,
• a technical note prepared by the minister (for government), or corporate body or natural person setting out the objectives of the measure envisaged,
• the report of a “Divisional Commission” (the commission is responsible for examining and giving its opinion on the possible claims and objections made by the populations or any concerned party regarding the setting up of the zoo),

The public shall be informed of the project through a notice published in the official gazette, by print or audio visual or any other appropriate means, and posted for up to 30 days in the chief towns and administrative units, the council offices and traditional chiefdoms whose territories are included in the zone concerned. Claims shall be submitted to the heads of administrative units or to the local officials in charge of wildlife. After this deadline, all claims or objections shall be barred.

Any natural person wishing to capture wild animals for scientific, commercial or breeding purposes or to keep them in captivity shall hold a licence to capture wild animals issued by the local official in charge of wildlife services, on the basis of a file comprising: a duly stamped application, a copy of the approval as capturer of wild animals, a certified true copy of the hunting licence corresponding to the species of animals to be captured, a receipt showing payment of the licence fees (see Decree No. 96-238-PM of 10 April 1996 to determine the remuneration for services rendered under the implementation of forestry and wildlife regulations), a business licence, a list of appropriate equipment which shall be checked by the official in charge of the provincial wildlife service, and land ownership certificate or lease of appropriate land for the future zoo.

Special authorisation from the minister in charge of wildlife must be obtained prior to the capture of class A animals.

The possession and circulation of live protected wildlife within the national territory shall be subject to the obtainment of a certificate of origin by the services in charge of wildlife.

The importation of wild animals into the national territory shall be subject to the obtainment of an authorisation from the minister in charge of wildlife.

PLANNING OF THE ZOO

For any government, council, corporate body or natural person to decide on establishment or developing a zoo, it has to consider the following factors, which serves as guiding principles in zoo management and development.

The Planning Team

Planning is an important aspect that must be considered for any successful project. Planning is a process to reach realistic objectives from a certain point with the aim to reduce wastage and duplication, manage conflicts, document issues and agreements and organise the allocation of resources. A realistic planning team involving different individuals from various disciplines is important at the initial stage of planning for the sustainable management of a zoological garden. The planning team work together, each individual being held responsible for a particular section of the task according to his specialization. For example the Town Planner will design the layout, partitioning the various activities that will take place in the zoo in the form of drawings; the Civil Engineer will design the roads and paths; the Wildlife Ecologists/Manager will provide knowledge on ecological requirements of the wild animal species including habitat management, feeding regimes, and overall management of wildlife; the Veterinary Doctor will design strategy for the caring and welfare of the animals; the Architect will design the construction of cages, enclosures, pens, ponds etc; an Accountant will prepare a realistic budget for operations.

Size and location of the zoo

Sizes of a zoo depend largely on the scope and concept. It is generally accepted that from a minimum of 8 hectares (20 acres) up to a maximum of 200 hectares (500 acres) of land could be needed to establish a zoo. Sometimes land of smaller sizes is used as well. The location for establishing zoo must be suitable. Distance from the city should be far on a normal basis due to pollution, diseases transmission from domestic stocks and future developmental projects. The nature of the soil should be good with presence of natural features like trees, tree covers and rock boulders. A good natural water source is very important. There should be absence of disease vectors like tse-tse flies, tick, guinea worm etc.

Initial development of the zoo

In developing the site, after which the ecological survey and other necessary things has been done, there must be master plan indicating all the development works that will be done on the land. It is this master plan that will guide in developing the site. Initial development can begin with building of administrative blocks which must be located in such a place that it will be easier to administer the entire zoo, then the entire animal enclosure which will be a bit far from the administrative blocks. The sizes of animals that are to be exhibited in the enclosures must be considered along side its natural history or behaviour when building the enclosures. They must also take into consideration whether the animal is indigenous, exotic or both or if it is aquatic, terrestrial, flying, climbing, crawling species etc.

After all these, follows the provision for all services such as roads, car parks, supply of electricity, water, telephone, good drainage system, public convenience, ventilation system, and enough space for crowd expected on a very busy day. The initial development must provide lawns, amenity garden, children play ground, restaurants, kitchen, store, zoo shop, museum, service corner, veterinary clinic, visitors education centre, sign posts, and animal write up posts which will help in directing visitors instead of allowing them to wonder aimlessly. Some rooms for staff should be provided as well. Finally, work on the entire peripheral permanent fencing to control access and eliminate undesirable features.

Personnel and machinery

The success of any organization will depend on the management staff. Wildlife expert with knowledge on zoo management will be preferred. Other staffs of the zoo are given in-service training in zoo management courses in other zoo of repute or institution, and the remaining keepers may be locally given on the job training within the conditions that they will work in the zoo. Apart from the professional zoo keepers, others include Technical staff (carpenters, gardeners etc) and some unskilled labours. There should be provision for some machinery like the basic office capital record keeping equipment (computers), vehicles, maintenance facilities, as well as other necessary machineries.

Finance

Financing the zoo has been a major problem facing zoos. The organizing body or natural person must make sure that there is adequate fund for a take off as construction work and service equipments are very expensive at the initial stage. There should also be provision for staff salary for at least the first year while recurrent votes should also be considered so that the whole project will not collapse along the way due to lack of funds.

ACQUISITION OF ANIMALS INTO THE ZOO

Stocking of zoo is a very important aspect of its management. Zoos will fail to serve their basic concept that is recreation through exhibition of animals for public viewing so as to satisfy their natural curiosity if there are not enough animals in the zoo. Before bring an animal into a zoo, one must make sure that the cage has already been constructed. It is also very important to acclimatize the animal to its new environment and also to accept the presence of human beings and other animals as well as feeding before it will finally be introduced into its exhibition cage. Animals can be procured into the zoo through the following means.

Importation

Animals are imported when they are not locally available. Some animals are forbidden to be imported because they grow in number and eliminate the local species or convey certain disease. It should be noted that when importing animals which are normally to be transported by a chartered plane or ship, in case of stop over before the animal will be conveyed to the final destination, one has to be sure that such a country (at the stop over) allow importation of that species of animal otherwise, it ahs to be conveyed directly. On arrival, the animal should be quarantined for some weeks to identify any trace of disease, parasite and even to be sure that the animal will eat local food. Importation is very expensive and there is always a possibility of the animals dying.

Inter-zoo exchange

This is done only when the zoos involved have the animal’s species concerned in excess. The two zoos will agree between them on the procedure of transportation of the animals and that the animals to be exchanged should be a very close/similar, durability difficult (i.e. in keeping and popularity). The negotiating zoos must be guided by nature, age and health condition of such species before collection.

Borrowing

This may mean getting animal (s) from well stocked zoo in order to show for some time or during festive seasons. In burrowing, the same animal (s) may not be returned but a very equivalent one in term of species.

Deposit

This in zoo term is to keep an animal under the care of another zoo with the hope of coming back for it later. Animals may be deposited in zoo “B” by zoo “A” pending collection by zoo “C”. The feeding of the deposited animal (s) may fall on the owner or the host and sometimes on both. Deposit of animals according to Stopfords (1994) may be due to shift of base, avoidance of impending danger, or breeding programme.

Direct purchase

Zoo gets its supplies by direct purchase either from licensed animal dealer or from the local hunters. The local hunters supplies requires great caution  due to poor handling or method of capturing which may eventually lead to death of the animal. The animal should be observed, treated and made to take zoo food before settlement and payment is made to the supplier. Suppliers from the licensed dealer must be covered with health certificates and periods of guaranteed before payment is made.

Gifts and donations

Animals are received by zoo on donations. Most of these animals are sent to the zoo by private individuals and on displayed at the zoo the name of the donor will be written in front of the cage. Most of these animals are either brought up as pets or purchased directly from local hunters who have manhandled them on collection. The recipient zoo must be guided in principle to receive such animals as most of them have been over pampered and spoilt. As such they may not useful to the zoo. The others, which are manhandled stay for sometime and die. Such donations should be received with care and the animals must be isolated for a good period of time for observation and treatment.

Confiscation

This is the collection of animals from illegal trappers by force, though with authority or legal backing and the collected animal will be deposited at the rescue centres. There is high possibility that such animals end up in a zoo otherwise they constitute another zoo.

Capture from the wild

Animals are also obtained from the wild reserves and parks or equivalent protected areas with permission using effective capturing techniques. This is done by highly skilled people and need much actions and labour strength. This method requires the use of live traps and tranquilizer guns of both long and short ranges with their accessories by trained personnel. Guns that fire darts to deliver immobilizing drugs can be used for the capture of medium sized and large mammals. Animals must be properly darted with correct dosage of drug and at the correct site. Then the dizzy animal will finally be transported. In Cameroon, darts guns are considered lethal and illegal weapons for hunting. A special permit is required for their use. Lethal or immobilizing drugs are controlled substances and can be used only by qualified veterinarians or by biologists with special permits. Biologists who use guns and drugs for animal capture must be experienced and aware of the potentially lethal nature of the equipment and the drugs used. Examples of drugs include use 9mg of m-99 i.e. Etophine hydrochloride as immobilion successfully for adult elephant and 4.5mg of m50-50 i.e. Dipronorphine to reverse the effect.

It should be borne in mind that a captive animal is helpless against the whims and caprices of climate and predators. Therefore human methods of live capture require that captive animals be maintained alive and uninjured in a non-stressful environment until they are transported to the zoo. Traps should not injure the animal when their trigger mechanism is activated, and they should be large enough to contain the entire animal with room for movement. Traps should be sheltered from rain and sun, and they must be provided with sufficient food, water, and nesting materials to sustain the animal while it is held.

Captured animals can be processed immediately in the field or transported to a temporary home or directly to the zoo for processing. Field processing cannot always be carried out under sterile conditions, but cleanliness is important to reduce the risk of infection. Under field condition, animals should be treated with comfort, and processing should be terminated at the first sign of stress or injury.

PRINCIPLE OF ANIMAL DISPLAY

When planning a zoo layout, one must consider the physical requirements of the animals and topography of the land. For instance the lion cage could ideally be stationed in the part of the site with rock out crop because lions enjoy sitting on rocks when resting, prey should be kept away from their predators. There are five (5) basic patterns or animal display arrangements as follows;

Zoogeographic arrangement

This is the type in which animals are arranged in groups according to their continent or origin. For example tigers are found in Asia, elephants from Asia and Africa, leopards and lions from Africa, lemurs from Madagascar etc.

Habitat arrangement

It is the exhibition of animals according to the habitats in which they occur and occupy. This includes animals that occupy grassland, aquatic or forest territories.

Behavioural arrangement

This is the most recent conception in zoo planning. This method is built around the basic activities of the animals and breaks them into units comprising swimming, burrowing, flying etc. It is more advisable to use mixture of the systemic, habitat, popularity and behavioural arrangements in zoo outlays.

HANDLING AND CARE OF ANIMALS

Good management of animals in captivity requires the provision of good conditions similar to the beneficial factors which influence the species in the wild, and at the same time eliminate those factors which have an adverse effect on the animals. The third group of factors are neutral and have neither a beneficial nor an adverse effect on the species. Just as we only keep healthy when provided with proper food, take exercise, and keep ourselves clean, so also will animals only remain in good conditions if they are given the food they normally eat in the wild or its equivalent, have enough room in their cages and enclosures to run about and have their bedding change regularly. Therefore, the basic principle of handling and care of captive wildlife in zoological garden can be grouped under the following headings as discussed below:

Food

One of the major items in the operation of a zoo consists of the formation, storage, preparation and distribution of nutritional adequate food. Since the health of animals is closely linked with its diet, the zoo management should as a matter of great importance handle this item with utmost care (Akum, 1995). Feeding and general care of captive animals should not be left to irresponsible labourers; the decision on the suitability of new batches of food should not be left to the contractors. Animals in captivity must be provided with adequate and relative diet similar to what is obtained in its natural habitat. Where that is not available the derivation should not be so wide, commercial ration should be introduced where applicable on gradual basis to prevent nutritional disorders. Feed should not be collected from infected rations, either by chemicals or faeces either from humans or animals. Animals should access to adequate and clean water that is not polluted.

Food can be concealed in the substrate or scattered about the enclosure. This also has the advantage that it increases usable space in the cage by encouraging the animals to use the floor. Artificial turf can provide a useful, readily cleaned substrate for foraging.

For the small, more insectivorous mammals, zoos have found that cricket or mealworm dispensers can be provided (i.e. a hollow log with holes in it from which the crickets emerge spontaneously or a corked plastic tube with holes in it containing fine sawdust and mealworms. Electronic devices which dispense food, either randomly or on demand can also be used where long term housing is contemplated for socially deprived or closely confined animals.

Nutritional diseases could be caused by malnutrition (when animals are not fed with well and the right type of diet.) because their hormone response would have been suppressed due to lack of good food especially protein (Ogun-sanmi, 1995). The herbivores need a good quantity of grass or browse materials as well as balanced meal rations, able leave branches for browsers and grains will be adequate. Animals suffering from diarrhoea should be fed with less concentrate. Supplementary concentrate can be provided as follows:

Yellow mash meal—————————-70%

Wheat brand—————————————17%

Sun flower cake meal—————————5%

Rumerite——————————————5%

Mineral lick————————————–3%

(Which constitute 30% bone meal, 15kgm salt, 120gm manganese sulphate, 60gm copper sulphate, 15gm cobalt sulphate and 5gm sodium iodide). The carnivores should be provided with raw meat which is the basic ingredient of the carnivores’ diet; adequate meat inspection must be performed on carcasses intended for consumption by carnivores to ensure a meat supply free of parasites, which have their carnivores as their final host. Appropriate ration of raw meat be fed to captive animals and where necessary supplements can be fed as well.

Three teaspoonfuls of either the following can be inserted into the meat ration.

Calcium phosphate—————————-25%

Skinned milk powder—————————-25%

Brewer’s yeast————————————50%

Vit. A                     3.5ml I.U/100kg of supplement

Vit. B                     3.5ml I.U/100kg of supplement

Or fine bone meal and fresh cod liver oil to be rubbed into the meat twice weekly. Old or rancid cod liver oil must be fed under any normal circumstances as this may cause diseases of the skeletal system.

Diet of young carnivores is basically the same as for larger ones. Rabbits, rats, mice, chicken, etc. may replace their diet of small mammals. Civets which are partially fructivorous may be supplemented with fruits such as oranges, apples or bananas. The omnivores can be fed with diet with crude protein content of approximately 15% and must contain some animal protein or milk products. Concentrate may be fed to baboons, monkeys and porridge or a special meal mixed with some other food with 2.5% calcium carbonate, 0.5% sodium chloride and 22g/100kg zinc carbonate.

Nutrition and care of un-weaned wild animals is important. The minor differences in the milk composition of different species are not important, provided and that the necessary disease prevention measures are taken. In spite of even marked difference in 20 different species, they have  all either been fed on supplemented cow or goat milk, Epd’s milk surrogate, Nespray powder, or a special prepared milk mixture with the following dry compositions;

Skinned milk powder————————80%

Whey powder——————————–8%

Fine corn meal——————————-8.5%

Brewer’s yeast——————————-2.0%

Calcium phosphate————————–1%

Sodium chloride—————————–0.5%

Vitamin A————————————8.8g/100kg milk powder

Vitamin D————————————1.1g/100kg milk powder

The milk mixture can be prepared by adding 9 litres of water to Ikg of the milk powder. The EPd milk substitute and Nespray powder milk are usually prepared as prescribed by the manufacturers. The nutrition of primate does not differ basically from that of human babies. Milk to be used in the hand rearing of wild animals must for obvious reasons be obtained from disease free dairy herds. Young herbivores will usually nibble solid food when they are about three weeks old. Adequate amount of chopped, good quality hay should then be made available. Carnivores may be ready to receive small amount of raw meat when they are about three weeks old also. A big bone with small amount of raw meat attached to it can be given to small cat to nibble at. In many species, the suckling period is approximately as long as the gestation period.

Rearing young animals

To ensure normal development, a social environment should be provided which is suitable for the rearing of offspring. Matured females should have had experience of observing other females caring for their infants and, in some species, for helping in their rearing. Otherwise, when faced with an infant of their own, they may be neglectful or infanticidal (GARDIN et al., 1989).

A young infant should not normally be separated from its mother at an early age (i.e. at 3-6 months) but should remain in contact for one year to 18 months, in most wild species of animals. There is unlikely to be any greater productivity through early weaning, in seasonally breeding species, such as rhesus monkeys. Even in non-seasonal breeders, any slight increase in productivity must be offset against the resulting behavioural abnormalities of the offspring (GOOSEN 1989).

Young social animals should be reared with an appropriate social background. Individuals who are weaned early or socially isolated are usually less adaptable and show higher levels of abnormal stereotyped behaviour (GOOSEN, 1989). They may also show deficiencies in social behaviour and abnormalities may even extend to the endocrine and immune systems (REITE, 1987).

Accommodation

Wild animals are adapted to a natural habitat where survival depends upon a complex behavioural repertoire, the use of intelligence and constant vigilance. The greater the departure of the captive environment from the natural situation, the more critical each attribute of the enclosure becomes in terms of meeting the animal’s needs. Physical factors of significance in housing wild animals are size of enclosure, construction materials, its complexity and methods of maintaining hygiene.

The construction of cages and enclosures should be geared towards satisfying the behavioural patterns and space requirement of animals. The cages or enclosures must be adequately furnished to allow the animal behave normally as an individual. In providing a satisfactory social environment in captivity, individuals must be able to avoid aggressive individuals and maintain a minimum flight distance. Example, space for several food and drinking sources should be available to prevent one animal from monopolizing it.

For primates, and other jumping and climbing species, space should be three dimensional and should allow the individual to display its normal repertoire of locomotors behaviours, namely, to walk, climb, jump and run. In an open situation, such as a compound, climbing frames or trees are recommended, or, in a cage, vertical climbing surfaces and perches. Common primates used in the laboratory have a vertical flight response when alarmed by a terrestrial predator. Thus the vertical dimension of the cage is of importance and cages where the monkey is able to perch above human eye level are recommended (HARRIS, 1988).

The materials for the construction of animal houses should be selected after special investigations for ease of maintenance, naturalistic appearance, and non-toxicity among other things. And the construction should be made in such a way that the animal should be within the viewing range of the visitor and keep the public or the predator out of the animals in the cage.

Adequate ventilation is very necessary and is always as good plan when putting animals together to wait and see that they do not fight. There are two main types of enclosure in captive wildlife management in zoological garden.

1. The reconditioning enclosures: These are enclosures that used in keeping animals when first brought into the zoo. These are of various types and they are used in acclimatising the newly acquired animals to change of environment and will later be removed into the second type of enclosure known as exhibiting enclosure.
2. Exhibiting enclosure: This is the enclosure that is used in displaying the animals for public viewing. Exhibiting enclosures includes houses, cages, paddocks, enclosures, pools or aquaria, pit and glass enclosures.

Basic hygiene

Considering the transmissible aspect of diseases, the first priority of management must be to protect the workers and adopt procedures which will control and eliminate infectious agents, and secondly, to care for the animals so that their health status can be improved. Cages and outside enclosures should be regularly cleaned of faeces or droppings everyday and fresh dried grass provided as bedding when ever necessary. Cages and enclosures should be washed out periodically with a weak solution of disinfectant like Izal, Detol, Milton etc, and should be rinsed with clean water after thorough washing. Feeding equipments must not be mixed with working.

Lack health care has been known to result in the decimation of animal population both in the wild and in captivity. In the wild, rinderpest has been known to destroy Eland, Buffalos, Kobs (FAO, 1983), in the wild. Pneumonia, gastroenteritis etc has been to occur due to lack of adequate care, also toxaemia and malnutrition. All these have been attributed to the effect of parasites, fungi, bacteria and viruses.

It is noteworthy that there are some animals which use scents and musks to mark their territory. This produces a relatively mild odour however. Thus, effort should be made to differentiate odours resulting from dirty environment or improper sanitation from such natural scent odours. The biological need of such an animal to produce odours and its use for marking territories may be effectively explained to the public in a sign near such an animal cage entrance. Every “walk trough” should be provided with this facility.

One of the most important prerequisites for successful wildlife husbandry in zoo is good hygiene food. Water contaminated with infectious agents and toxic substances cannot support healthy animals nor can dirty, parasitic and disease-infested enclosures accommodate productive wildlife. The regular removal of parasites and other dirt from the enclosures and cages, contaminated bedding from the sleeping quarters as well as the replacement of the latter with clean bedding, free from moulds and noxious weeds and the effective cleansing of everything from feeding utensils to the entire animal enclosures must never be neglected.

Mates and play companions

Efforts should be made to avoid keeping single individual of animals except when impossible. Mates help to reduce boredom in captivity. However, where there are several animals in the group, continual observation is very necessary so as to identify, if any odd individual is being dominated and victimized. Boredom is a great problem especially in a very intelligent animal, therefore keepers should be given time to combat this with a variety of playing objects like old clothes. This should be done at peak visiting hours such that both the animals and the visitors get tremendous enjoyment out of the dimension, and this is surely better than seeing bored animals sitting in an empty cage. A simple swing is always valuable and most primates will incorporate it into play sessions, it encourages jumping and balancing and, when more than one individual uses it, the position of the swing in space becomes difficult to predict.

Natural materials such as logs and branches can also be provided and can occupy the animal for long periods of time. However artefacts such as cardboard boxes, telephone directories, milk crates and heavy duty plastic buckets have also proved effective as playing objects for primates. Care must be taken to ensure that such artefacts do not contain toxic or hazardous materials and that, boxes are not stapled. Extra labour will be involved in cage cleaning but this must be balanced against the gain in well-being of the primates.

Barrels, balls, baskets, simple puzzles and other toys have been used as play toys for primates but their effectiveness seems to depend on their novelty. To overcome the problem of habituation, toys should be changed regularly. Primates are likely to habituate less rapidly to more complex artefacts which offer a range of possible manipulations. Electronic toys and games can also be effective. The kind of manipulation which is appropriate will also depend on the species of primate in question.

To also combat boredom and provide the animals with a sufficiently rich social environment, friendly relations with human caretakers can provide a valuable substitute. Even a few minutes a day spent stroking e.g. a monkey and allowing it to groom oneself will make a significant difference to the quality of its life. For the single housed animal, environmental enrichment is particularly important to reduce abnormal behaviours.

Unless absolutely essential, animals should not be housed alone in a cage on a long term basis (more than 30 days). Even for quarantine there are advantages in housing animals in compatible pairs. The type of social grouping in the wild can be used as a guide when creating a captive group with respect to reproductive strategy (i.e. monogamous, harems, promiscuous or multi-male/multi-female) and kinship ties (i.e. family group, female bonded or male bonded group). For most wild animals, reproductive success may be increased by creating natural social groupings. Efforts should be made to understand the social behaviour of the specific animal e.g. captive breeding groups of macaques are usually harems, with one male and several females, because aggression between males in the more natural multi-male/multi-female group can cause serious problems in a restricted space. These problems however can be overcome by designing an enclosure in such a way that animals cannot be cornered or blocked from food by dominant members of the group.

CONCLUSION

Zoos have been regarded as places of entertainment where people go to, and laugh at the animals. The concept of a zoo as a place of research and education, rather than a public spectacle and entertainment is only just beginning to be established even in the scientific world. Nature has been described as a treasure of knowledge and zoos are the caretakers of a considerable part of it. In this aspect, there is the need to increase the aesthetic appreciation of more receptive idea of conservation since visitors show a genuinely warm feeling for wild animals. This could be achieved only when a framework is established for a sustainable management of a zoological garden.

Many people think of wildlife as free ranging, repulsive, reservoir hosts for diseases agents and aggressive animals that attack people and their crops, and which man has little or no control over them, may be you do, but why? Wildlife should be considered as an integral part of man’s wellbeing because of the essential products provided by the resource, and the need to conserve them is extremely important. Many wildlife species offer high potentials for generating income, providing food, for medical researches and formulation of medicines; play important role in the essential life processes, are sources of inspiration to people, serves as a source of identity and pride to most indigenous groups; also serve as a symbol of cultural and national heritage; and many argue that all species have their own intrinsic value and, therefore, the right to exist.

Problems of wildlife conservation

1. The regulative structures and mechanism within village communities could not control the increasing pressure on the wildlife resources any longer.
2. Inadequate knowledge of methods and potential of sustainable wildlife hunting coupled with an increasing pressure on the resource through over hunting by indigenous and non-indigenous interest groups.
3. Political decisions seldom consider the interests of the local population, and participatory extension service is lacking.
4. Lack of awareness of the benefits of conservation and of its relevance to everyday life results from poor or no educative propaganda. Hence most people do not appreciate nature.
5. The lack of awareness consequently result in the assumption that living resources conservation is a separate issue from development, rather than an approach that cuts across and must be considered by all development sectors. Therefore undue emphases are laid on short-term interest projects in preference to longer-term stability and sustainability.
6. The activities described above are all supported by the fact that the Forestry and Wildlife Services are not adequately equipped, motivated and most often transparent.
7. There is a conflict between conservation and the sensible use of renewable resources on one hand, and economic development which almost inevitably results in over exploitation, pollution, and degrading of ecosystems on the other hand.
8. Whether wildlife should be conserved and the best way to conserved them has been debated for many years. There was no clearly defined policy in the colonial days, mainly because there were more important things to consider, and because it was impossible to envisage that our environment would change so rapidly prior to the year 2000 A.D.
9. A further constraint to wildlife conservation is inadequate database. There is very few inventories of vegetation and animal habitats over most of the wildlife conservation areas, and without species or checklist, it is difficult to know what species are disappearing or increasing. In the few wildlife areas for which inventories exist, there are no much study on the ecology of the individual species nor on the total ecosystems on which sound management can be based.
10. Solving the problems of wildlife conservation and achieving any set objective(s) centres on budgetary allocations. A lot of funds are needed for improved awareness, enforcement of regulation and laws; for example anti-poaching patrol, training of personnel and inventory.

2. How to approach elephants
In the case they come out in the grassland, the following rules should be followed:
 Always approach elephants very slowly;
 Do not try to get too close;
 Do not approach elephants from behind their movement or behind their direction of orientation;
 Whenever possible, make a large detour around a group and approach the elephants from an angle or head on or, better yet, stop and let them come to you.

3. Sexing elephants
a) Head shape differences
One important difference in appearance between males and females is in the head shape. Males have rounded heads, which are broader between the eyes. Females tend to have pointed heads and the area between the eyes is narrower. These characteristics are distinguishable even in calves.

b) Body shape differences
 A male elephant has no external testicles and the penis is enclosed in a sheath. The female’s elephant vulva hangs low between the hind legs with the opening facing the ground unlike most ungulates whose vulva is just below the anus.
 Male underside slopes up towards front legs penis sheath visible; female underside more parallel to the ground, breasts on adults visible

c) From Behind
Female vulva squared off with opening facing ground, folds of skin from tail down to opening; male has ridge that extends from below tail down in between the legs and forms sheath with opening facing forward. Note also that female body shape is more rounded and sides often extended beyond pelvis while male has a narrower shape.

4. Individual recognition
The patterns on the ears make each elephant unique and actually very easy to recognize. Elephants usually have holes, nicks, and tears on the edges of the ears. Other characteristics such as tusklessness, one tusk, broken tusk, scar tissue on body, deformities and injuries (e.g. missing trunk tip, no tail) will help in individual recognition.