This past weekend I visited the San Diego Zoo and spent some time at the tiger exhibit. Below is a picture I took of the tiger, who was surprisingly active during my visit. In my previous experience, tigers at zoos and wild animal parks have always been fairly reclusive and difficult to observe. This time, however, the tiger was trotting around and sat down right in front of us to chew a large bone.
It is my opinion that the San Diego Zoo does it's best to provide adequate living conditions for its animals, but any kind of captivity for wild animals seems less than ideal. The exhibit for the tiger hardly seems spacious enough to allow for such a large, powerful animal to get a sufficient amount of exercise and exploration. However, I understand the work many zoos do to help protect endangered species, which include all subspecies of tiger. I trust that those who work at the zoo and design exhibits take into account what is in the best interest of the animals and hope that every animal in captivity is treated with respect and allowed the chance to live as naturally as possible.
