On communicating critical issues of population management in zoos to the public

Abstract

For many years critical issues of zoo biology and breeding management were not fully communicated by zoos, nor were they realized or questioned by the general public. This has changed within the last few decades, leading to an increase in the transparency and credibility of zoos. I conducted qualitative research on how zoos communicate critical issues to the public by using semi-structured expert interviews, focusing on the issues of euthanasia, contraception and ’carcass-feeding’. The results draw a preliminary picture of how critical issues are currently communicated in European zoos, with a focus on Germany. Zoos can be divided into three groups: (1) those who communicate critical issues directly by displaying them to the public, (2) those who prefer a more indirect way of explaining these issues, and (3) those who neglect to communicate any critical issues. A list of methods used, as well as arguments for and against communication, was extracted out of the responses of the survey group. Furthermore, a first draft for Critical Issue Management (CIM) for zoos was developed and described, using the study results as well as recommendations for crisis communication. There is a great need to conduct further research about how communication from zoos is received by visitors and the general public. Nevertheless, the results suggest that zoos need to find a basic international agreement on how to communicate critical issues as part of a multi-institutional CIM, and to establish regional communication guidelines for critical issues.