Cruel or kind? The zoos around the globe have been sparking a debate on whether the age of keeping and celebrating animals in captivity is over, and if we’re ready to move forward. And even if we are, then freeing the animals in captivity poses yet another challenge for scientists and entire populations alike. What are the best ways to do that and are we even capable of ensuring their safety out there?

Having said that, around 1 million vertebrate animals live in captivity worldwide, making up over 10,000 zoos across the globe. They accumulate more than 600 million visitors annually, so you can imagine what a powerful business it really is. But while people get to see its fun and exotic facade, many not-so-nice things remain behind closed doors.

Recently, some zookeepers have come forward on Reddit to share “the low-down, dirty, inside scoop on zoos.” With 53k upvotes, the thread went viral, amassing some seriously cruel and very unsettling stories about animals behind the fence.

• Read More: Zookeepers Anonymously Reveal The Darkest Zoo Secrets They Keep Shut Behind Bars (35 Pics)

#1

I used to volunteer weekly at a large zoo, and at one point, management started doing monthly dangerous animal escape drills. Someone would run around in a lion onesie and we’d have to react as if one of the large animals had escaped. It was hilarious, but one of the funniest things I was taught was that if an incident did occur, you have to tell the nearby guests to get inside only once. If, after that, they refuse to follow you indoors (the protocol was to hole up in the large activity center buildings), you’re to leave them there, go inside yourself, and lock the doors. It makes sense because people can be very stupid and you don’t want to risk everyone’s lives because of one Karen, but it amused me to no end that the protocol was to just let them get mauled.

Image credits: thebourgeoisiee

#2

When I worked on the grounds crew at a zoo, there was a camel who thought it was hysterical to nudge people into the electric fence. When we would trim the moat around his enclosure, he liked to reach his neck out and hook you just hard enough to stumble and get yourself shocked.

Image credits: amattwithnousername

#3

We closed the baboon exhibit because a baboon had a still birth and the troupe was “grieving”.

In reality they were throwing parts of the infant corpse around and there was nothing we could do about it

Image credits: randomiser5000

#4

The most dangerous and feared animal in case of an escape is not, as you may think, lions, tigers, or other large carnivores. It’s the chimps. Those things will rip your arm off and beat you to death with the bloody end as soon as they look at you.

Image credits: ShadyElmm

#5

There was one particularly traumatic event with the lions on a very warm and very packed spring day. The zoo was inside a large park, so various wild animals wandered through the zoo all day. One unfortunate day, a large deer fell into the lion enclosure. The adolescent male stalked it and ran it down within about 30 seconds and tore the deer to shreds. In front of dozens of horrified adults and screaming kids. I felt kind of bad that so many people saw, but like, circle of life.

Image credits: ballerina22

#6

What do you want to really know?

Zookeepers are overworked, underpaid, and are constantly in a battle to prove their worth to seemingly everyone. We spend day and night (and sometimes overnight) caring for our animals often regardless of our personal lives because those animals deserve the best life possible and at the end of the day the most abused thing at the zoo is the Zookeepers themselves.

I had a guest tell me one day that they thought the gorilla would be happier dead in the wild than in his habitat while also knowing absolutely nothing about what is impacting gorillas in the wild. I’ve had parents point at me cleaning a habitat and tell their children “stay in school or you’ll end up like her”. In fact I’d say a decent percentage of guests in my 10+ years were extremely surprised to hear most Zookeepers have degrees/higher education.

Zoos need our support at the end of the day as they provide education and experience that can build empathy. We have to teach people to care and it’s hard to when sometimes things aren’t affecting the immediate world around us but is instead affecting someone else’s across the globe. Why is it important to recycle your old cell phones? It will reduce the need to mine for coltan, a mineral used in cell phones that can be recaptured in the recycling process. Less coltan mining = less loss of habitat for gorillas among other animals. Do you check the labels of items you buy for sustainable Palm oil? If not, you could be helping add to the destruction of orangutan habitat. Our actions matter, our choices matter, and we have to teach that.

Image credits: IHeardYouHaveCats

#7

Animals sometimes kill other animals and there really isn’t much that can be done about it. I remember when a groundhog made it into a chimpanzee exhibit and the baby of the group found it. She caught it and played with it for a long time. Eventually, to keep it from running away, the baby beat it to death right beside the viewing windows. She then held it like a stuffed teddy bear for another half an hour, dragging it around with her when she went to forage. Mind you, this happened right in front of a group of school children. I was in the viewing area and a teacher/chaperone insisted that I “do something”. Like, what? Ma’am, that’s a chimpanzee; nobody’s doing anything.

The kids actually learned something on that trip to the zoo, though.

Image credits: quantumofennui

#8

This isn’t a zoo I worked at but did visit often. Operators couldn’t figure out why the sharks in the mixed species tank kept turning up dead so they set up a couple cameras and it turned out there was a [freaking] psycho octopus just killing for fun. Hiding between rocks, waiting, and then just strangling them to death.

Image credits: Dangercakes13

#9

Our lions will urinate on guests if they get too close, which is always funny to see. Not so funny to smell.

Image credits: epshuche

#10

If you’re a guest feeding/touching animals outside of the petting zoo or an encounter, you might just kill them.

I could rant about this forever. The number of zoo animals that die from incorrect food in their systems is staggering. The average person has no idea which animals can be killed from an apple core, a piece of bread, or a grape. Even just picking leaves and grass from outside of the enclosure. A guest has no idea what an animal’s digestive system cannot tolerate and can place a death sentence on an animal just because they wanted a special interaction.

Let’s talk about diseases! Our good pal rabies is a great one! Rabies vaccines are NOT produced specifically for every exotic animal species, so a vet will do the best they can by giving high risk animals the closest version of an appropriate rabies shot. The closest version does NOT guarantee no rabies! You tried to touch a monkey that is undoubtedly covered in saliva from grooming? Better go get your rabies shots! Not to mention the abundance of parasites and human foreign diseases that exotics can carry or we can pass on to them.

TLDR: If you feed or touch a zoo animal that you weren’t supposed to, you might kill it and should probably go to the doctor.

Image credits: Mission_Ad4542

#11

I spoke to a zoo keeper at the national zoon in DC. We where watching another keeper inside the cheetah enclosure and I asked him about the danger involved. He said a cheetah is harmless to an adult human because it only hunts smaller creatures. I asked which creature was the worst to go in with, expecting hippo, elephant or croc as an answer. Without hesitating he said “zebras” then leaned close and whispered “They are the biggest [jerks]. They will bite and kick for no reason.” I still think it’s hilarious that off all the teeth and claws out there, it’s stripped donkey horses that are the worst.

Image credits: Count_Joshoo

#12

I worked at a zoo in a northern country (can’t say which as it’ll give it away) which had a white tiger, and was quite famous for it. One day the zoo announced the tiger had died of ‘natural causes’. Whilst working there a few years after he died, I was told by a keeper that there was actually a problem with the electric fencing in his enclosure that the zoo managers refused to pay to get fixed, thinking it would be fine.

He was electrocuted to death a few weeks after they found the problem.

They covered the whole thing up by saying they weren’t sure how he died, but that he was old. It’s still a zoo secret to this day.

Image credits: magneticpowder

#13

Those free-roaming peacocks are really stupid and sometimes go in the lions exhibit and get torn up.

Image credits: MapleTopLibrary

#14

The zebras are ruthless and will tear apart any unfortunate kangaroo that dares break into an enclosure. They love the thrill of the chase…and the subsequent kill when they get bored.

Image credits: NutkaseCreate

#15

Lions know fully well that they can’t get through the glass. They do that just to get attention.

Image credits: WF6i

#16

Dead zoo animals are sometimes fed to carnivores.

Image credits: KToTheA-

#17

One of our most popular exhibits was this incubator with baby chicks. We were told to tell visitors that the older baby chicks would be sent to schools as classroom pets or to the petting zoo. In reality, we did send the chicks to the zoo…as live animal feed for the snakes and other carnivores.

Image credits: dyslexic_draws

#18

The dolphin trainers are stuck up. They are like the jocks in high school. They usually try to stay in shape because wetsuits aren’t flattering. They perform daily and people love them, so they have an ego.

Image credits: LostInMyThots

#19

Fun fact bout the local zoo i learnt when i worked maintenance, there is a wolf enclosure. There is info bout the wolves, its maintained. “They are just shy/in their shelter atm” . There are no wolves, never was.

Image credits: Ew_E50M

#20

Not a zookeeper, but worked at one for a long time. We had a tram tour that drove over a bridge where there were a bunch of crocodiles below. If someone were to fall out of the tram at this point, the protocol was to speed out of the area as fast as possible so the remaining visitors on the tram would not see the unfortunate person get teared to shreds by the crocs

Image credits: liverstealer

#21

Went on a behind the scenes tour of the zoo.

Saw quite a few bunnies come out during the tour (the neighboring park had a problem with people abandoning pet rabbits). It was pretty clear the dumb bunnies were getting into predator enclosures. Tour guide confirmed they were regularly getting eaten.

Tour guide also indicated other urban wildlife: raccoons, possums, squirrels, birds were regularly eaten by predators. Said that when they drained the lion enclosure moat for maintenance it was filled with the bones of small mammals.

The most amusing stories were about the orangutans who are wicked smart. Zookeeper trained them to give over items in exchange for food in case they needed to get something from them in the enclosure. But orangutans are smart, and realized if they break things up and hand it back in lots of little pieces they get more food. They disassembled a radio that accidentally got left in the enclosure and when there was an opossum in the enclosure the results were a bit more gruesome.

Image credits: 17top

#22

If any animal escapes before the zoo opens to the public, the zoo is supposed to shut down completely for the day. Often, though, smaller zoos can’t afford to lose a day open to the public, so if some specific types of animals escape (such as reptiles or small animals), they will just stay open while having keepers look for the animal. … I remember hearing from coworkers that they listened to our boss and opened even though a small but somewhat venomous snake was on the loose.

Image credits: OverdueFetus

#23

Next time you go to the zoo, ask someone which animals are ‘kill on sight’ in an escape. The answers will surprise you. Lions and tigers are typically on the ‘tranq and capture’ list, but a jaguar the size of a golden retriever is ‘KoS.’ The zoo I was with, the two jags were the only animals on site that were on the shoot-to-kill list. Even the silverback was on the tranq-first list.

Image credits: Nytherion

#24

The poor penguin keepers can never quite get rid of the miasma of dead fish that envelopes them. As for me, the stinkiest job I ever had to do was cleaning out the duck ponds. Managed to empty a whole train carriage that evening, even though I had changed and my work clothes were double-bagged.

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Image credits: ShadyElmm

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