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Jack Hanna: What Zoo Critics Don’t Understand

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The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation in 1971, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forum is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.

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Sea World responds to questions about captivity.

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Sea World responds to questions about captivity.

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Panda mania: cubs born in captivity boost panda population

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5 Times Animals have been killed in zoos due to human encounters.

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5 Times Animals have been killed in zoos due to human encounters.

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5 Times Animals Have Been Killed in Zoos Due to Human Encounters

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Newsela | Student Opinion: Zoos should be banned

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Newsela | It’s a girl, girl, boy, girl! Baby boom at zoo partnership

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Zoos in New Orleans, Louisiana, and San Diego, California, have partnered to save endangered African animals.

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Newsela | Issue Overview: Should we have zoos?

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Living in a Zoo
Time for Kids

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Meet Huang Shunjie. He might have the best job in the world. The 24-year-old is a panda photographer and zookeeper. Huang spends each day caring for 18 panda cubs at the Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, in China. He prepares their meals of bamboo and milk formula. He checks on their growth and health. And he carries these two-tone fluff-balls between their sleeping pens and their public enclosure.

The best part? "I can get very close to the baby pandas, which makes many people jealous," Huang told TIME. "I get to hug them all the time."

There are, of course, bad parts to any job. In Huang's case, it's the regular bites and scratches he gets from the 45- to 55-pound bears. But it's a small price to pay to spend each day among the pandas' roly-poly cuteness. They tumble around, balance on their heads, and bop around like furry toddlers. "I'm a full-time daddy for these fluffy baby pandas," says Huang.

He-He and Mei-Mei

Two of the pandas Huang cares for are known worldwide. He-He and Mei-Mei celebrated their first birthday on July 25. They are the only twin pandas born from a wild father and captive mother. This helps widen the animal's genetic pool, which means a better chance at survival. Pandas were among the world's most threatened animals until recently.

"Mei-Mei is very cute and clingy," says Huang. "But her brother is very naughty. He is one of the wild kids. He loves making trouble."

Giant pandas are native to China. For many years, they were one of the world's most endangered creatures. Their natural habitat, in bamboo forests, has been destroyed by construction. Pandas must eat 30 to 85 pounds of bamboo every day.

But populations have recovered in recent years. That's thanks to programs to help pandas breed. Today, there are 1,864 pandas in the wild. That's up from only 1,114 in the 1970s, according to China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration. Two-thirds of them live in nature reserves.

Panda Diplomacy

As the number of pandas goes up, China is able to send more of them overseas. This is called "panda diplomacy." It began in the seventh century, when China sent a pair of pandas to Emperor Tenmu, of Japan. Today, more than 50 pandas live in 18 countries.

Most famously, China sent a pair of pandas-Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing-to the United States after President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China, in 1972. More recently, two pandas were sent to the Moscow Zoo, in Russia, just last month.

China usually sends pandas to other countries for 10 years. It charges about $1 million per year for the service. Any offspring remain China's property. The loans often take place along with international trade deals that China's involved in. But if a deal goes sour, China may take the pandas back.

Huang doesn't think about money or politics, though. He thinks about the fact that the pandas he cares for end up bringing joy to millions of adults and children around the globe. "I'm really proud of that," he says.
Reporting and video by Zhang Chi, in Chengdu

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Meet Huang Shunjie. He might have the best job in the world. The 24-year-old is a panda photographer and zookeeper. Huang spends each day caring for 18 panda cubs at the Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, in China. He...

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Time Magazine for Kids

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Movies, TV shows, and even Greek myths portray dolphins as helpful, playful creatures. "The world loves a good dolphin story," Blake Morton, a scientist who studies animal behavior, told TIME for Kids. "And I think one reason for that is we see a lot of ourselves mirrored in their behavior."

Morton used scientific methods to test his theory objectively × objectively HUGH WHITAKER-GETTY IMAGES done without bias; done in a way that's based on facts rather than feelings (adverb) She said it was freezing outside, which was objectively true because the temperature was 32°. . The result of this work is a new report confirming that humans and dolphins share certain personality traits. The report was published in January, in the Journal of Comparative Psychology.

The study involved 134 bottlenose dolphins at facilities in eight countries and territories. Each dolphin was observed and rated by several people, using a "dolphin personality questionnaire." The questionnaire consisted of more than 40 items. It included adjectives such as stubborn, playful, and intelligent. Staff members gave every dolphin a score from 1 to 5 for each item, based on how well it described the animal's behavior. From these ratings, Morton and his team were able to spot personality traits that are common in dolphins.

The results show that dolphins and humans have some similar personality traits. Most notably, the two species share traits related to curiosity and sociability × sociability JENNIFER A SMITH-GETTY IMAGES friendliness (noun) My dog's traits include patience and sociability. .

The Big Picture

Morton's dolphin study and others like it help us learn about other species. But they also help us learn about ourselves. "My kind of work stems from the spirit of trying to understand what made humans the way we are," Morton says. "One way we can do that is to compare our behavior to the rest of the animal kingdom."

Scientists around the world are researching different animal species, from apes in Africa to reptiles in North America. They're trying to determine what makes humans different from other animals. They also want to know what makes us the same. Their research raises important questions that future scientists will work to answer.

It's all a big puzzle, Morton says: "It takes thousands of careful papers being published before you start to see the puzzle coming together." He compares scientific research to pointillism. That's a painting style in which an artist makes a picture using lots of tiny dots. "If you take a step back and look at all those little single points of work," Morton says, "you'll see a big picture come into view."

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Movies, TV shows, and even Greek myths portray dolphins as helpful, playful creatures. "The world loves a good dolphin story," Blake Morton, a scientist who studies animal behavior, told TIME for Kids. "And I think one reason for that is...

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Scholastic News

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should the show go on killer whale debate