Heini Hediger - Zoo Biology

Zoo Biology

In 1942 the Swiss biologist and ethologist Heini Hediger made a revolutionary breakthrough. He developed the science of wild animals kept in human care and published this concept of a new, special branch of biology, called “zoo biology”. The main statement is that animals in zoos are not to be considered as “captives” but as “owners of property”, namely the territory of their enclosures. They mark and defend this territory as they do in the natural environment and if the enclosures contain these elements which are of importance to them also in their natural environment, they have neither need nor desire to leave this property, but to the contrary, stay within it, even when they would have the opportunity to escape, or return to this “safe heaven”, should the by accident have gotten out. He consequently emphasized that the quality of the enclosures (“furnishing”, structure) is equally, or even more important than quantity (space, dimensions) and substantiated this with observations in the natural habitat. Among many other things he made clear that animals in the natural habitat do not need huge spaces, when all their needs could be satisfied within close range, that, in fact, animals do not move about for pleasure but to satisfy their needs. Zoo biology therefore implies that the life of animals in their natural surroundings must be studied in order to provide them with appropriate keeping conditions in human care. In animal husbandry, the aim of this concept — guided by the maxim “changing cages into territories” — was to meet the biological and ethological requirements of the exhibited animals. Hediger's publications had an enormous positive impact on the keeping of wild animals in human care in particular also in the construction of enclosures and the planning of zoos.

In the 1950s, Heini Hediger began promoting the concept of training zoo animals to elicit biologically suitable behavior and to afford the animal exercise and mental occupation. Further, he observed that in some cases training increased the opportunity for the zoo keeper to give needed medical treatments to the animal. He also referred to zoo animal training as “disciplined play”.

Prof. Heini Hediger already in the forties defined the four main tasks for zoos, which are until today:

1. Recreation
2. Education
3. Research
4. Conservation

In the 1960s, Heini Hediger defined the seven aspects of a zoological garden considering people, money, space, methods, administration, animals and research, in that order. He reintroduced the new concept of zoo biology and dealt with such matters as food, causes of death, zoo architecture, the meaning of animal to man and man to animal, the exhibition value of animals, and the behavior of humans in zoos.