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Rock’n’rollers

10,000 Birds

Throw in Iberian Pigs, the odd fighting bull and a few flocks of sheep and the similarities are striking. All sorts of thoughts race through your mind: we drove too far south, I really need to stop taking drugs, this must be an escapee – someone let the cage door open at the zoo, or just one simple thought: this bird is breath-taking.

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When conservation and animal rights collide

10,000 Birds

One of the first examples I ever encountered was in the books of Gerald Durrell, the famous conservationist who was an early pioneer of the roles of zoos in conservation. He often defended that role in his books from animal rights activists who opposed “imprisoning” animals in zoos even if it saved them from extinction.