When viewing an animal in captivity, plenty of people wonder whether the creature is bored, if not depressed. It might apply to a tiger pacing back and forth in an enclosure, or a snake that rarely emerges from its little wooden tunnel in a glass box.
Unlike your pet dog or cat — species that have spent tens of thousands of years adjusting to a life of domesticity — the wolves and wildcats that our pets descended from are not equipped for that lifestyle, says Liz Tyson, programs director for Born Free USA, a nonprofit wildlife conservation group that operates a large animal sanctuary in South Texas.
“If you put a wild animal in a captive situation, they are going to be compromised in one way or another,” she says. “They’re missing out on so much complexity and all the things that make them themselves.”
