So, What Are You Wearing?

We are about two weeks out from Halloween, and this is the time of year when our collective zoo marketing departments start kicking it into holiday overdrive.  With a year as rough as this one has been (and continues to be), they want to do all they can to give the zoo good PR, make some headlines, and encourage visitors to come in through the gates (in a responsible, socially-distanced manner, of course).  Staples of Halloween zoo fun include trick or treating, costume contests, and celebrations of some of our "scarier" animals.

In some cases, the costumes aren't just worn by the humans.  That part can get a little... controversial.

This morning, I sat bemused watching a rage-fueled war break out on Facebook over a small paper witch hat, which someone placed on top of a pet blue-tongued skink lizard (essentially the reptilian version of a kielbasa).  Some of the commentators thought it was cute, or at the very list, neutral, as it did the skink no harm, and it could waddle off whenever it wanted to, dislodging its little ornament.  The others were apoplectic with disgust that something so undignified could be done to an animal, and what kind of message it sent, and the lack of respect it showed the lizard, and so on.

I'm not saying these people disapproved.  I'm saying they were an-gry.

Some zoos and aquariums dress up some of their animals for Halloween, and the reactions when they do can be just as harsh and divided.  Some people call it enrichment, on the grounds that you can sort of call anything you do with an animal outside of basic cleaning and feeding enrichment.  Others are very mindful of the message and worry that doing things like this cheapens the animal and makes it seem like a pet or a toy rather than a living being worthy of respect and conservation.  I tend to lean more towards the later, but perhaps not as angrily.

Obviously anything that would stress the animal out or put its safety at risk (a costume that could get tangled on something, or where the animal could rip off an ingest a piece of it), that's bad news.  But truth be told, 99% of the time, I doubt that the animal cares.  If you'd placed a leaf on top of the skink's head, the reaction would have been the same.  It would have sat there, and then fallen off, and the lizard would get on with its day.  I can still see the viewpoint of not wanting to do things that would promote irresponsible behavior towards the animals, like impulse pet buying under the assumption that you could take your fennec fox out like a chihuahua in a purse, dressed in silly costumes.  

Something I've come to realize, working with animals for so long, is that the care we provide them - the environment, diet, enrichment, how we interact with them - tends to tell us a lot more about the keepers than it does the actual animals.