Apparently, Meerkats In Zoos Are Real Dickheads And Don't Bother With "Social Niceties"

Meerkats in zoos fight over food more aggressively, are pickier about which of their peers they groom and have less stable relationships than those living in the wild.

This may be due to living such a comfortable life, free of predators and with food and housing reliably available without having to work together for it, says Xareni Pacheco at the Autonomous University of Mexico State.

Why are we talking about Meerkats? Because I saw this article while I was looking up the perils of raising animals in Zoos. Yes, this week's episode of Because We Got High, it's the Z episode(!) and we got into Zeros, Zoos and Zillow. But back to Zoos. 

These Meerkats are just the latest in a long history of BULLSHIT coming out of Zoos. These angels have bad relationships, no shit, because they don't have to care about each other in the wild, because they aren't in the wild. They're too comfortable. They've been spoiled by regular food and no predators, and it's ruining life as they know it. NO LOYALTY! NO DRIVE! NO LOVE! It's so fucked up.

All in all, Zoos are turning them into brats. We can't have that! Zoos also abuse animals constantly (cough SEAWORLD) but until we get rid of them, this will just keep happening. Do we want to get rid of Zoos? I'm unsure. The selfish part of me loves seeing exotic animals I'll probably never see in my lifetime. But then I think about the animals I'm seeing, and how they have no idea what their lives are really supposed to be like, and I want to pop the locks and bring the lions back to the Sahara. I'm probably cool with just watching Planet Earth a few times.