"What comes to mind when somebody asks you the describe a zoo? What makes a good zoo?"

Zoos have existed for thousands of years and have been traced back to wall carvings found in Egypt and Mesopotamia. There is evidence that rulers and aristocrats created menageries as early as 3500 BCE. 

It was not until the last 150 years that zoos started to change from a menagerie of animals into what we would call the modern zoo. The early zoos of the 18th and 19th century tried to display as many animals as possible to attract the greatest number of visitors. In those days people had little or no understanding of the behaviour, habitat or needs of the animals. 

Click on the link to watch the film below to see what was the Edinburgh Zoo - Chimps tea party. Think about how zoos have changed.

Click on the video below and watch an extract from BBC Horizon, where they investigate how and why zoos keep animals, and looks at whether they need to change to keep up with modern science. What do you think?