Who's really smarter?

I have mixed feelings about zoos. Sure, they're the only opportunity most of us will ever have to see an elephant, giraffe or tiger in the flesh. But is this something we can't live without? The idea of caging animals for our own entertainment seems frivolous and unnecessary, as if zoos were created simply to show the animals that our superior intelligence outweighs their superior strength.

Despite my mixed feelings, I still think that anyone who visits a zoo should be able to have their safety assured. One of the survivors of the tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo has admitted that he and the other men, one of whom died, "yelled and waved" at the tiger before the attack.

While this was stupid behavior, likely fueled by the alcohol and drugs they are known to have used that day, they are probably not the first to taunt zoo animals and they certainly did not expect to be attacked.

Fault in this case lies primarily with the zoo, whose enclosure did not meet height regulations. However, situations like this one might lead us to reconsider if humans really are smarter than animals...