When
animals are kept in cages they will suffer from zoochosis – a psychotic
condition whereby animals display uncharacteristic behaviours, such as monotonous,
obsessive, and/or repetitive actions that serve no purpose. Polar bears will
swim in circles for hours, lions and tigers will pace back-and-forth nonstop, and
elephants will sway to-and-fro. These are all signs of zoochosis.
In some
animals, zoochosis can result in self-harm, and in big cats especially, the
harm may be taken out on others of their species. In the wild, big cats are
normally solitary and territorial by nature. Put into cages conflict and
violence can escalate quickly and dangerously.
Zoochosis
has been studied and shows that the brains of animals are changed (for the
worse) when kept in captivity. A 2024 article1 notes the following:
‘The chronic stress of living in captivity without any control over their environment leads to learned helplessness, a trauma response that affects the hippocampus, which handles memory functions, and the amygdala, which processes emotions. As a result, a captive animal’s memory and emotions are irregular, and some animals have been shown to become emotionally unpredictable. Prolonged stress also disrupts the balance of serotonin and dopamine in an animal’s brain, which can lead to repetitive and often damaging behaviour.’
Just as we
saw last week, human response to being caged in is comparable to the response
of caged animals; humans are animals after all!
Neurological
research shows that ‘…urbanization represents an evolutionary mismatch
between contemporary brains and the neural systems of our human ancestors, an
increased vulnerability for psychiatric illness may represent an escalating
medical threat as urban populations are projected to rise in future years.’2
So it is
then: the brains of we humans too, are changed for the worse when in caged conditions.
Does this changed
brain result in greater violence? It appears it might.
A 2012
article on the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance (ALNAP)
website3 urgently claims that ‘Cities have increasingly become
the battlefield of recent conflicts as they serve as the seats of power and
gateways to resources.’
Alarmingly,
the correlation between violence and urbanisation may not be contained within
one or two generations. Transgenerational effects of violence and its related
trauma (including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – PTSD) has been shown to
exacerbate the harmful effects of caged living.
Breaking
the cycle of violence and its associated PTSD may not be easy, especially as we
humans continue to cage ourselves in.
Can we
re-wild ourselves in time, before we descend into total inter-tribal,
inter-generational, and inter-cultural warfare?
Only
through re-wiring our brains and cutting the bars of our cages it would seem.
Notes:
1. https://www.worldanimalprotection.us/latest/blogs/heres-how-captivity-affects-mammals-brains/
Accessed 12 April 2026
2. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4774049/
Accessed 12 April 2026
3. https://alnap.org/help-library/resources/rapid-urbanization-and-the-growing-threat-of-violence-and-conflict-a-21st-century/ Accessed 12 April 2026
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