My favorite āhumans are space orcsā idea is that trope where aliens kidnap some humans for their zoo, except it ends up like Jurassic Park. And the poor Alien Humanologists who were invited to the park are like:
āYou mean you locked up a pack of curious, highly competitive persistence predators with NO enrichment in the enclosure? You FOOLS! If you had bothered to throw a basketball or half a box of Legos in there, KE-X9 would still be alive!
āWell of course they climbed the retaining wall! Did you think to study their evolutionary lineage AT ALL?ā
The humans would find a way to use the basketball and legos to escape. I mean one time a guy somehow escaped from a prison in Mexico without breaking any laws so his escape would be legal so honestly given enough time the Jurassic park situation is inevitable.
Jurassic Park would be awesome, but now that I think about it I also kind of love love the idea of humans as the alien zoo equivalent of those octopuses that climb out of their tanks and wander around taste-testing other exhibits or throwing sub-par shrimp at handlers.Ā
Like theyāre totally unable to figure out whatās happening because the cameras keep going out, but every night things get moved, or stolen, exhibits are disappearing, WHAT IS GOING ON, theyāve moved facilities twice and itās still happening, are they haunted, are the ancestors angry, WHAT IS HAPPENING!?
And then a weary humanologist is allĀ ā⦠your humans are getting outā.Ā
āThat is impossible.āĀ
āTheyāre getting out.āĀ
āThat enclosure is COMPLETELY SECURE.āĀ
āAnd yet somehow theyāre getting out.āĀ
āTHE HUMANS ARE NOT GETTING OUT.āĀ
āOh yeah? I bet you twenty glarks theyāre getting out. Stay after closing time with me and Iāll show you.āĀ
*next day*
ā⦠the humans were getting out.āĀ
ā⦠why did they keep going back in, then?!ā
(In a deeply embarrassed mumble) āThey said they werenāt going to escape until they finished their behavioural experiments. Uh. On us.ā
two things come to mind:
1 - at our own zoos the MOST notorious jail breakers are the orangutans, who exploit all manner of methods, including literal lock picking. One orangutan, Ken Allen escaped several times WHILE THE ZOO WAS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC without getting caught by watching Zoo employees, even when they tried to disguise themselves as tourists to catch him at it. While he was being āsecretlyā surveilled, he managed to escape AND show the other orangutans how to escape. They finally found out he was doing some thought-to-be-impossible rock climbing to escape. To fix it, they brought in a team of human rock-climbers to locate all possible methods of climbing out. So. Humans would absolutely be the worst to try to keep contained. Like,Ā āescape roomsā are currently seen as a fun date idea. Iām sayin.
2 - animals that escape most often return to their ownĀ enclosure (after all thatās where their beds and dinners are, and if the zoo is any good it is the place best suited to their species-specific needs for miles and miles) after they have had sufficient excitement. Ken Allen the orangutan would escape and wander around the zoo looking at the animals like heād bought a ticket. So if the keepers were nice, and formed a bond, and the set up was comfy, once the human knew they could get out if they really wanted, theyād probably go back, depending on how uncomfortable/dangerous the alien environment was.
I mean if they were raised in captivity. Wild-caught humans, all bets are off; depending on age of capture a return home could be a full blown obsession, the sabotage of engineering from mechanisms up to entire facilities is a strong possibility, and they may go on a murder spree with improvised or stolen weapons if desperate.
Humans consider an Escape Room to be a Fun Courtship Ritual
The wild humans thing does depend a LOT on how good the zoo is, IMO. If you, as the alien zookeeper:
āRescuedā humans who werenāt thriving in the wild. (Aka dire medical debt.)
Made sure to take an entire social troop instead of lone individuals. (Your closest friends/family members are there.)
Offered VERY good care and enrichment.
Then I think youād have at least a PARTIAL chance of your wild humans proving to themselves that they can escape and immediately going, āOkay but the zoo is obviously better.ā



















