I'm ambivalent about zoos. Using wild critters as entertainment.
Educational value? Beyond "this is what a tiger looks like"? Hardly.
I suppose a reasonably landscaped acre or two beats a cage, but it is still a small enclosure for wild predators that roam tens of square miles in their natural habitat.
Hiding meat around the compound at feeding time may relieve boredom, but how about "Jurassic Park" style? Release a live goat or sheep, and call out "Here kitty!" THAT would be educational about lions and tigers in the wild!
Captive breeding babies to be released in the wild? That's more about making zoos (and their donors) feel good. The mammals that really attract the public's attention are all social animals. Taking a juvenile tiger or elephant or [ ] and releasing it to a wild herd I doubt works very well. It might work for endangered reptiles.
But, in the near future for many species, we have soon have either individual animals in zoos or watching them on Internet videos, so ...