Further role of zoos in conservation: Monitoring wildlife use and the dilemma of receiving donated and confiscated animals

The role of zoos in conservation has evolved. Additional roles that zoos can play in conservation include monitoring live wildlife use (one of the main threats for many species). Zoos in many parts of the world are offered animals by the public and are required to receive animals confiscated by the authorities. By quantifying these animals, zoos can monitor live wildlife use rates and trends and obtain relevant information on the environment of a region which can assist in situ conservation management. Zoos are sometimes forced to receive unwanted animals from the public or the authorities. Receiving these animals is a burden for zoos. Agreements between zoos and governments are important to take care of these animals and to optimize the use of conservation resources. It is not possible or desirable to maintain all donated and seized animals. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources provides useful guidelines on what to do with them. In all cases, species conservation should take precedence over individual animal welfare. These issues are illustrated with data collected at Zoológico Regional Miguel Alvarez del Toro (ZOOMAT) in Chiapas, southern Mexico. Zoo Biol 24:115–124, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Mission impossible or mission accomplished: Do zoo organizational missions influence conservation practices?

Conservation is an important organizational focus for zoos and aquariums. Organizational identity theory predicts a relationship between what is central to organizations, such as their mission statements, and their strategic activities. Based on this theory, we tested how organizational missions relate to their conservation strategies and practices. Tax forms and websites provided data from 173 zoos and 38 aquariums in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in North America. We analyzed conservation mission strength, organizational characteristics, and project features with dependent variables representing the depth of organizational conservation commitments: amount of grants zoos funded, number of partner organizations, and number of projects per zoo. On tax forms, the average amount of total conservation grants donated to partner organizations per zoo was over $650,000, while the average number of partners reported on the tax forms was two. The content analysis of websites revealed an average of 14 conservation partners and 10 projects per zoo. Negative binomial regression models were significant. The financial analysis revealed that only the number of zoo personnel, as a surrogate for organization size, significantly predicted the amount of zoos’ conservation grants. Website analyses found increasing budgets, organizational involvement, and geographic reach of the projects predicted increasing numbers of conservation projects and partnerships. However, our findings did not support the hypothesized relationship—strength of organizational mission did not predict strategy and activities. Zoos could do more to strategically activate their organizational identities and conservation missions to achieve their conservation goals.     

The global reach of zoos and aquariums in visitor numbers and conservation expenditures

A survey conducted by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, in collaboration with national and regional zoo and aquarium associations, showed that annually more than 700 million people visit zoos and aquariums worldwide and are thus potentially exposed to environmental education. Furthermore, the world zoo and aquarium community reportedly spends about US$ 350 million on wildlife conservation each year. Therefore, the world zoo and aquarium community has the potential to play an important role in both environmental education and wildlife conservation. Systematic reviews are encouraged to provide further evidence for the effectiveness of zoos and aquariums as centers of education and conservation.     

Captive breeding—a useful tool in the preservation of biodiversity?

Within the next decades species extinction may eliminate between 20 and 50% of the Earth's species. Captive breeding has often been claimed to be a useful tool in preservation of biodiversity. The role of zoos in conservation work and the value of captive breeding are discussed; the latter exemplified by the Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) Programme and the Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx) Programme. Captive breeding programmes are very resource demanding and can only be afforded for a very small number of species, which limits their value significantly. Zoos deal mainly with vertebrates, but these comprise less than 3% of the described species, and although the 878 zoos considered hold more than 20 000 specimens of 140 threatened mammal species, they probably only contribute to the conservation of 20 full species. The situation for birds, reptiles and amphibians is even worse. Zoos face serious problems with minimum viable population sizes and hybridization. However, zoos can make a major contribution to preservation of biodiversity through educating and informing the public. Today, where the crisis of extinction of species has reached such daunting dimensions, captive breeding and otherex situ conservation tools should be the last resort for preserving biodiversity, and captive breeding must not become an excuse to avoid dealing with preservation of habitats.     

Conservation medicine and One Health in zoos: Scope,obstacles, and unrecognized potential

Zoo veterinarians and allied professionals have been contributing to conservation medicine (CM) and One Health (OH) activities for more than two decades. Although the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) considers conservation a key part of its mission, little published material exists about the extent of AZA work in CM/OH or the challenges and opportunities associated with these endeavors. To better understand the current scope of CM/OH in zoos, we surveyed 53 AZA‐accredited institutions from April through October of 2016. We obtained information on CM/OH infrastructure, support for expansion in this area, and strategies to overcome perceived obstacles hindering CM/OH from becoming a core AZA activity. Survey results revealed that while most zoos favor greater investment in CM/OH programs, awareness, and understanding of CM/OH across the broader zoo community and public is lacking. The majority of respondents stated that overcoming this challenge is paramount to attaining support for CM/OH initiatives. In spite of these obstacles, survey respondents highlighted many positive developments in CM/OH. We found that 84% of zoos surveyed are actively engaged in CM/OH activities, and 12% house formal CM/OH programs. Another 8% of respondents said their institutions were developing CM/OH programs. Perhaps most noteworthy, we found that zoo size did not have a significant bearing on the financial amount allocated toward an institution's CM/OH activities. This suggests that all zoos, regardless of size, can make meaningful contributions to the growing movement of CM/OH and help redefine the role of zoos within this movement.     

Guiding the prioritization of the most endangered and evolutionary distinct birds for new zoo conservation programs

Zoos have played a pivotal role in the successful reinforcement and reintroduction of species threatened with extinction, but prioritization is required in the face of increasing need and limited capacity. One means of prioritizing between species of equal threat status when establishing new breeding programs is the consideration of evolutionary distinctness (ED). More distinct species have fewer close relatives such that their extinction would result in a greater overall loss to the Tree of Life. Considering global ex situ holdings of birds (a group with a complete and well‐detailed evolutionary tree), we investigate the representation of at‐risk and highly evolutionarily distinct species in global zoo holdings. We identified a total of 2,236 bird species indicated by the Zoological Information Management System as being held in zoological institutions worldwide. As previously reported, imperiled species (defined as those possessing endangered or critically endangered threat status) in this database are less likely to be held in zoos than non‐imperiled species. However, we find that species possessing ED scores within the top 10% of all bird species are more likely to be held in zoos than other species, possibly because they possess unique characteristics that have historically made them popular exhibits. To assist with the selection of high priority ED species for future zoo conservation programs, we provide a list of imperiled species currently not held in zoos, ranked by ED. This list highlights species representing particular priorities for ex situ conservation planners, and represents a practical tool for improving the conservation value of zoological collections.     

Where Are Zoos Going—or Are They Gone?

ABSTRACT

To some, zoos are prisons exploiting animals. In reality zoos range from bad to better. I make this distinction: A bad zoo makes animals work for it; a good zoo works for animals. Good zoos do effective conservation work and continually strive to improve exhibits, relevance to conservation, and inspiring public engagement for wildlife. Many zoos have improved enormously; the better ones being crucial in saving species that would have otherwise gone extinct. Nonetheless, for some people the mere word “zoo” carries impressions of old zoos, bad zoos, circuses, and theme-park shows that many find distasteful. Good zoos know they must innovate forward. As society grows increasingly estranged from nature and continues driving broad declines of wildlife, wild lands, and natural systems, the goal of zoos and every organization concerned with animal welfare should not be to separate humans from other animals, but to entangle all humans in nonhuman lives. Zoos of the next decades must become the first stage in bringing young people into life-long, engaged caring about animals. They could carry on that mission in their communities, in schools, in wild lands, as well as inside their gates. Without a strong public constituency, wild animals will not withstand continued human proliferation. Zoos and aquariums must innovate toward being a crucial force abetting the continued existence of wildness on Earth. Zoos of the future must become uplifting places of respect, rescue, enhancement, conservation, and public engagement.     

Unraveling the Complexity of the Zoo Community: Identifying the Variables Related to Conservation Performance in Zoological Parks

Zoological parks make up a highly heterogeneous community. Ranging from small collections at shopping malls to highly developed bioparks, their contribution to conservation is expected to vary enormously. Although several studies have focused on assessing such contribution, the parameters used frequently do not apply when considering more modest zoos. The goals of this study are to determine, within the wide range of zoos, which type tend to fulfill the conservation mission of modern zoos and to identify the variables associated to their conservation performance. We used the requirements demanded by the European Community Zoos Directive 1999/22/EC, relating to the keeping of wild animals in zoological parks, to assess conservation performance in 72% of officially registered Spanish zoos. Sampled zoos were classified into groups according to their common characteristics, and then the variables related to how they met each of the Directive's requirements in the groups were assessed. We found that private zoological parks with large zoological collections, located within metropolitan areas, and members of a zoo association tended to fulfill the requirements. Being a member of a zoo association was the variable that better explained fulfillment of the requirements among the evaluated zoos. Data revealed that zoos not meeting any requirement were few, although those meeting all of them were not frequent. The requirement related to adequate record keeping showed the lowest level of fulfillment. We discuss the implications of our results and propose measures of change in order to promote the contribution of zoos to biodiversity conservation. Zoo Biol 31:55;–70, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Role of Brazilian zoos in ex situ bird conservation: from 1981 to 2005

Zoos may play an important role in conservation when they maintain and breed large numbers of animals that are threatened with extinction. Bird conservation is in a privileged situation owing to the extensive biological information available about this class. Annual inventories produced by the "Sociedade de Zoológicos do Brasil" in the years 1981, 1990, 2000, and 2005 were analyzed. Variables, such as the number of zoos per geographic region; number of birds held; number of bird species in each IUCN threat category; number of exotic and native bird species; number of potentially breeding bird species; number of bird species in each order; and number of threatened bird species breeding, were analyzed. Brazilian zoos kept more than 350 bird species. The number of bird species and specimens held by the Brazilian Zoos increased from 1981 to 2000, but decreased in 2005. The same pattern was observed for the number of species in each IUCN threat category. Results showed that the potential of the Brazilian zoos in bird conservation needs to be enhanced because they maintain threatened species but do not implement systematic genetic, reproductive, or behavioral management protocols for most species.     

It's a sign: Animal welfare and zoo type are predictors of animal identification signage usage and quality at zoo exhibits

Conservation education programs are listed as priority actions for almost every threatened species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. Zoos play an important role in delivering such programs, yet evidence of zoo education in many non-western countries is limited. Here, we evaluate animal identification signage prevalence and quality at zoo exhibits and investigate whether animal welfare, zoo type (accredited, government, and private), admission fee, zoo size, and proximity to urban centers are influencing factors. We used hornbills (Bucerotidae) as a model taxon, surveyed hornbill signage, and conducted welfare assessments of hornbill exhibits. We developed scoring frameworks and applied content analysis to analyze signage quality. Our results show that out of 18 zoos that displayed hornbills, 15 had hornbill signage. However, of the 106 hornbill exhibits in these zoos, 33% had no signage. We also found that signage presence or absence at individual zoos and signage quality is strongly correlated with animal welfare quality. Zoo type is a key factor in predicting signage and welfare quality, with accredited zoos scoring highest for both signage and welfare, followed by government and private zoos. Private zoos charged higher admission than other zoo types, and zoo size and proximity to urban centers did not influence signage or welfare scores. Overall, we conclude that in our study, signage usage and quality are inadequate, highlighting the importance of compliance with robust zoo standards to improve education and welfare within zoos to support global conservation goals.     

Naturalistic Exhibits May be More Effective Than Traditional Exhibits at Improving Zoo-Visitor Attitudes toward African Apes

Zoos play a unique role in wildlife conservation, particularly in the area of conservation education. Because of their popularity and flagship status for broader conservation issues, great apes may prove to be one of the most important educational conduits in zoos. In 2002, we surveyed knowledge of and attitudes toward African apes in visitors to the Lester E. Fisher Great Ape House (GAH) at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, IL, USA. In the current study, we replicated the survey to document attitudes to and knowledge of the newly renovated and naturalistic Regenstein Center for African Apes (RCAA) and compared results. We found RCAA was no more effective than GAH in increasing visitor knowledge about apes, although visitors answered more questions correctly upon exit than on entrance in both buildings. We did find, however, that RCAA was more effective than GAH at improving visitor attitudes toward chimpanzees. Specifically, upon exiting, RCAA visitors showed increased naturalistic attitudes and reduced utilitarian attitudes toward chimpanzees. Exhibiting apes in naturalistic settings may therefore be an effective way to increase visitor concern for apes in nature and in zoos. Zoos and aquariums investing in new, naturalistic ape exhibits with the aim to educate about, provide emotional connections to, improve attitudes toward, and ultimately increase conservation of apes, need to then critically evaluate whether the actual effect of the designed environment on visitors—above and beyond intended benefits for the animals—is commensurate with the investment. The broader impacts of even small shifts in visitor attitude in the right direction could be significant. These findings may vary across species and settings, however, and should be assessed accordingly.     

系统保护规划的理论、方法及关键问题

为了减缓生物多样性丧失的趋势、将有限的保护资源用于关键区域,Margules等提出了系统保护规划(Systematic Conservation Planning)概念和方法,目前该方法已成为国际主流保护规划方法。与传统基于专家决策的保护体系规划方法不同,系统保护规划拥有量化的保护目标、保护成本,并综合考虑保护体系连通性、人为干扰因素,使用优化算法计算,从而获得空间明晰的生物多样性保护体系。在阐述规划理念、规划流程与方法的基础上,重点评述了生物多样性替代指标的选择、保护规划成本的计算、保护目标的设置、规划结果的可靠性评估等关键问题,并结合我国的具体情况,探讨了该方法在我国的应用前景,以期为推进我国生物多样性与生态服务功能的保护做出贡献。     

Translocations,conservation, and climate change: use of restoration sites as protorefuges and protorefugia

High levels of human activity have affected the quality and usability of the natural landscape, leading to habitat degradation, loss of connectivity between sites, and reduced chances of long‐term survival for individual species. In line with conservation policy, ecological restoration practitioners try to improve degraded sites by means of reestablishing species lost from these sites, thereby returning ecological functionality and maintaining biological diversity. It may appear difficult to integrate the long‐term potential impacts of climate change within restoration strategies. However, more refined climate projections and species distribution models provide us with better understanding of likely scenarios, enabling us to consider future proofing as an integral part of the design of restoration sites, aiding plant conservation. We believe that it is possible to go one step further with a closer integration of restoration and conservation objectives. We introduce the novel concepts of “protorefuges” and “protorefugia”—restoration sites that threatened species can be translocated to, where the restoration design can be specifically adapted to help reduce the decline of threatened species at the leading and trailing edges (respectively) of bioclimatic envelope shifts. This is particularly relevant for nuclear decommissioning sites, which may be free from human activity for decades to centuries.     

普氏原羚分布、种群和保护现状

普氏原羚(Procapra przewalskii)是青藏高原特有物种, 为了掌握该物种的分布和种群状况, 我们于2014-2015年采用全面调查和直接计数的方法, 对普氏原羚的分布、种群和保护现状进行了调查。结果如下: 普氏原羚分布在青海湖周边12个隔离的分布点, 与全国第一次野生动物资源调查的结果相比, 有多个新的分布点被发现, 分布范围和面积扩大; 调查共发现1,238只普氏原羚, 与2010年以后的调查结果相比, 种群数量维持在一个稳定的水平。然而, 仅有4个分布点位于青海湖国家级自然保护区范围内。尽管刚察县成立了青海湖普氏原羚特护区, 天峻县成立了普氏原羚自然保护站, 但现有的管护力度仍然不够, 且缺乏系统的管理规划。我们建议在天峻县布哈河上游的生格-快尔玛地区成立普氏原羚自然保护区; 同时建立适当的生态补偿机制, 协调保护与社区发展的矛盾; 鉴于目前圈养种群发展迅速, 建议在历史分布区选取合适的地点进行人工繁育个体的迁地放归。     

Translocations: Providing Outcomes for Wildlife, Resource Managers, Scientists, and the Human Community

The World Conservation Union (1987) defines a translocation as a release of animals with the intention of establishing, reestablishing, or augmenting an existing population. Despite frequent use as a tool for the management of threatened and endangered wildlife, the full benefits of translocations often go unrealized. In this article, I demonstrate how translocations can achieve outputs for conservation management, conservation science, and the wider human community, using North Island (NI) Saddleback or Tieke ( Philesturnus rufusater ) as an illustrative example. From a conservation management perspective, NI Saddleback have been salvaged from a relic population of less than 500 birds on 484-ha Hen Island to a metapopulation of approximately 6,000 birds on 13 offshore islands and at two mainland New Zealand sites. These translocations have reduced the risk of global extinction for this species and helped restore the ecosystems involved. All these translocations have occurred in the past 42 years from known source populations and with known numbers of birds released. The resulting replicated serial population bottlenecks provide numerous scientific opportunities for conservation and biological research. Although the first Saddleback translocations were to reserves closed to the public, subsequent translocations have been to open reserves, providing the wider human community with an opportunity to see and be actively involved in the management of a threatened endemic species. This has raised the profile of both NI Saddleback and other species and has provided wider community conservation benefits. These three outputs illustrate the value of translocations for resource management and conservation science and for increasing community interest, participation, and investment in biological conservation.     

The conservation of declining butterfly populations in Britain and Europe: priorities, problems and successes

The status, ecology and conservation of butterflies in Europe and Britain are reviewed, as a background to the National Trust's past and future contribution to British conservation. Britain has a poor butterfly fauna by European standards, the main areas of endemism and species richness being in the Alps and southern Europe. To date, the main declines among European butterfly populations have occurred across central-northern Europe, with slightly higher extinction rates in mainland countries than in Britain. The main causes of decline are biotope destruction, the loss of certain species' habitats within surviving semi-natural biotopes due to changed land management, and a failure by several species to track the patches of their habitat that are still being generated in modern fragmented landscapes. Until recently, most conservation programmes failed to take account of the latter two factors, resulting in many local extinctions of rare butterfly species even in conservation areas. Recent measures have been much more successful; many were first tested on National Trust properties.     

Plant diversity in a changing world: status,trends, and conservation needs

The conservation of plants has not generated the sense of urgency—or the funding—that drives the conservation of animals, although plants are far more important for us. There are an estimated 500,000 species of land plants (angiosperms, gymnosperms, ferns, lycophytes, and bryophytes), with diversity strongly concentrated in the humid tropics. Many species are still unknown to science. Perhaps a third of all land plants are at risk of extinction, including many that are undescribed, or are described but otherwise data deficient. There have been few known global extinctions so far, but many additional species have not been recorded recently and may be extinct. Although only a minority of plant species have a specific human use, many more play important roles in natural ecosystems and the services they provide, and rare species are more likely to have unusual traits that could be useful in the future. The major threats to plant diversity include habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation, overexploitation, invasive species, pollution, and anthropogenic climate change. Conservation of plant diversity is a massive task if viewed globally, but the combination of a well-designed and well-managed protected area system and ex situ gap-filling and back-up should work anywhere. The most urgent needs are for the completion of the global botanical inventory and an assessment of the conservation status of the 94% of plant species not yet evaluated, so that both in and ex situ conservation can be targeted efficiently. Globally, the biggest conservation gap is in the hyperdiverse lowland tropics and this is where attention needs to be focused.     

Geographic distribution,conservation effectiveness,and gaps for national key protected wild plants in China

National key protected wild plants (NKPWPs) are species with important conservation value based on genetics, ecology, culture, and/or scientific research, which are also confronted with serious threats. However, their geographical distribution patterns and conservation status remain unclear. In this study, we compiled 1032 species of NKPWPs. We measured the diversity to identify hotspots of NKPWPs based on species richness, weighted range size rarity and a complementarity-based analysis. Comparing the distribution and hotspots of NKPWPs with the coverage of Chinese nature reserves (NRs), we assessed conservation effectiveness and identified conservation gaps. The results identified 13 diversity hotspots; only 9.5% of them were covered by NRs with >30% of the grid cell area, and even 19.5% were not covered at all by NRs. Overall, 44.7% of NKPWPs were effectively protected by national NRs. Despite this success, 571 species in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guangxi, Guangdong, southern Hainan, Taiwan, and northern Xinjiang remain unprotected by NRs. The protected proportion of plants with first-level protection was lower than that of plants with second-level protection. The low overall proportion of protected hotspots indicates that the conservation outlook for NKPWPs is not optimistic. This study identifies priority conservation areas and conservation gaps and provides a scientific reference for the conservation of wild plants in China.