1/11February 2011

Male Andean condor. | © Hernán Canuti

EditorialContentsGerald Dick

Imprint

Dear WAZA Members!

I want to wish all WAZA members and associated friends all the best for a prosperous and happy New Year!

After a very interesting year of changes, increased outreach and intensified cooperation within the conservation community, WAZA is looking forward to increasing membership and working on sustainable animal populations in 2011. A series of workshops are planned to address the situation of animals in our institutions, their future planning and management. Addition-ally, this year’s Annual Conference, to be held in Prague (2–6 October 2011), has the theme Partnering for sustain-able zoos and aquariums. Sustain-ability of collections is in focus, as well as are the means of achieving it – such as studbooks, global species man-agement plans, regional and interre-gional cooperation as these themes are widely seen as the most burning issues for our community. The future of zoos and aquariums is at stake and there-fore as Jeffrey Bonner says: ”We need to constantly, voluntarily work together. There is altogether too much bickering and in ‑fighting among the organizations that make up our com-munity – between the family of zoos and the family of aquariums, among the regional associations, between our community and the academic commu-nity. It simply must stop.”

Editor: Gerald Dick, WAZA Executive Office IUCN Conservation Centre Rue Mauverney 28 CH-1196 Gland Switzerland phone: +41 22 999 07 90 fax: +41 22 999 07 91

After the 2010 Year of Biodiversity and the successful CoP 10 which was held in Nagoya, Japan, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the period from 2011 to 2020 as the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity in its Resolution 65/161. This global focus for the decade, which just started, pro-vides a perfect framework for the zoo and aquarium community in order to contribute in terms of communication, education and conservation.

I am looking forward to another inten-sive and successful year!

Gerald Dick WAZA Executive Director

ISSN: 1662-7733

This edition of WAZA News is also available on www.waza.org (members’ area).

WAZA is a registered interest representative with the European Commission, ID number 30556573017-18.

Printed on FSC paper.

Edition: 550 copies © WAZA 2011

Layout and typesetting:

michal@sky.cz Print: Agentura NP, Staré Město, Czech Republic

Vision and Future of Zoos ......... 2 CBD CoP 10, Nagoya ................ 5 The Time is Now, WED ............. 7 SAZARC Conference 2010 .........8 Lesser White-fronted Goose ...... 9 Sustainability to Implement ... 12 Book Reviews ........................ 15 Announcements .................... 16 Update on

Amphibian Ark Activities ........ 19 Update

International Studbooks ......... 20 Global Reach

of Zoos & Aquariums ...............21 WAZA Projects

Cardamom Mountains Wildlife Sanctuaries ................22 Melako Community Conservancy ...........................23 Pacarana Conservation Programme ....... 24 Research & Conservation, Two Primates Endemic to Ethiopia ............................ 25 Red Pandas in Captivity and in the Wild ........ 26 Sichuan Forest Biodiversity .....27 Mexican Wolf Recovery Programme ........................... 28 Omo Forest Conservation ....... 29 Andean Condor Conservation.............. 30

Recent Updates ......................31 New Member Applications ...... 34 Obituary Mr. Amnart

Cholwattana ......................... 36

Founding Member

WAZA news 1/11II

© WAZAGerald Dick and black-chested buzzard-eagle

(Geranoaetus melanoleucus).

The President’s PageMark Penning

It is a pleasure for me to wish all members of WAZA a happy, healthy and productive 2011. With the inclement weather bringing many centres in the Northern hemisphere to a standstill, and extensive flooding wreaking havoc in parts of Australia, the year has certainly got off to an inauspicious start. It is our hope that those institutions affected will make a speedy recovery and enjoy a suc-cessful 2011.

It is now widely accepted that human activities are contributing to global climate change and environmental degradation, which of course has a detrimental effect on animal popu-lations and their habitats. To halt and reverse this trend, we as zoos and aquariums seek to encourage large numbers of people to make small changes to their respective lifestyles by adopting more environmentally sustainable practices in their home, work and leisure activities. The sum of these small changes will be significant, both in direct physical terms and in the development of new societal paradigms and attitudes which will shape the development of mankind in the years ahead.

We know that a visit to a zoo or aquarium provides an opportunity for people to connect with nature and to learn about conservation issues, both in developed and in developing countries. In our zoo and aquarium community, we know that our institu-tions host around 700 million visitors each year, a clear reflection of the potential we have to bring about meaningful change in human society. Education has been prominent on our agenda for decades already, but we now understand that we also need to empower our visitors to make those lifestyle changes. The last couple of years have seen a concerted effort to better quantify the impact that we have on our visitors, and a number of further studies are being conducted.

Professor Roy Ballantyne from Queensland University has ap-proached us with a project to de-velop a strategy that can be used by aquariums in particular to reach large numbers of the general public with an environmental message that is designed to achieve real and long -lasting changes in people’s behaviour. The proposed project will develop and test the effectiveness

of post -visit action resources in the context of an aquarium visit. These include the provision of learning materials which reinforce on -site conservation messages and motivate visitors to translate their intentions into real actions. Recent research by Prof. Ballantyne into zoo and aquari-um visitors’ attitudes toward conser-vation education has shown that out of 841 aquarium visitors surveyed, 75% believed that the aquarium’s role in providing information about con-servation and environmental issues was at least as, if not more important than being a place where you can go for a fun experience. The majority of visitors felt it was very important for aquariums to encourage visitors to reflect on, and take action in relation to conservation and environmental issues. Just over half of all visitors felt it was very important for aquariums to provide post -visit materials to encourage people to continue learn-ing about environmental issues after their visit.

It is believed that this project will enable participating aquariums to accurately assess their mission performance outcomes, and the extent to which these can be en-hanced through the use of post -visit action resources. What’s more, such involvement means a greater degree of interaction with visitors and greater visitor satisfaction, together with an increased level of trust in the aquarium and belief in the aquarium’s mission. This, of course, is likely to lead to higher levels of visitation and word -of -mouth endorsements. Aquarium directors interested in par-ticipating in the project are welcome to contact me or the Executive Office for more information.

WAZA news 1/11 1

© Gerald Dick / WAZAMark Penning at CoP 10, Nagoya.

“Vision and Future of Zoos”*

Jeffrey P. Bonner, Chair – AZA Board of Directors

The vision for our future is clear. With-in the span of a generation, we must become field conservation organiza-tions. All of our actions, from fence to field, must all be oriented toward a single, common, shared goal – that of preserving wildlife – whether we do that through research, conserva-tion education, or, most importantly, through field conservation initiatives.

Wild things are safe in zoos and aquariums, but they are not saved in zoos and aquariums. And so our education programs, our research programs, our conservation breeding programs, what we communicate to our audience, how we engage them as advocates – all of these things must be dedicated to a singular pur-pose. We must become the world’s most powerful force for advocating and ensuring the future of wild things so that they can live their lives, rela-tively unmolested, and relatively free from the depredations of humanity. This is what we must do.

(And for this to occur, we must adopt and share a common vision for the future.)

Why do I think we can accomplish this?

First, we have money. The combined annual budgets of AZA -accredited institutions alone exceeds $1.5 billion per year. If we dedicated a mere 10% of our budgets to field conservation, we would be very close to what the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International together spend on field conservation. Add the budgets of the EAZA, ARAZPA and the many other regional associations to that sum, and we would exceed the budgets of the WWF and CI.

Second, we have the talent and expertise. Virtually all that we know about wildlife diseases was dis-covered in zoos. Much of what we know about the genetics of small populations was discovered in zoos. Endocrine studies, psychological and behavioral studies, nutrition stud-ies – the list is almost endless – all can be undertaken in zoological institu-tions. We’ve developed this talent and expertise because we have the world’s largest repository of living animals – over 10,000 different spe-cies world -wide.

Third, and most important of all, these living things allow us to reach visitors – some 175 million in North America and 140 million in EAZA and perhaps 700 million world -wide! In fact, the WAZA network claims some 1,300 member institutions (if you count the member institutions of regional associations). If we all spoke with the same messages to these visi-tors, we could mobilize and energize an engaged audience to understand our vision.

What are the problems that we can foresee?

Let’s be honest about the hard issues we face. Only by doing so can our performance come close to equaling our promise. Here are some of our major issues:

We need agreement on what constitutes a species.

The continued bickering among geneticists and, as a consequence, between geneticists and animal managers, must be addressed in such a way that genetics becomes a useful tool and not a confusing impediment.

Our collections are not sustainable.

Lees and Wilcken, taking a global sam-ple of species that ARAZPA was con-sidering bringing into their collections, found some alarming news. Among the 87 species selected, only 48% are breeding to replacement and only 55% have appropriate levels of genetic diversity. Why has this happened?

* Part of a keynote given at EAZA

Annual Conference in Ancona, 2010.

…Remember, we are all one community. We need to constantly, voluntarily work together…

2 WAZA news 1/11

• Lack of exhibit and breeding space.• A need for advanced husbandry

expertise to breed some species in zoos and aquariums.

• Overloaded planning capacity.• Unnecessary complexity in popula-

tion management administration.• Inadequate institutional

awareness surrounding the topic of sustainability.

• A need for stronger institutional commitment to be an active part of the solution.

• Difficulty in obtaining permits and moving animals.

• Dwindling staff expertise. We simply are not doing a good enough job of training the next generation of animal managers.

• Finally, we tend to treat all taxa the same and make them all play by the same rules (even though turtles are not the same as great apes).

What does this mean? It means we must create an international Sus-tainability Task Force, composed of WAZA, the regional associations, and key individual organizations like national parks, private reserves, and, of course, zoological institutions. This task force must be charged with developing a plan to address this problem, but we all must cooperate in order to solve the issue of collec-tions sustainability. And collections sustainability is crucial to our collec-tive future.

We need to develop aclearconsensusofourfieldconservation priorities.

If WWF and CI can establish conserva-tion priorities, why can’t we? It seems obvious that combining resources to achieve prioritized objectives makes more sense than each zoo and aquarium going it alone. We need only address a handful of criteria to come up with a prioritization scheme. According to CBSG (the Conserva-tion Breeding Specialist Group of the IUCN), we should look at eleven different things in order to prioritize our field efforts:

• Relevance of conservation breeding to the success of the field effort – in other words, are our collections helpful to our conservation efforts?

• Applicability of our existing or potential skill sets – or are the skills we possess the right skills? If not, we may need new ones.

• Pre -existing collaborative frame-works – or are there already institu-tions collaborating to meet the conservation need.

• Probability of success – we might assign a higher priority to conserva-tion efforts that one knows will be successful (risk?).

• Fundability.• Conservation relevance – or is the

conservation effort really important?• Conservation impact – we have to

ask how much will the effort really change things?

• Public appeal.

• Potential for capacity building – it’s important that we impart conser-vation skills to the people in range countries they will need to continue the conservation efforts begun by our efforts.

• Extent of local support – local people have to want the conserva-tion efforts to be successful.

• Measurable outcome – we have to be able to prove that we have been successful. I intend to make this a significant focus of my time as Chair of the AZA Board. Conservation is, should be – must be – our ultimate goal, but we have a long way to go before we can fully realize our potential.

Let’s face the facts on amphibians for example. We said that they are a priority taxa and we had a golden op-portunity to convince the IUCN, the academic community, indeed, the world, of our worth as conservation organizations. The need was, and still is, clear. But we have been far less successful in bringing a significant number of amphibian species into intensively managed programs as we’d first hoped.

Now I do not want to detract from the work that we’ve done so far. However, if we want to be true con-servation organizations, rhetoric has to get much closer to reality. We must become a highly ‑effective, integrated conservation network, and we still have a chance to do that with the am-phibians of the world. But we must first start with the basics. Right now we can’t even measure our annual expenditures on conservation.

»

To find out more: www.aza.org

3WAZA news 1/11

© Gerald Dick / WAZAJeffrey Bonner, Director of Saint Louis Zoo.

We need to focus our messages and our brand.

Start with the fact that we speak Latin (in situ and ex situ) and that we do field conservation – but almost no one seems to know about it. This is why we need regional associations (like EAZA) and global associations (like WAZA) to organize us and help us develop and disseminate power-ful messages. If we all say the same thing as part of our on -going commu-nications, people stand a much better chance of understanding who we are and what we do. More importantly, perhaps we can move the people of our planet toward holistic solutions to global problems.

Weneedtoeffectively respond to animal rights organizations – organiza-tions that are completely indifferenttothefateofwildanimals yet are vehemently opposed to the existence of zoos and aquariums.

In the United States these organiza-tions have huge lobbying contingents. They are placing brilliantly written curriculum in our schools. They are recruiting high ‑profile public figures to parrot distortions, mischaracteri-zations, and sometimes, out -right lies. And while we occupy the high ground, we must be vigilant and agree upon strategic messaging and tactics to address this threat.

We have the potential to use our vast membership as a force for political change.

Our members love us. AZA recently conducted a study among North American zoos and aquarium mem-bers. It shows that our members would be very willing to take action on our behalf. We need to be willing to ask for their help and involvement.

Our education and interpre-tive programs still attempt to impart information, yet we devote comparatively little attention to how we can best stir the emotions of our enor-mous constituency.

We are very good at getting informa-tion (facts) to our visiting public. We assume that this approach alone will stir their passion for conservation, just as it has stirred our own. Yet our institutions can also engender dismay and concern, or anger and rage, or awe and wonder, or reverence and joy. When we do this, when we grab people’s emotions, they will not only want to learn more, they will want to do more.

We must better leverage our fund -raising capabilities by joining forces.

The botanical garden community has done an excellent job of getting funding for the computerization of databases on plants, for example, while we go at key efforts on an institution -by -institution basis. Using EDGE scores, for example, is an ex-cellent way to help us use a database to help set informed priorities on which species we are most likely to lose. Yet using this approach was not undertaken by the entire community of zoological institutions and thus lost much of its funding appeal.

»We must develop the basic tools necessary to do our jobs.

We need an integrated, collabora-tive approach that capitalizes on the strengths of individual institutions, regional associations, and global as-sociations. For example, we have tools like ZIMS (the computer program developed by International Species Information System) to track genetics and pool our information regarding every dimension of health care. A similar database program developed around sustainability and field conser-vation efforts would be ideal.

What is the best solution toward change?

People within our community misin-terpret the changing scope of individu-al institutions, versus regional associa-tions, versus our global association as somehow being hierarchical with ever -increasing degrees of authority vested at each level. That is simply not the case.

Remember, we are all one community. We need to constantly, voluntarily work together. There is altogether too much bickering and in ‑fighting among the organizations that make up our community – between the family of zoos and the family of aquariums, among the regional associations, between our community and the aca-demic community. It simply must stop. And when it does, that is when we’ll be able to best address the issues – issues that are more important than any one institution or association. That is when we’ll be able to achieve the clear vision for our future.

4 WAZA news 1/11

CBD CoP 10 Achievements and the Zoo/Aquarium Community

GeraldDick–WAZAExecutiveOffice

WAZA and JAZA as visible conservation partners

The tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD CoP 10) took place in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, from 18 to 29 October, 2010. After the ambitiously set target to

“achieve by 2010 a significant reduc-tion of the current rate of biodiver-sity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on Earth” it not only became clear that this target was not met, but the expectations were high on how the global community would react. In a monster conference, where in total about 18,000 participants took part, it was hoped that clear decisions were made on how to stop biodiversity loss, on how access and benefit shar-ing (ABS) can be agreed on and how those endeavours can be financed.

The adoption of the Nagoya “pack-age” consisting of the ABS Protocol, the Strategic Plan 2011-2020 and the Resource Mobilisation Strategy constitutes a success not only for the CBD but also for environmental mul-tilateralism. For the implementation of CBD measures the host country, Japan, put 2 billion $ on the table. The strategic plan will also serve as a guiding instrument for other conven-tions, such as CITES, Ramsar, CMS, World Heritage and organisations like IUCN, BirdLife, WWF and CI.

The strategic plan is meant to serve as an overarching framework to coordinate all activities under the CBD as well as guiding major biodi-versity related endeavours globally. The paper is called “Living in harmony with nature” following a proposal of the very supportive and pushing host country. It consists of a vision for 2050 and a mission, starting with “effective

and urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity in order to ensure that by 2020 ecosystems are resilient and continue to provide essential services, thereby securing the planet’s variety of life, and contributing to human well -being, and poverty eradication”. The 20 concrete targets are organ-ised in five strategic goals. Those are about the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, the reduction of direct pressures and sustainable use, ecosystems, species and genetic diversity, the ecosystem services and participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building. Apart from the targets mentioning in-vasive alien species or coral reefs, tar-get 12 on species is the most relevant one for our community, it reads: “By 2020 the extinction of known threat-ened species has been prevented and their conservation status, particularly of those most in decline, has been improved and sustained.”

»

5WAZA news 1/11

NGO meeting with CBD Executive Secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf, Nagoya, 24 Oct 2010.

© WAZA

»

WAZA activities

With the great support of JAZA, it was possible to jointly organize numerous activities during the con-ference. Besides two poster demon-strations on biodiversity activities of WAZA and its members, JAZA organ-ized a display tent in the fair area of the conference. Information about zoos and aquariums and educational material was disseminated and hun-dreds of kids visited the tent and did small handicrafts under the supervi-sion of zoo staff. At two occasions it was possible to present the WAZA Aquarium strategy for conservation and sustainability, also in its Japanese version. On the one hand, a press conference was held with Shigeyuki Yamamoto, JAZA chair, Mark Penning, WAZA president and Gerald Dick, WAZA executive director, on the other hand a side event was espe-cially dedicated to the details of the strategy and its significance for Japan. At this event additionally three con-crete examples of conservation work in Japan were introduced: freshwater fishes, amphibians and Japanese crested ibis and Oriental white stork. The presentations can be seen and downloaded from the WAZA website (conservation). The events were very well attended and the contribution of the world zoo and aquarium com-munity to biodiversity conservation in the UN Year of Biodiversity was made perfectly visible.

In early January the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the pe-riod from 2011 to 2020 as the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity in its Resolution 65/161, which reads as follows:

“Decides, following the invitation of the tenth meeting of the Confer-ence of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, to declare 2011–2020 the United Nations Dec-ade on Biodiversity, with a view to contributing to the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity for the period 2011–2020, requests the Secretary -General, in this regard, in consultation with Member States, to lead the coordination of the activities of the Decade on behalf of the United Nations system, with the support of the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the secretari-ats of other biodiversity -related con-ventions and relevant United Nations funds, programmes and agencies, and invites Member States in a position to do so to contribute, on a voluntary basis, to the funding of the activities of the Decade”; the Decade coincides with and supports the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 adopted by the Conference of the Parties and provides a perfect framework for communication and focus for WAZA as well.

To find out more: www.cbd.int

6 WAZA news 1/11

CBD side event with Mark Penning, Shigeyuki

Yamamoto, JAZA Chair and Hisashi Hashikawa

© Gerald Dick / WAZA

Kakapo from Wellington Zoo, New Zealand,

Kazutoshi Arai, JAZA Vice-Chair, Kanako Nishimoto of JAZA and Gerald Dick at with thousands words on the wings.

Nagoya Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens.

© Gerald Dick / WAZA

© WAZA

WAZA JAZA tent with Gerald Dick,

WAZA Poster display, Gerald Dick and

Shigeyuki Yamamoto, JAZA Chair, Kazutoshi Arai,

Kanako Nishimoto of JAZA.

© WAZA

© WAZA

of Nagoya Higashiyama Zoo (left t0 right).

JAZA Vice-Chair and Mark Penning.

The Time Is Now!

Lisa Rolls Hagelberg – UNEP

Help make WED a movement

not just a day!

As new year’s resolutions drift ever further away, perhaps it is time to reignite our commitments to causes greater than ourselves and to consider our impact and influence on the world at large. As we know, the environment is once such cause and with just 5 months left to World Environment Day (WED) the time to pledge support is now.

2011 will be a very exciting year for WED for many reasons. Last year saw exponential growth in partners, reg-istered activities and members. And due to a groundswell of enthusiasm from the WED global community to engage in activities and information-

-sharing over the course of the year, WED is now being transformed from an event to a movement! 5 June will always mark the culmination of the people’s day for public awareness and positive action, but the upcom-ing launch of a new content -driven, interactive website will allow mem-bers to learn, share and celebrate their environmental commitments throughout the year.

The UN General Assembly has also proclaimed 2011 as the International Year of Forests (IYF) and has invited Governments, the United Nations system, NGOs, the private sector and other forest-related stakeholders to raise awareness to strengthen the sustainable management, conserva-tion and development of all types of forests for the benefit of current and future generations. Working in close collaboration with UNEP’s Division of Environmental Policy Implementa-tion (DEPI), WED efforts will focus on bringing these issues to the public and highlighting key strategies for conservation. This collaboration, es-pecially with the help of key partners

like WAZA, provides a unique oppor-tunity to inform the public about the critical role forests play in building a greener, more equitable and sustain-able future.

To this end, WED website messag-ing will highlight the overarching forests theme, and activities will support a host of programs like UNEP’s visionary UN -REDD and the launch of a long -term forest strat-egy. UNEP’s flagship Sasakawa Prize, awarded each year to a grass -roots organization judged to have made an outstanding contribution to the protection & management of the environment and social development, also carries the theme Forests for People. Forests for GreenGrowth. The $ 200,000 prize will be given in Febru-ary at UNEP headquarters.

Creative outreach will include engagement with UNEP Goodwill Ambassadors, Gisele Bundchen, Don Cheadle and Yann Arthus -Bertrand. Mr. Bertrand, who in 2009 premiered his film, HOME, to a global audience on WED, is celebrating forests with a book and short film.

Last, but not least, we are pleased to announce that India has been chosen as the 2011 host country. India’s large population, free and vibrant media, and New Delhi’s commitment to forest conservation all contributed to the decision. The country has con-tributed two billion trees to UNEP’s Billion Tree Campaign and has plans to increase green cover by 20 million hectares by 2020. Two very crea-tive initiatives by New Delhi are the

“green court” which will hold polluters accountable for damages and taxa-tion on coal to fund renewable energy projects.

Perhaps most significant is that since tens of millions of Indians still use ru-dimentary cookstoves, the WED cel-ebrations will provide an opportunity to conduct an educational campaign on black carbon.* This year’s WED Legacy (contributions to host country based on activity registration) will donate energy ‑efficient cook stoves to help the cause.

The public announcement of the host country selection and specific WED theme will coincide with the launch of the new site by the end of January. But don’t wait until then to start mak-ing plans. The WED team is standing by to help WAZA members create programmes that work for their zoos and aquariums.

In the last newsletter it was said: “Imagine if everyday was a celebration of our world… Together, we can make WED, and the lifestyle choices it cel-ebrates, a movement not just a day.” Well, the time is now…

* Black Carbon has recently emerged as a

major contributor to global climate change,

possibly second only to CO2 as the main

driver of change.1. BC is produced both

naturally and by human activities as a result

of the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels,

biofuels, and biomass. Primary sources in-

clude emissions from diesel engines, cook

stoves, wood burning and forest fires.

To find out more: www.unep.org/wed

7WAZA news 1/11

South Asian Zoo Association for Regional Cooperation

Sally Walker – SAZARC

SAZARC conference training tackles 21st century crises

SAZARC celebrated its Tenth Anniver-sary in 2010. Every SAZARC confer-ence the primary feature has been to conduct training for participants on a useful and current theme. A unique theme was decided very early on, e.g., to combine 21st Century Crises and the measures to be taken by zoos to handle them. The major crises for attention were climate change with emphasis on species susceptibil-ity; emerging diseases linked with climate change, early recognition and preparedness and terrorism, both political and personal, the latter be-ing the impetus to commit suicide in the zoo, or take extreme risks to get a closer look at the tiger.

At the training we tied these crises into a much -needed action for South Asian zoos, the generation of a crisis management plan for each coun-try. Zoo Outreach Organisation had promoted such plans aggressively in ZOO’s publications, but no zoo followed through. Last year, how-ever, Central Zoo Authority of India required all Indian zoos to include an emergency response plan in their mandatory master plans and CZA commissioned a manual which was published a few months before the conference. CZA was kind to donate copies for SAZARC training. The

21st Century crises had not been addressed in the manual but were discussed at the training.

The conference/training was held in Nepal where SAZARC was founded at the Central Zoo, Lalitpur, Kathmandu. The inaugural for this conference was conducted at the zoo, but immediate-ly afterwards, participants jumped in vehicles headed for Chitwan National Park. The entire training and confer-ence took place at the HQ of National Trust for Nature Conservation, NTNC, which administers Central Zoo.

The combination of presentations by resource persons in the mornings fol-lowed by working -groups discussing and incorporation of new knowledge into their assigned tasks, only one of which was the draft emergency re-sponse plan, worked well. The curren-cy, connectedness and depth of the topics; the need for crisis protocols by all zoos; and the expertise of Resource Persons was much appreciated.

Resource persons had been very carefully selected. For climate change we invited Dr. Wendy Foden, climate change expert for the IUCN Spe-cies Programme, Cambridge, way in advance. Dr. Mark Irwin, Animal Management Program Director for

Jefferson Community College, State University of New York, more than did justice to emerging diseases while linking related subjects for practical application by zookeepers, zoo vet-erinarians and managers. Our emer-gency protocols resource persons could not attend at the last hour but the CZA manual was sufficient.

We particularly wanted to highlight the issue of species susceptibility to climate change because zoo manag-ers may find themselves in future with unwell animals without realizing the impact of higher temperatures. Dr. Foden laid the groundwork with an overview of climate change. She emphasized that it is not “just the polar bear” but a great number of species in different parts of the world that are distressed and declining due to climate change. She reviewed the most recent work of IUCN research-ing which species are most vulnerable, and informing participants that they were the first to receive this unpub-lished information. She prepared participants to utilize a framework involving a simple means of thinking about the impact of climate change on species. Trouble for species begins if it is exposed to climate change, is very sensitive to it and cannot adapt. She related several points associated

8 WAZA news 1/11

Participants of the

2010 SAZARC conference, Nepal.

© SAZARC

»

with sensitivity, adaptability and ex-posure, explaining how to use them to evaluate species susceptibility. Afterwards, participants in country working groups used the method to assess lists of species for suitabil-ity for their zoos. Linking climate change and zoo management was our objective. Also, zoo personnel understood climate change better, having worked with the principles and being empowered to make decisions as a result.

Mark Irwin began his lectures asso-ciating emerging diseases and zoo preparedness, including preven-tion and response. He followed with types of pathogens and their transmission, bio -security with key points to prevent the introduction and spread of disease. He included components of zookeeper train-ing in preparation for emerging diseases, emphasizing the impor-tance of this level of staff. Last day he discussed implementation and practice. His presentations covered much ground.

Participants worked country -wise on varied topics including an emer-gency response protocol using the CZA manual to get oriented, make a start in selected topics, then add the 21st century crisis component. Systematic planning for future emergencies seems not to exist in South Asian culture. Participants and others before the workshop were queried at random and none could recall even a fire drill from grade school.

The training component took up most of our five days but host and organizer, Sarita Jnwali, SAZARC president and director, Central zoo arranged tours into Chitwan National Park and other vis-its early mornings or evenings training. There were few com-plaints! The 50-odd Participants were from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Leif Blomqvist & Christer Larsson – Nordens Ark

A species in focus in the nordic countries

Lesser White -fronted Goose

While the lesser white -fronted goose, Anser erythropus was formerly a characteristic species for the Fen-noscandian tundra, it has undergone severe historical decline in all Nordic countries. In early 1900, the Fen-noscandian population exceeded 10.000 birds but declined to not more than 500 birds in the early 1980s. It is most unlikely that the species breeds in Finland; in Sweden the last observed reproduction in the original population took place in 1996, while the Norwegian population scarcely exceeds 30 pairs., in a limited area in the Finnmark area. The decline for this small goose therefore lacks equivalence to any other bird species in northern Europe. The species is globally listed as Vulnerable (VU), it is included in Annex I of the Birds Direc-tive Of the European Union and listed as Critically Endangered (CR) in all three Nordic countries.

Ex situ breeding started 40 years ago

To save the lesser whitefronted Goose (LWfG) from extinction, a restocking project was launched in the 1970s by the Swedish Hunter’s Association and financially supported by WWF Sweden. The promoter of the project, Lambart von Essen, decided to reverse the decline by establishing a breeding population in captivity, the offspring of which would be released into former breeding locations in Swedish Lapland.

As it was well documented that one of the main factors of the decline had been hunting pressure along the migration routes in SE Europe and SW Asia, “Project Fjällgås” decided to use barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) as foster parents for the released LWfG. Barnacle geese overwinter in the Netherlands; as geese learn their migration routes from their parents, and goslings are imprinted on the area in which they learn to fly, the released goslings were expected to spend their winters in safe wintering grounds in central Europe instead of migrating to perilous areas in Ukraine, Iran and Kazakhstan.

…Lesser white-fronted geese have never been regarded as a difficult species to breed at Nordens Ark, where parent-reared goslings have been hatched each year…

9WAZA news 1/11

Current Swedish population originates from reintroduced birds

In 1980, the breeding project pro-duced its first goslings, and restock-ing attempts began the following year. In 1981–1999, an average of 15–30 birds were released annu-ally with Barnacle geese as foster parents. A total of 348 geese were thus released in the species’ former breeding grounds in the Arjeplog area in Swedish Lapland. The survival rate of the goslings reared by Barnacle parents was remarkably high with 57% observed in their winter quarters in the Netherlands. This restocking project must therefore be regarded as successful, and resulted in a small population approaching 100 birds in Sweden.

Restocking attempts in Finland

Similar actions were also taken in Fin-land, where a breeding project sup-ported by WWF Finland and the Min-istry of Environment was established in 1985. The original founders arrived from the Swedish breeding facility Öster -Malma and a private breeder in Sweden. Restocking attempts started in 1989, and 151 sub -adult geese were released in 1989–2004, but unlike the Swedish attempt, the Finnish project released young geese without foster parents. Results were poor, and as no wild breeding took place the reintro-ductions were stopped.

Genetic analysis reveals hybridisation

In the late 1990s, blood samples were tested from 15 LWfG kept on the Finnish breeding farm. Four of the samples, taken from geese from Öster -Malma, contained DNA from White -fronted goose, Anser albifrons. Gene tests were consequently carried out on all captive LWfG in Sweden. DNA analyses showed that more than 30% of all geese in Sweden contained fragments of mitochondrial DNA and microsatellites from Anser albifrons. As no cross -breeding had occurred in the breeding program, hybridisa-tion must have occurred at an earlier stage before the birds were imported to Sweden. All contaminated geese in the two main breeding facilities in Öster -Malma and Nordens Ark were therefore phased out from the breeding program collections and all further reintroductions were stopped. The Scientific Council of CMS was also consulted to give advice on further actions. The Council recom-mended that all reintroduced birds be captured or removed, a decision which created considerable conflict between people in favour of eradica-tion and those who wanted to pre-serve the only expanding population in Europe. After consultations with

“Projekt Fjällgås”, it was decided to re -start the reintroductions but now with pure LWfG of known origin.

»

New start from scratch

In the meantime “Projekt Fjällgås” had contacted Russian colleagues to inquire about possibilities of import-ing new founders from the Russian tundra. In a joint effort with Moscow Zoo and the Russian Goose, Swan & Duck Group of North Eurasia, young LWfG were caught in the Nenets Autonomous Region, northwest of the Ural mountains where the near-est viable population exists. Russian ornithologists were instructed not to collect more than two goslings from each clutch, thus avoiding jeopardizing the local populations. In 2006–2009, 36 wild ‑caught geese arrived at Nordens Ark in five differ-ent transports. All birds survived and settled down without difficulties.

Funding from SEPA has made it pos-sible to build a new breeding facility at Nordens Ark. This facility, which was opened in 2009, is planned to house 15 breeding pairs as well as unpaired and sub -adult birds. Dur-ing the winter, the geese are kept in a frost -free house with pools and access to outdoor pens. To prevent injuries from raptors, all outdoor facil-ities have been covered with netting, while electric wires protect the geese from mammalian carnivores. All birds are marked with visible leg bands and micro ‑chips for identification. During the day, the geese are kept in large outdoor paddocks allowing them to graze and to establish pairs. When the breeding season starts, the pairs are separated for nesting without disturbance from counterparts.

10 WAZA news 1/11

Hacking enclosure for lesser white -fronted geese to be released in the Porsanger area in Norway.© Christer Larsson

First “Russian” goslings hatched in 2008

LWfG have never been regarded as a difficult species to breed at Nordens Ark, where parent -reared goslings have been hatched each year. In 1993–2010, 114 goslings have thus been reared by parents of the earlier stock. As all goslings have been either parent -reared or reared by foster parents, the survival rate of the chicks has been 75%.

The Russian geese started to breed in 2008, when the first clutch of 2♂,1♀ goslings hatched. and were reared by the parents. The same pair bred again in 2009, when 2♂,2♀ goslings were born. Six abandoned eggs were also found among the non -paired Rus-sian geese. Whether these eggs had been laid by one or several females was therefore unknown. Three of the eggs were successfully incubated and hatched by foster -parents from the earlier stock. At the age of three months, these goslings were sepa-rated from their foster -parents and introduced to the Russian breeding pair with four offspring of their own.

In 2010, three clutches were hatched with 13 parent -reared goslings, all of which survived. Twenty -two (10♂,8♀ and 4 unknown) surviving geese have so far been hatched amongst the Rus-sian founders.

Restocking attempts re -started in 2010

In 2010, the restocking program started again after a decade of inter-ruption. Releases took place in two locations, one in Sweden and one in Norway. In July, 16 geese from the wild population in Sweden were caught at a moulting area on the coast of the Bothnian Bay. Blood samples were taken from all these birds which also were measured, sexed and weighted. Before their release, the geese were marked with coloured leg bands in order to make it possible to identify them from a distance. Two of the wild -caught birds were transported to the nesting area in Arjeplog and released there together with five goslings hatched at Nordens Ark in 2009-2010 under the new Russian founders.

The second release took place in Porsanger fjord in Norway where a hacking enclosure had been built in co ‑operation with staff from the Ornithological Society of Norway and the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management. The Porsanger area is known to be the core area where the remaining wild Norwegian popula-tion rests after nesting and moulting. One of the breeding pairs from Russia, with its four goslings, was transferred to the hacking enclosure where they were kept for one month waiting for the wild geese to arrive. The goslings were marked with neck rings and two of them were also provided with satellite transmitters. When the four goslings had been released, the par-ents were brought back to the breed-ing centre at Nordens Ark for future breeding. After release, the goslings quickly joined their wild counterparts and were daily observed grazing and flying around in the fjord area.

Future directions

The recently established ex situ population of pure LWfG contains of 27♂,19♀ birds located in a single facility. Such a small population is extremely vulnerable to stochastic events which in the worst scenario could lead to its collapse. To secure the survival of the valuable new founders, a second backup popula-tion will be established at Öster-

-Malma. This subdivision will hope-fully protect the current stock against possible epidemics or disasters that could annihilate the only existing unit.

The final goal will be to strengthen the small fragments of LWfG still living in northern Scandinavia and improve the diversity of the wild stock which has undergone a severe bottle -neck. The restocking attempts in Sweden also aim to dilute possible genes from A. albifrons which might still exist in the previously reintro-duced population.

11WAZA news 1/11

The current captive population of lesser white -fronted geese of Russian origin

consists of 46 birds at Nordens Ark.

© Leif Blomqvist

Sustainability to ImplementJustine de Herder & Christin Streiter – University Van Hall Larenstein

Aresearchaboutsustainable,beneficialandreasonable

facilities for zoos and aquariums

Facing the threat of climate change and biodiversity loss, sustainability has become an essential public issue. Zoos as environmental organisations and leaders in conservation have a sustainable responsibility and could contribute to stem climate change and the exploitation of resources by reducing their environmental impact. Consequently, the implementa-tion and integration of sustainable facilities and operations are crucial. Particularly for zoos with lower visita-tion figures and non profit profiles the presumed barrier of integrating sustainability to a greater extent are the lack of financial and hu-man resources as well as the lack of information. Therefore, this research investigated sustainable, beneficial and reasonable facilities and opera-tions for zoos in terms of small-scale and large-scale implementations. Hence, a literature review and inter-views were conducted as well as Multi Criteria Analyses which were filled in by five WAZA member zoos. The col-lected data revealed small-scale facili-ties which cost less, are profitable and have a positive environmental impact. Comparatively, representatives of large-scale projects are shown by this research which require higher initial costs, but eventually show higher energy efficiency and a higher long‑term profit.

Guidelines for zoos

Providing guidelines for zoos in terms of sustainable, beneficial, and feasi-ble facilities and operations different criteria have been considered within this research to eventually investi-gate reasonable options for zoos in terms of sustainable development.

• Expenses/costs • Environmental impact • Profitability • Complexity/Technical realization • Subsidy/Sponsoring

With the help of a literature review, interviews and Multi Criteria Analyses which were filled in by five WAZA member zoos, it was possible to ob-tain data which allowed the establish-ment of sustainable and beneficial devices and operations in terms of small- and large-scale projects.

WAZA member zoos which took part in the MCA: • Allwetterzoo Münster | Germany• Bristol Zoo Gardens |

United Kingdom • Dierenpark Emmen |

The Netherlands • Zoo Granby | Canada • Zoo Landau | Germany

WAZA member zoos which were interviewed:• Allwetterzoo Münster | Germany• Burgers Zoo Arnhem |

The Netherlands

Beneficial small-scale projects

The following sustainable facilities and operations are segmented into five sections and are all characterized by:

• Low cost/expenses • Less complexity to

install/implement • Positive environmental

impact /saving potential • Profitability to a certain level • Possible sponsoring/subsidy

(depending on country and region)

These characteristics make the following sustainable components perfect for zoos which are aiming to reduce their ecological footprint, but are limited by a low or medium budget which does not allow the im-plementation of large facilities, such as wind turbines or biogas facilities.

Within the Energy & Building sector solar panels, time control switches, green energy supplier, occupancy sensors as well as the insulation of buildings are revealed to be beneficial and sustainable devices for zoos and aquariums in terms of small-scale projects. Regarding the waste sector yielding the manure of zoo animals to local farmers and recycling materials are the most reasonable actions in terms of sustainable waste manage-ment. Concentrating on the water management insulating water pipes, installing waterless urinals and rainwa-ter harvesting systems as well as re-pairing leakages in the water conduit shows the most sustainable and ben-eficial options. Furthermore, installing bicycle stands or parking areas for bikes is a sustainable and inexpensive opportunity for zoos and aquariums regarding transport strategy. Within this research it is investigated that procuring local products is a beneficial option for zoos and aquariums.

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Beneficial large-scale projects

So, why are features such as wind turbines or wave power systems not highly ranked or implemented by many zoos, even though they are supposed to be the most efficient regarding environmental sustain-ability? This can be explained by the high initial costs, and regarding wind or wave power the effort of imple-mentation, which outweigh the high environmental impact for the five surveyed zoos which on average are medium sized and have a medium visitation figure. For these zoos these installations are considered too ex-pensive. Wind turbines, for instance, require high upfront costs and high operational expenses which most me-dium sized zoos cannot always afford. But zoos having the financial oppor-tunity could consider investing in this

facility due to its enormous energy efficiency and maybe even use the implementation as a publicity event. The same applies for wave power systems which are very expensive and complex to install. This system is known as the most efficient usage of renewable energy resources cur-rently available. So, if a zoo can invest and has access to a river or sea, it is highly recommendable to invest in a small scale wave power system due to its high energy efficiency and high environmental impact. Moreover, installing a biogas plant could be the perfect facility for a zoo which pro-duces tons of dung each year. These can supply parts of the zoo with en-ergy. Additionally, a geothermal heat pump is a very energy efficient facility with a relatively short payback period and a long life expectancy. Moreover, a water filtration system could be a good investment as it can lead to an

enormous reduction in potable water consumption by reuse and recycling. All of these facilities are characterized by high energy efficiency, lower costs as well as a high awareness factor and symbolic characteristic.

It is particularly important for zoos to implement these facilities for contri-bution to sustainability. Thus, for zoos with higher budgets it is recommend-ed to invest in these applications. It is worthwhile both in terms of high environmental impact and long-term profitability. At the same time, there are numerous zoos all over the world which have already implemented wind-or wave-power systems, or biogas systems.

»

…there are many possibilities for every type and size of zoo to implement sustainability on a small- and large-scale to lower the environmental impact…

13WAZA news 1/11

© Allwetterzoo Münster © Allwetterzoo MünsterBiocity®, examples for “encouragement and engagement of the visitors”.

Examples

The following zoos have already implemented sustainable facilities in terms of small- and large-scale projects.

The Toronto Zoo in Canada in-stalled a 3 to 5 megawatt biogas plant. The implementation cost was about 13 million dollars, but in turn it reduces the gas bill by 1.3 million dollar each year. The zoo produces 1000 tonnes of dung each year, and the generated energy is enough to power 5000 homes.

The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, USA, presents the new Windspire® wind turbine which is 30 feet tall and generates the energy to power the ticketing and member-ship building. Combined with solar panels, the wind turbine will meet a quarter of all of the power demands for the building. The turbine gener-ates approximately 2000 kilowatt hours per year.

The Melbourne Zoo in Australia installed a water filtration system which uses rainwater and effluent from the animal enclosures carried in two holding tanks of 895.000 l. Within 10 months the plant produces about 28 million litres of recycled water, which is used for exhibit clean-ing, pool filling, lawn, ponds, and landscape irrigation.

Cooperation

To realize the implementation of sustainable facilities which mostly re-quire high investments, it is essential and crucial to cooperate and collabo-rate with other institutions. Therefore, it is important to be informed about opportunities for governmental subsidies, or sponsorship, in which an organisation offers goods or money for projects that a zoo intends to realize. In return the zoo leverages its reputation and media attention to generate publicity for the mutual project. Synergy is another method of cooperation, as it is a mutual pro-motion of two organisations. Thus for example, a farmer and the municipal utility are investing in a biogas plant where the zoo is the main supplier of dung. In return the zoo receives a part of the produced energy without mak-ing large investments.

Conclusion

In order to be more sustainable, it is essential to reduce the ecological footprint of a zoo by implement-ing and integrating sustainable facilities and operations. This could be achieved with small-scale projects, for instance solar panels or low light bulbs, or with large-scale projects like the installation of wind turbines or biogas plants. However, this depends on the budget and the opportuni-ties that a zoo has. Particularly for large-scale projects, it is necessary and sometimes crucial for zoos to cooperate or collaborate with other institutions in terms of synergy or sponsorship.

Overall, there are many possibilities for every type and size of zoo to im-plement sustainability on a small- and large-scale to lower the environmen-tal impact by balancing environmen-tal efficiency, social responsibility and economic viability.

To find out more: www.waza.org/en/site/conservation/environmental-sustainability

»

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© Guidewood Village on the Lake Blog, 2010

© Cincinnati Zoo

Discharge for supplying a biogas plant.

Windspire® wind turbine.

Book ReviewsMarkusGusset–WAZAExecutiveOffice

Books

Evolution Lost: Status and Trends of the World’s Vertebrates by Jonathan E. M. Baillie, JanineGriffiths,SamuelT.Turvey, Jonathan Loh and Ben CollenZoological Society of London, London, 2010 | 72 pp ISBN 978-0-900881-40-4 (paperback)

Extinction rates are now fast outpac-ing speciation rates, resulting in the loss of entire groups of species that have evolved on this planet for mil-lions of years.Within the next century we stand to lose what could amount to one quar-ter of all vertebrates. The report Evo-lution Lost has been produced by ZSL in collaboration with WWF, IUCN and SSC. It considers for the first time the current status and trends of global vertebrates in the context of human pressures, with a particular focus on threatened, novel and evolutionary distinct species.

Wild Mammals in Captivity: Principles and Techniques for Zoo Management by Devra G. Kleiman, Katerina V. Thompson and Charlotte Kirk BaerUniversity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2010 | 569 pp ISBN 978-0-226-44009-5 (hard cover)

Zoos and aquariums are vital centres of animal conservation and management. For nearly 15 years, these institutions have relied on Wild Mammals in Captivity as the essential reference for their work. Now the book re -emerges in a completely up-dated second edition. Wild Mammals in Captivity presents the most current thinking and practice in the care and management of wild mammals in zoos and other institutions. In one

This book is a wake -up call. Will we continue to live in “business as usual” mode? Or will we make room for oth-er species? The measures we need to take include direct and much more extensive conservation action to save critical species and habitats. Howev-er, we also need to take more painful measures that will affect our own lifestyles, such as massively reducing carbon emissions, removing perverse agricul-tural subsidies and curtail-ing the use of nitrogen - and phosphorus -based fertilisers. If society is unwilling to pay these costs, then many of the species with which we share this planet will go the way of the dodo. It is our choice. Do we have the courage to take the difficult decisions?

comprehensive volume, the editors have gathered the most current information from studies of animal behaviour; advances in captive breed-ing; research in physiology, genet-ics and nutrition; and new thinking in animal management and welfare. In this edition, more than three- quarters of the text is new and information from more than 75 con-tributors is thoroughly updated. The standard text for all courses in zoo biology, Wild Mammals in Captivity will, in its new incarnation, continue to be used by zoo manag-ers, animal caretakers, researchers and anyone with an interest in how to manage animals in captive conditions. The book should thus serve as a refer-ence work for all those concerned with the proper husbandry of mam-mals in human care, as stipulated by WAZA.

The book was published in its first edition in 2010. It contains about 70 pages with numerous colour plates, charts and maps. The book is down-loadable for free from www.zsl.org/evolutionlost and was published by the Zoological Society of London, London, United Kingdom. It is cur-rently available in English only.

The book was published in its second edition in 2010. It contains almost 600 pages with numerous halftones, line drawings and tables. The book costs 72 € and was published by the University of Chicago Press, Chicago, USA. It is currently available in Eng-lish only.

Evolution LostStatus & Trends of the World’s Vertebrates

Jonathan E. M. Baillie, Janine Griffiths, Samuel T. Turvey, Jonathan Loh and Ben Collen

Evolution LostStatus and Trends of the World’s Vertebrates

Jonathan E. M. Baillie, Janine Griffiths, Samuel T. Turvey, Jonathan Loh and Ben Collen

15WAZA news 1/11

AnnouncementsWAZAExecutiveOffice

Announcements

International Year of Biodiversity wins the Green Award as best global environmental campaign

With the slogan “Biodiversity is Life. Biodiversity is our Life”, the United Nations International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) won the coveted 2010 Green Award for best Global Campaign in recogni-tion of the strength of a campaign that inspired activities throughout the world that showcase the value and beauty of biodiversity. The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has served as the United Nations’ focal point for the Year.

The award ceremony took place at London’s Natural History Museum on 2 December with more than 400 guests. The ceremony was at-tended by Sir David Attenborough, Britain’s best loved naturalist with more than 50 years of broadcast experience including the BBC Life series. Sir David Attenborough received the lifetime achievement award. Rt. Hon. Chris Huhne, Sec-retary of State for Energy and Cli-mate Change, delivered a key note address. Mr Eric Falt, the Assistant Director -General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), also addressed the participants.

“The celebrations organized for the International Year of Biodiversity by the citizens and Governments of 191 countries and partners around the world have been an extraordinary human experience aimed at reconnecting people with nature. It has demonstrated the resolve of the people of the world to protect life on Earth,” said Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. “The 2010 Green Award is recognition of and tribute paid to people of the world for this achievement.”

75th Anniversary of the Society for the History of Natural HistoryFrom Royal Gifts to Biodiversity Conservation: The History and Development of Menageries, Zoos and Aquariums

Thursday 19th and Friday 20th May 2011 | Chester Zoo, UK

This international Symposium is being held in celebration of the 75th Anniver-sary of the Society for the History of Natural History. It is a joint collaboration between the Society for the History of Natural History, WAZA and Chester Zoo, supported by the Linnean Society and the Bartlett Society. The focus of the symposium is to provide a comprehensive overview of the history and development of living wild animal collections across the world. Symposium proceedings will be made available.

Invited speakers will be talking on:• The Foundations of Zoo Biology• The World Association

of Zoos and Aquariums• Living Collections in the

Ancient World• Royal and Private Animal

Menageries• Aquariums and Marine and Fresh-

water Biological Associations • The Development of Regional

and National Zoo Associations and Outreach

Additional themes to be covered during the symposium, for which abstracts are invited, include The History and Development of:• Zoos and Aquariums as

Charitable Organisations• Individual and Specialised

Collections (butterflies, Insectariums/Bugworlds, Aviaries, Vivariums/Serpentariums and Dolphinariums)

• International Zoo and Aquarium Affiliated Organisations – the importance of partnerships

• Zoos and Aquariums as Leisure Attractions

• Zoo and Aquarium Architecture and Masterplanning

• Zoo and Aquarium Enclosure and Exhibit Design – the importance of animal welfare

• Zoo Animal Welfare, Ethics and Zoo Medicine

• The Concept of the “Zoological Garden – the Importance of Plants”

• Zoo Animal Acquisitions – from Wild Collections to Sustainably Managed

• Conservation Breeding Programmes• Zoo Conservation Science

and Research in the Field• Conservation Education in Zoos

and Outreach Programmes• Zoo History in the Making

For further information on registering for the symposium, submitting an ab-stract or presenting a poster, please contact Claudine Gibson c.gibson@chesterzoo.org

To find out more: www.waza.org/en/site/pressnews -events

16 WAZA news 1/11

Announcements

Successful FundraisingGeraldDick&MarkusGusset–WAZAExecutiveOffice

WAZA was an official partner of the Convention on Biological Diversity during the United Nations “2010 International Year of Biodiversity”. On that occasion, we compiled and assessed conservation projects sup-ported by the world zoo and aquari-um community, focusing on WAZA-branded projects. The results of this survey, published in the 2010 issue of the International Zoo Yearbook, show that the evaluated projects are helping to improve the conservation status of high ‑profile threatened spe-cies and habitats in biodiversity-rich regions of the world. Furthermore, the results show that thanks to the investment made by zoos and aquariums, particularly financial, these projects reached overall impact scores of a magnitude suggestive of an appreciable contribution to global biodiversity conservation.

With this evidence available that the WAZA -branded conservation projects indeed contribute to global biodi-versity conservation, with increasing financial support demonstrably lead-ing to a significantly higher conser-vation impact, we embarked on a fundraising initiative. The aim was to support those branded projects in urgent need of support where small amounts of money can make a big difference to the projects’ contribu-tion to biodiversity conservation. We are very pleased to announce that we have raised US$ 25,000 from the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conser-vation Fund for five species catego-rised as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List:

• Cat Ba langur (Trachypithecus p. poliocephalus), Vietnam, Cat Ba Langur Conservation Project and Allwetterzoo Münster.

for WAZA -branded Conservation Projects

• Cross river gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli), Nigeria, Wildlife Conservation Society.

• Przewalski’s horse (Equus ferus przewalskii), Mongolia, International Takhi Group and Zurich Wilderness Park Foundation.

• Scott’s tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus scottae), Papua New Guinea, Tenkile Conservation Alliance and Zoos Victoria.

• Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis), Indonesia, IUCN/SSC Crocodile Specialist Group and Cologne Zoo.

17WAZA news 1/11

© Jörg Adler

© Nicky Lankester

© Chris Walzer

© Ralf Sommerlad

© Matt West

WAZAExecutiveOffice

Announcements

Announcements

WAZA GRANT 2011The application is now open for the WAZA training grants 2011. Grants are awarded to the staff of WAZA member institutions (or affiliates) or to the members or staff of WAZA member associations. These must be members in good standing and have all their membership dues paid at the time of submission of the grant application.

Priority will be given to projects that: • Build the capacity of developing country zoos and aquariums and their

personnel to manage their collections and contribute to local, regional or global conservation.

• Have a significant and quantifiable impact on the public or the local communities incorporated in the project.

• Have a more applied research approach and emphasize basic principles of animal care and management or wildlife conservation rather than more technical research.

• Are both scientifically and economically feasible in a designated period of time.

• Are continuing, rather than “one time” efforts.• Incorporate a strong educational and training component

that can serve as a model for future programs.• Already have secured a significant portion of funding.

Please visit the WAZA website – member area for further details and meet the deadline of 8 July 2011 in case you are interested.

VIII International Parrot Convention22–25 September 2014, Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain

We have the pleasure to inform you of the above -mentioned Con-vention, continuing the series that Loro Parque started in 1986. This announcement might appear to be early, but we want to avoid any clash with other conferences of the zoo and aquarium community, which regrettably has happened on some previous occasions, al-though not occasioned by WAZA. A significant proportion of WAZA institutions have substantial inter-est in parrots. The VII International Parrot Convention of this year was an unqualified success, with 650 participants, and our future parrot conventions can always be enriched by the participation of representatives from WAZA members.

WAZA Bylaws Change Carried

The amended WAZA bylaws were unanimously adopted during the 65th Annual Conference in Cologne and according to the rules a mail ballot was carried out thereafter. 192 ballots were received at the executive office, 191 in favour of the change, thus surpassing the 2/3 threshold of 183 voting members. The updated bylaws now include the new executive of-fice address, a consistent wording relating for example to the annual conference, corporate members, WAZA as the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums and also clarifies the Council voting process in the way that the president and president‑elect serve as officers at Council and are ratified and the other Council members are elect-ed by the membership. All stand-ing committee members have to be ratified by membership at the administrative session and all members have to sign the WAZA Code of Ethics and Animal Welfare. The bylaws are to be found in the members’ section of the WAZA website(documents).

To find out more: www.yearofthebat.org

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Indian flying Fox (Pteropus giganteus) at Tierpark Berlin.© Gerald Dick / WAZA

During the past 12 months, Amphib-ian Ark staff have been involved in a variety of projects providing support and advice for the ex situ amphibian conservation community, and con-tinuing to raise awareness of the am-phibian extinction crisis. We have de-veloped some new tools and a series of new pages on our website aimed at promoting the establishment of best practice techniques for implementing and maintaining ex situ programmes, and we are pleased to highlight those facilities around the world that fol-low these ideals. We have also just launched an international amphibian photography competition.

Establishing ex situ conservation programmes for amphibians

To assist those institutions that are considering implementing new amphibian conservation programmes, we have developed a series of web pages, tools and documents to pro-vide essential background informa-tion. Our website includes links to individual pages, detailing the major steps involved in implementing and maintaining ex situ programmes, including: ensuring that you have the required resources; managing the population; collection of found-ers; and monitoring progress of the programme.

Two new online tools help to deter-mine whether the required resources are in place before the new pro-gramme is implemented, and allow you to calculate the number of found-ers that should be collected to start the new programme, based on the biology of the species being managed. These two tools can be found on our website. To ensure the best possible outcome for the amphibian popula-tions you are managing, we strongly encourage you to read through these pages and associated documents and make use of the new tools before im-plementing your new programmes.

Model ex situ amphibian facilities

Amphibian Ark considers that there are two steps that are vital in any good ex situ conservation programme, especially those that might eventu-ally involve release back into the wild:

• the programme should be based within the range country; and

• the population being managed should be housed in isolation from other populations occurring outside its range.

Where possible, all amphibian pro-grammes that will ultimately result in reintroduction or translocation pro-grammes should be established and maintained within the native range of the species. Maintaining these populations within the range country generally results in lower disease risks than programmes that are located outside the native range of the spe-cies. This helps to reduce the risks of introducing non-native pathogens into the environment around the facility holding the amphibians, and the possibility of introducing novel local pathogens to amphibians that are collected and housed outside of the range country.

Amphibian Ark recommends that all ex situ breeding programmes that plan to reintroduce animals back into the wild should maintain their populations in isolation from other captive populations that do not originate from the native range of the species. To further reduce the risk of introducing non -native pathogens to these populations, best practice husbandry and biosecurity standards should always be followed. Increasing the awareness of biosecurity issues and introducing a quarantine -like approach to amphibian husbandry of enclosures and rooms will signifi-cantly reduce the risk of a potential epidemic outbreak of chytridiomyco-sis in captivity, or in animals destined to be released to the wild.

For more information about recom-mended husbandry and biosecurity standards for amphibians, please see the documents A guide to husbandry and biosecurity standards required for the safe and responsible management of ex situ populations of amphibians and A manual for control of infec-tious diseases in amphibian survival assurance colonies and reintroduction programs on our website.

We have compiled a list of institu-tions and their respective amphibian programmes that adhere to these two vital aspects of ex situ popula-tion management. Information about these institutions and their programmes can be found on our website.

Kevin Johnson – Amphibian Ark

Recent Updates

An Update on Recent Amphibian Ark Activities

»

To find out more: www.amphibianark.org

19WAZA news 1/11

Recent Updates

MarkusGusset–WAZAExecutiveOffice

Update on International StudbooksThere are currently 121 active international studbooks (ISBs), including 159 species or sub- species (some ISBs cover more than one taxon). All previously pending issues were solved dur-ing the year 2010. The following events regarding ISBs occurred since 1 October 2010:

ISBs archived• None

ISBs established• None

Transfer of ISBs to new keepers• On 15 November 2010, CPM

approved the transfer of the white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) ISB to Joe Christman (Disney’s Animal Kingdom, USA).

• On 22 November 2010, CPM ap-proved the transfer of the black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) ISB to Christian Kern (Berlin Animal Park, Germany).

• On 22 November 2010, CPM approved the transfer of the gaur (Bos gaurus) ISB to André Schüle (Berlin Zoo, Germany).

Amphibian photography competition

Amphibian Ark has just launched a new international photo competi-tion, called Just shoot me! – An Am-phibian Ark photography contest. We will be producing another sensational amphibian calendar for 2012 that will feature the 12 winning photos from this competition, which will be selected by our panel of five interna-tional judges. The overall winner of the competition will feature on the front cover of the calendar.

Amongst the 12 winning entries, one photo will also be selected as the best image in each of these three categories: In the wild – pho-tos must be of amphibians in the wild; In captivity – photos of am-phibians in a captive environment; and Youth – open to photographers who are under 18 years of age.

The winning photo in each of the three competition categories will each win two beautiful amphibian books: Frogs of Panama by Douglas Woodhams, and Sapos by Santiago Ron, Martin Bustamante, Luis Co-loma and Belén Mena. The 12 win-ning photos will each receive a copy of the 2012 Amphibian Ark calendar, a copy of Threatened amphibians of the world published by IUCN and Na-tureServe, and a copy of Treefrogs…prehistoric survivors with a global mes-sagebyTedSchiffman.

Amphibian Ark calendars will be available for sale around the world in August 2011 and we are very grateful to Fowler Printing and Graphics for their generous sup-port with printing the calendars. Proceeds will be used to assist Amphibian Ark conservation pro-grammes that are saving threat-ened amphibians.

For more information about the competition, or to submit your images, please visit our website. If you have not already done so, you can become a member of the Amphibian Ark and subscribe to our free quarterly online newsletter, or find out more about our activi-ties, by visiting our website.

»

20 WAZA news 1/11

© Ron GagliardoAmphibian laboratory at the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Centre in Panama.

Primates in Zürich Zoo. © Gerald Dick / WAZA

MarkusGusset&GeraldDick–WAZAExecutiveOffice

Transfer of ISBs to new institutions• None

Further decisions• On 15 October 2010, data

management issues for the ruffed lemurs (Varecia spp.) were solved, as the ISB was submitted.

Pending issues• As of 31 December 2010,

one ISB is vacant (Pallas cat).

Resource Manual for International Studbook Keepers• At the 65th WAZA Annual Con-

ference on 18 October 2010 in Cologne (Germany), the Commit-tee for Population Management adopted a Resource Manual for International Studbook Keep-ers. This document clarifies the issues of application for a new studbook, initial studbook data gathering, studbook data compi-lation, studbook data validation, creating a studbook document, studbook distribution and report-ing, changes of studbook keeper and/or institution, studbook complaint and dispute resolution, and studbook data steward-ship. This document thus makes essential reading for all current and prospective international studbook keepers; it is available for download in the Member Area of the WAZA website and from the WAZA Executive Office (secretariat@waza.org)

Recent Updates

There is no up -to -date estimate avail-able of the number of people who are potentially exposed to environmental education, whether formal or infor-mal, at zoos and aquariums. Further-more, we entirely lack an estimate of the financial expenditures of the world zoo and aquarium community on wildlife conservation.

Therefore, we approached 12 na-tional and regional zoo and aquarium associations, covering all regions of the world, to provide a figure regard-ing the following two questions: How many visitors did your member insti-tutions receive in 2008? How much money was spent on wildlife conser-vation by your member institutions in 2008? (Wildlife conservation in this context encompasses in situ conser-vation of wild species and habitats, including related ex situ work).

Zoos and aquariums worldwide reportedly receive more than 700 million visitors annually. This figure is unparalleled by any other group of conservation -oriented institutions. The world zoo and aquarium commu-nity reportedly spends about US$ 350 million on wildlife conservation each year. In relation to major interna-tional conservation organisations, the world zoo and aquarium community is among the main providers of con-servation funding.

The large number of visitors received and amount of conservation money spent suggest that the world zoo and aquarium community has the poten-tial to play an important role in both environmental education and wildlife conservation.

We are grateful to ALPZA, AMAC-ZOOA, AZA, CAZA, CAZG, EARAZA, EAZA, JAZA, PAAZAB, SAZARC, SEAZA and ZAA for providing figures on visitor numbers and conservation expenditures.

The Global Reach of Zoos and Aquariums

Reference:

Gusset, M. & Dick, G. (2011) The global

reach of zoos and aquariums in visitor

numbers and conservation expenditures.

Zoo Biology 30: in press.

21WAZA news 1/11

© Gerald Dick / WAZA, at Dallas zoo

major part of our mission.

The direct encounter with visitors:

Cardamom Mountains Wildlife Sanctuaries Programme

Chris Banks – Zoos Victoria, Parkville, Australia

WAZA Project 10018

Recent Updates | New WAZA Projects

In spite of three decades of conflict, Cambodia still contains many of the best remaining wildlife popula-tions and habitats in south -east Asia. Of special interest are the Carda-mom Mountains in the country’s south-west. This remote wilderness was effectively closed to the outside world until fighting ended in 1998, and is still remarkably intact.

Covering more than 2 million ha, the Cardamom Mountains comprise the largest single area of original forest remaining in mainland south-

-east Asia. They are largely dense evergreen forest, with significant areas of dry deciduous forests in the foothills. The first biological surveys of the Cardamom Mountains, in 1999, were led by scientists from Fauna & Flora International. And although less than 5% of the mountains have been explored to date, literally hundreds of species new to science have been discovered. The mountains also hold significant populations of many threatened species, such as the Asian elephant, clouded leopard, Malayan sun bear, tiger, Eld’s deer, green pea-fowl and Siamese crocodile.

Based on these preliminary surveys, the Cardamom Mountains are now considered one of the most impor-tant areas for conservation in Asia. They form a Global Biodiversity Hotspot and one of the world’s Global 200 Ecoregions. Approximately 1 mil-lion ha in the core of the mountains are protected.

Fauna & Flora International has been working with the Cambodian Ministry of Environment, local governments and communities since 2000 to secure funds and technical support to ensure the long -term protection of the Cardamom Mountains, with one specific focus being the 330 000 ha Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary. On -ground research and manage-ment actions are facilitated by the Cardamom Mountains Research Group (CMRG), which is now part of the Centre of Biodiversity Conserva-tion at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. The CMRG has a countrywide remit, but the Phnom Samkos Sanc-tuary is the highest priority.

Although the CMRG is a small team of Cambodian biologists, supported by Fauna & Flora International advisors, they have contributed significantly to increasing knowledge of Phnom Samkos’ biodiversity:• Almost 20% of Phnom Samkos has

been fully explored and preliminary visits to other remote sites under-taken.

• Long -term landscape monitoring at 30 permanent locations has gener-ated data on content and changes in vegetation communities.

• At least four new species have been discovered.

• A management plan for the sanctu-ary has been completed.

• Important enforcement actions undertaken to stop the illegal col-lection of safrole oil, which is a key ingredient in the manufacture of the narcotic ecstasy, and which involves local forest clearing.

• More than 30 000 ha of Community Protected Areas established and 25 community wardens appointed and trained.

• Almost 100 rangers trained, equipped and active in Phnom Samkos.

Actions to reduce the impact of illegal forest clearing and wildlife poaching associated with the construction of a hydro -dam and reservoir at Stung Atay in the south of the sanctuary.

22 WAZA news 1/11

© Jeremy Holden

(Chiromantisis samkosensis).

The newly described Samkos tree frog

Chris Banks – Zoos Victoria, Parkville, Australia

Recent Updates | New WAZA Projects

Melako Community Conservancy, Kenya

WAZA Project 10019

The Melako Community Conservancy (MCC) operates under the banner of the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) in northern Kenya. NRT is a community -led initiative, registered in 2004, whose members represent politically and socially marginalised pastoralist communities of northern Kenya. The Trust assists communities to use biodiversity conservation and improved environmental manage-ment as a means of improving and diversifying livelihoods.

MCC, established in 2005, is NRT’s northernmost community conserv-ancy, covering an area of almost 80 000 ha and with a population of approximately 6000 people from the Rendille, Samburu and Boran tribal groups. Melako is an important area for Grevy’s zebra, hosting the northernmost significant population of this species, with an estimated 200 individuals or 9% of the total popula-tion. Other species also found in the area include African wild dog, lion, elephant, beisa oryx, cheetah, buffalo and reticulated giraffe.

In recent decades, this region of north-ern Kenya has suffered from internal conflict driven by disagreements over land use, particularly access to pasture for grazing livestock. Consequently, the first major focus of any conserv-ancy on establishment is to address these social tensions and conflict, in order that people can return to their traditional areas and pressure on wild-life can be lifted. The wildlife scouts have played a major role in achieving these outcomes in Melako and are the primary focus of the Zoos Victoria partnership with the MCC.

Two further initiatives supported by Zoos Victoria are conservation education and development of local business skills. An assessment of conservation education needs was undertaken across the MCC by two

Zoos Victoria staff in 2009 and the results are with the NRT and Melako Board for consideration of next steps. Building on NRT’s Business Enterprise projects, Zoos Victoria promoted a

“Beads for Wildlife” campaign over the Christmas 2009 period – purchas-ing beadwork from the NRT women’s groups and selling these in the retail outlets at Werribee Open Range Zoo. This has proven extremely popular across Melbourne and generated income that helped sustain fami-lies in Melako during a very severe drought. Based on the success of this trial, a five year campaign is being launched in October 2010, which will see sale of the items in Werribee and Melbourne zoos and expanded col-laboration with the women’s groups to include conservation literacy and partnerships with Zoos Victoria staff.

The MCC has five main objectives:• Restore the environment – land,

trees and pasture.• Enhance monitoring, protection and

use of wildlife to provide sustainable income generating opportunities.

• Develop and enhance livestock--based business opportunities, tourism and alternative income activities.

• Support community development through education, health, drought preparedness, water security and sanitation awareness.

• Build external and internal relation-ships and good governance.

Although the MCC was only estab-lished in 2005, important progress has been made in conserving wildlife and supporting community develop-ment:• Wildlife surveys carried out by the

Melako scouts have shown an in-crease in wildlife numbers in Melako since 2006, including buffalo, which had not been seen in the area for over 50 years (unfortunately, almost all of the buffaloes died in the se-vere drought of 2008/2009).

• The formation of an anti -poaching unit, made of scouts from Melako and two neighbouring conservan-cies, has resulted in a significant decrease in elephant poaching for ivory (no elephants were killed in the MCC in 2009), and protection for many other species in the area.

• A 500 ha wildlife protection zone (no livestock) has been established.

• A managed programme of shooting sand grouse is generating almost US$ 10,000 per year, 60% of which supports community -agreed pro-jects such as student bursaries (the numbers of grouse shot each year is based on rigorous counts of bird numbers and are less than 10% of the population).

• More than 100 women are em-ployed in local businesses to produce bead products, providing a sustainable income and reducing demand for livestock, which results in reduced impact on pasture and habitats.

23WAZA news 1/11

© Chris BanksBeadwork for sale at Werribee Open Range Zoo.

Recent Updates | New WAZA Projects

Karin Osbahr – Universidad de Ciencias Aplicadas y Ambientales, Bogotá, Colombia

WAZA Project 10020Pacarana Conservation ProgrammeSince 1990 the Universidad de Ciencias Aplicadas y Ambientales (U.D.C.A.) in Bogotá, Colombia, has been working on the research of hystricomorph rodents of the An-dean region, including the pacarana (Dinomys branickii) and the mountain paca (Cuniculus toczanowskii). The pacarana project is part of U.D.C.A.’s Andean Ecosystem Research Line and the Fauna Research Group is officially recognised by the Colombian govern-ment. The project involves captive breeding and basic biological and ecological in situ and ex situ research, due to the limited knowledge of mor-phophysiology, behaviour, parasitism, geographic distribution and nutri-tional ecology. The whole research project has been focused on obtaining information for the design of a man-agement plan for these endangered species, keeping in mind if possible the reintroduction of captive -bred animals as well as habitat manage-ment and educational programmes for local rural communities.

As part of the study, the university obtained a group of pacaranas con-fiscated by the Colombian govern-ment from illegal wildlife trade. The breeding group is presently housed in a large outdoor enclosure at the university. During the past five years the research project at U.D.C.A. has housed a group of 17 pacaranas. Even though births have occurred throughout the time, the newborns died during the first days of life and an increased mortality in adults reduced the initial population to eight animals. This mortality rate seems to be common in captive pacarana populations, but the causes have not been clarified yet. During the project clinical, nutritional and biological

aspects will be evaluated. As a result, together with a studbook, captive breeding management guidelines are expected. Considering that most of the pacaranas kept in Colombian zoos require better housing condi-tions, it is planned to improve them to get more stable breeding colonies in the country.

One of the most important aspects for in situ conservation is the knowl-edge of the area that has to be protected, in order to guarantee that the animals have enough food and resting places. With the pacarana being a rare and elusive species, most of the common field methods used to get information about habitat use and movement patterns are not useful. Therefore, non -invasive methods such as determination of the reproductive cycle testing faecal pregnanediol in females, monitoring faecal cortisol, standardise faecal group pellet counts to establish popu-lation size, faecal DNA testing as well as the interpretation of the large vocalisation repertoire of the species in relation to behaviour will be used at the breeding colony at U.D.C.A to get models that could be applied later under field conditions. Once the

proposed methods are standardised they will be complemented with camera trap methods to define pat-terns of habitat and space use at two localities (Santuario de Fauna y Flora Otún Quimbaya and Reserva Forestal Campoalegre/Risaralda) to evaluate local populations in relation to habi-tat fragmentation. Even though the chosen localities are under protection, hunting is common. The pacarana has a low reproduction rate so any reduc-tion of population size could imply a significant tendency to local extinc-tion. Therefore, the study of hunt-ing rates and the current pacarana extraction as a local extinction factor will also be included.

The results of the Pacarana Conserva-tion Programme will allow to define priority problems by a systematic evaluation of local conditions and to start an action plan using Dino-mys branickii as a flagship species, which will stand for or promote conservation in a general or regional sense. Workshops with the local and regional environmental authorities are planned to get a national conser-vation programme for the species approved by the Colombian govern-ment.

24 WAZA news 1/11

© René WüstHousing of pacaranas.

Addisu Mekonnen – Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

WAZA Project 10021

Recent Updates | New WAZA Projects

Research and Conservation of Two Primates Endemic to EthiopiaThe Ethiopian highlands are home to three endemic primates, including the Bale monkey (Chlorocebus djamd-jamensis), Boutourlini’s blue monkey (Cercopithecus mitis boutourlinii) and the gelada monkey (Theropithecus gelada). This project encompasses a study on two of the major endemic and little known primates of Ethiopia, the Bale monkey and the rare Arsi gelada monkey.

The Bale monkey is endemic to the southern Ethiopian highlands. Re-cently, the species was classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The Bale monkey is one of Africa’s least known primates, due to a lack of information about its basic ecology, distribution and behav-iour. A recent study showed that Bale monkeys exclusively inhabit bamboo forests and can be considered as bamboo forest habitat specialists. This habitat preference of Bale monkeys is almost certainly because of their di-etary specialisation on young bamboo leaves. Therefore, Bale monkeys are bamboo specialist folivores, diverged from their close relatives of the genus Chlorocebus, such as grivet (C. aethi-ops) and vervet monkeys (C. pygeryth-rus), which are generalists.

The main threats to Bale monkeys are habitat loss, habitat degradation and hunting by the local community, as they are considered as crop pests. The legal harvesting of bamboo by the local community for commer-cial purposes could pose a serious threat to Bale monkey populations in the future by further restricting their narrow range. However, recent observations in Sidamo showed that small populations can persist in areas where bamboo forest has been cleared. Adaptation to habitat modification is an issue that should be studied further. A recent study showed that Bale monkeys were only surveyed in about 40% of the bamboo forest in the Bale Mountains, revealing three new localities. There-fore, further surveys and ecological studies are necessary.

A recent population genetic analy-sis showed that the Arsi gelada population should be regarded as a distinctive sub -species (T. gelada unnamed sub -species). Furthermore, their physical appearance is differ-ent from the northern and central gelada monkey populations. The total population size is thought to be very small (perhaps only about 600) and

their distribution range is extremely restricted. The Arsi gelada is errone-ously listed together with T. gelada obscurus in the Least Concern cat-egory on the IUCN Red List. The Arsi gelada, as a distinctive sub -species with a small remaining population, is currently threatened by extensive cultivation, human settlement, graz-ing, predation and elimination as crop pests. Therefore, Arsi geladas surely fall into the Threatened and most likely the Endangered category on the IUCN Red List. Given the intense anthropogenic disturbance the gela-das at Arsi face, it is critical that the population status and ecology of this unique sub -species is studied, if ap-propriate conservation actions are to be devised and implemented before it is too late.

A study on the distribution, popu-lation genetics and basic ecology of these two primates, including analyses of habitat preference, rang-ing behaviour and feeding ecology, is important for determining their niche and devising management actions to conserve the two species/sub -species and their habitat. In addition, the research project will provide employ-ment opportunities for local people and help generate income from tourism in the long -term, which will contribute substantially to sustain-able development in Ethiopia.

25WAZA news 1/11

Bale monkey.

Sadisa Kedado forest.

© Anagaw Atickem

© Addisu Mekonnen

Alankar Jha – Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, India

WAZA Project 10022

Recent Updates | WAZA Projects

…Red pandas are threatened by habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and trapping…

Studying the Behaviour of Red Pandas in Captivity and in the WildThe red panda (Ailurus fulgens) is a small mammal of the Himalayas, almost the size of a jungle cat with a bright chestnut coat and ringed tail. It is distributed in the Himalayas from central Nepal through northern Burma and in the mountains of south- western China (Sichuan, Yunnan and Xiang provinces at an altitude of 1500–4000 m) The red panda is cat-egorised as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and is included under CITES as an Appendix I species. Red pandas are threatened by habitat loss, habitat fragmenta-tion and trapping.

Various ex situ conservation ef-forts exist for the red panda. Pad-maja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park (PNHZP) in Darjeeling, India, is dedicated to the conservation of endangered Himalayan fauna and embarked on a conservation breed-ing initiative for red pandas in the early 1980s with the acquisition of 1.3 animals. At present the zoo keeps 15 (10.3.2) red pandas and managed to release four animals back into the wild. The present project aims to look into and study various aspects of red panda behaviour at the zoo and in the wild.

The objectives of the project are: • To study the behaviour of red

pandas at Padmaja Naidu Hima-layan Zoological Park, including their breeding biology, using closed circuit television and night vision cameras.

• To study the behaviour of red pan-das, including within and between species interactions, in the wild at Singhalila National Park with the aid of camera traps.

26 WAZA news 1/11

© PNHZP

© Dai Bo

© Dai Bo

© PNHZP

Red panda cub born at PNHZP.

Grey -faced liocichla.

Project staff with Sichaun hill -partridge.

Release of red panda bred at PNHZP.

Roger Wilkinson and Simon Dowell – Chester Zoo, United Kingdom

Recent Updates | WAZA Projects

WAZA Project 10023Sichuan Forest Biodiversity Project

The Liang Shan region is a moun-tainous area of southern Sichuan situated alongside the Yangtze River to the south and the rising peaks of the Tibetan plateau to the west. This area offers outstanding forest habitat for a diverse range of species and is internationally recognised for its biodiversity. Following major floods in 1998, the Chinese government im-posed logging bans to preserve valu-able watersheds, which presented an excellent opportunity to restore and protect these important forest areas. This also produced new sustainable development challenges, as many local communities were depend-ent on the logging trade for income. The persistence of human pressures, including extensive use of wood for fuel and increased demand for forest products such as bamboo shoots led to overexploitation and habitat deg-radation in many areas. More recently the rise in the demand for tourism has brought additional pressures. In consequence, with the partnership of Chester Zoo what began as a Liver-pool John Moores University research venture has evolved into a holistic multi -faceted biodiversity conserva-tion project.

The overarching aims of the project are to enhance the network of pro-tected areas for forest biodiversity in the Liang Shan region and to engage local people in their sustainable man-agement and development. The pro-ject works closely with the Sichuan Forest Department and currently supports four reserves across Sichuan and has focused on three of these: Laojunshan, Mamize and Heizhu-gou. In 2009 support also began at the Ma’anshan Nature Reserve as a step towards the expansion of pro-tected areas. Together these protect 90,000 ha of subtropical, temperate deciduous and coniferous forest and alpine meadows. Many threatened endemic birds are restricted to these forests, including the grey -faced liocichla (Liocichla omeiensis) and the Sichuan hill -partridge (Arborophila rufipectus). The higher level forests and alpine meadows provide impor-tant habitats for red panda (Ailurus fulgens) and the most southerly wild population of giant pandas (Ai-luropoda melanoleuca). The area is also important for amphibians, such as the unique Taliang knobby newt (Tylototriton taliangensis) and many plants including the world famous dove tree (Davidia involucrate).

The main objectives of the project are:• To establish effective wildlife moni-

toring and research programmes to evaluate management practices and detect population changes.

• To work with local communities to support sustainable use of forest resources and find alternatives to these products.

• To improve local awareness of the reserves and their wildlife by evaluating current awareness and enhancing publicity.

• To develop a conservation and tour-ism management strategy for each reserve and the whole region.

Since 2002 the decline of the Sichuan hill -partridge has been reversed through targeted research -informed conservation and Laojunshan has achieved National Nature Reserve status. Also a large focus of the pro-ject has been in raising awareness of wildlife protection and environmental issues through engagement with lo-cal people.

Close to Laojunshan Nature Reserve, biogas stoves have been installed, which reduce the reliance on wood for fuel, allowing secondary forest to recover and reducing the disturbance of nesting birds. Initial results suggest that households using biogas have reduced their wood consumption by 80–95%. Recipients of these stoves are now helping reserve staff with raising public awareness and patrols to prevent illegal poaching. A similar venture, implemented close to Mam-ize, uses fuel efficient stoves, reduc-ing the need for fuel wood by 30%. Also at Mamize a Local Community Task Force has been established to expand patrolling capacity during the bamboo shoot collection season. In Heizhugou beehives were built around the forest station and are maintained by local forest workers. Others were donated to local families who now manage them to produce honey as an alternative to harvesting forest products. The honey is sold as a specialist product to increase an-nual household income. Asian honey bees (Apis cerana) are used and have been observed visiting many wild plants, thus helping to pollinate im-portant species within the local plant community.

Future plans are to continue evalua-tion and development of community outreach and to promote the devel-opment of a conservation strategy for the Liang Shan region.

27WAZA news 1/11

The Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) is the rarest, southernmost and most genetically distinct sub -species of the grey wolf in North America.

Its geographical range in the United States included Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. In Mexico, the wolf was found in the Sierra Madre Occidental and Oriental and adjoining high-lands as far south as Distrito Federal. Mexican wolf habitat includes oak woodland, pine/oak woodland or pine forest with adjacent grassland within mountainous terrain. The primary cause of the Mexican wolf’s decline throughout its range is human perse-cution. Habitat degradation, human encroachment and inadequate law enforcement may be further factors. In 1976 the Mexican wolf was listed as an endangered sub -species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973. In Mexico this sub -species is also listed as endangered.

Missing from the landscape for dec-ades, the howl of the Mexican wolf can again be heard in the mountains of the south -western United States thanks to the cooperation of the nations, organisations and zoological institutions involved in the Mexican wolf recovery programme. Interna-tional wolf experts rate the recovery of the Mexican wolf as the highest priority wolf recovery programme in the world. Between 1977 and 1980, five wolves were removed from the wild in Mexico to start an ex situ breeding programme under the auspices of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and Mexico’s Sec-retaria del Medio Ambiente Recursos Naturales y Pesca. Since 1993 the U.S. population has been managed through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan

(SSP). The population in Mexico is managed by the Direccion General de Vida Silvestre. Programme partici-pants today comprise two nations, 48 zoological institutions and con-servation organizations managing jointly some 300 Mexican wolves. On March 1998, 11 captive -raised Mexican wolves in three family groups were released on public lands in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area in the United States; they were the first free ‑roaming Mexican wolves confirmed in the wild since 1980. Today, the total wild population may be greater than 40 animals, most having been born in the wild. The reestablishment goal is 100 Mexican wolves for this population in the United States. Mexico has identified

Peter Siminski – The Living Desert, Palm Desert, USA

WAZA Project 10024Mexican Wolf Reestablishment and Recovery Programme

several potential release locations and is promoting educational and public relations efforts in those areas. As of 2010, Mexico is preparing for the release of wolves in once native habitat within Mexico.

…the rarest and most genetically distinct sub-species of the grey wolf in North America…

28 WAZA news 1/11

© Wild Canid CentreMexican wolf.

The Omo Forest Reserve within Ogun State, Nigeria, is of great conserva-tion value with 200 species of tree, 125 species of bird and many mam-mal species including forest elephant, chimpanzee and white -throated guenon monkeys, all of which are seriously endangered. The Nigerian Forest Elephant Group (NFEG) was established in 1989 in order to protect the 1300 km2 Omo Forest Reserve and work towards its long -term con-servation. Paignton Zoo Environmen-tal Park began supporting the NFEG in 1993 and has been involved with the programme ever since, although management of the programme was officially handed over to the Nigerian Conservation Foundation in 2006.

When the Education Department at Paignton Zoo heard about the NFEG in 1993, it was decided that this was an exciting new project worth supporting. Funds were raised in the zoo and in the local community to support the education work of the NFEG, which involved two educators teaching children in the Omo Forest primary schools and a ranger helping with various practical tasks, including acting as a wildlife guide in the forest.

In 1996, collections were begun at elephant keeper talks; these continue to happen twice a day throughout the summer season and, as well as informing visitors about the zoo’s elephants, they also serve to raise awareness of the project in Nigeria and provide an opportunity to raise funds for the project from visitors.

Staff from the zoo visited the Omo Forest for the first time in 1997 and regular support was established. In 2001, zoo staff made another visit and discovered that the NFEG was no longer operating effectively following the chairmanship changing hands. It was considered that the work being carried out by the two educators and the ranger was worthwhile and should continue despite the problems with NFEG. It was therefore decided that the zoo would fund the three staff directly, including paying monthly salaries and all associated expenses.

As a result, communication increased and the education work became more established with the educators visit-ing six forest primary schools each week, teaching the top three classes in each school about the forest, its wildlife and the need for conservation. A Conservation Club was also set up for the older children who had left the primary schools but still maintained an interest in the project and the con-servation of the forest. This club still continues to hold weekly meetings

and has a programme of activities that include campaigning to raise con-servation awareness, holding meet-ings with community organisations and running events such as football tournaments to draw attention to the Conservation Club and its aims. The ranger also continues to make weekly visits to the camp in the heart of the forest, which was established by the NFEG. He looks after the buildings, keeps tracks and trails clear and main-tains the area so that it can continue to be used as a base for people wish-ing to stay in the forest. During these visits, he acts as an excellent guide, with an unrivalled knowledge of the local forest and its wildlife.

Further zoo staff visits were made in 2003, 2006 and 2010. In 2006, man-agement of the project was handed over to the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) but the zoo has continued to provide all the funds for the three staff and has maintained the same level of communication. Further developments have taken place more recently with a major project being funded initially by BG Nigeria with the aim of conserving the Omo For-est along with two adjoining forests, Shasha and Oluwa. In 2007, a feasibil-ity study for this Omo -Shasha -Oluwa Forest Conservation Project was carried out and this confirmed that a conservation project was essential for the survival of the forests. Support has been obtained from the three State Governments involved and further funding has been obtained by another stakeholder, ProNatura International (PNI) to continue with the next phase, which will include forest guards to ensure the full protection of the forest. A three -way Memorandum of Under-standing has been signed between the NCF, PNI and Paignton Zoo with a determination on all sides to work towards the long -term conservation of an important forest habitat in Nigeria.

Sue Lowe – Paington Zoo Environmental Park, United Kingdom

WAZA Project 10025Omo Forest Conservation Project

29WAZA news 1/11

Setting of a camera trap in Omo Forest.© Paington Zoo

The Andean condor (Vultur gryphus), the largest flying bird in the world, has started to become extinct in vast areas of its original distribution. Indiscriminate killing due to the mis-conception that it preys on livestock (when it is actually a scavenger), use of toxic baits, ingestion of lead bullets and habitat loss are the causes that threaten its survival. Its disappearance not only affects the delicate ecologi-cal balance but also represents a ter-rible loss for the native communities in South America who have honoured it for thousands of years, considering it a sacred link between men and God. This magnificent bird faces extinc-tion throughout its extensive range, particularly in Venezuela (where it was declared extinct in 1965), Colombia and Ecuador. Reduced populations remain in Peru and Bolivia and though the largest populations survive in Chile and Argentina, local extinctions have already taken place. In Argentina, naturalists such as Charles Darwin and Perito Moreno came upon condors on the Atlantic coast of Patagonia during the mid 19th century, in places where the species has disappeared in the last 170 years.

Since 1991, the Andean Condor Con-servation Project (ACCP), as part of a binational conservation programme developed together with Chile, has managed to reintroduce 99 condors in South America, in areas as remote as the Venezuelan “páramos” or the

“fueguinian channels” of the Austral Patagonia. The goal of ACCP is to conserve the Andean condor in all of its South American distribution, also rescuing the ancestral knowledge of the native people. ACCP works to improve the viability of wild condor populations by breeding and rearing captive specimens and rescuing and rehabilitating wild condors, in order to release them back into their natu-ral environment.

A new chapter initiated in 2003, called “The Return of the Condor to the Sea”, aims at reintroducing this species on the Atlantic Patagonian coast. More than 2000 km of coast was covered with the aim of checking locations that historical references had mentioned. This field campaign determined that the Paileman Hills, a Mapuche term that means “Condor in Peace”, proved to have all the nec-essary characteristics for the Andean condor to recover its place. Located in Valcheta, Río Negro, Argentina, Paileman Hills lie northeast of the So-muncura Plateau, declared an Integral Natural Reserve in 1986. On 22 De-cember 2003, five young condors, artificially incubated from eggs com-ing from Argentine zoos and raised in human isolation at Buenos Aires Zoo, were released before the eyes of hundreds of people. Previous to the liberation, a Mapuche ceremony was performed propitiating their return to the wild. From this moment on, a complex system of scientific study and tracking based on the use of te-lemetry and satellite transmission was launched. Subsequently, 30 condors

have been released, including rescued and rehabilitated animals. All these liberations were preceded by native ceremonies. Intense educational and media campaigns were articulated, highlighting the conservation prob-lems of this species.

Every day, valuable information is obtained. The birds’ flight covers the coast up to the high Andes and their ancestral roosting places are being determined, which helps define hot spots for their conservation. During 2010 two breeding pairs have been formed and each of them success-fully raised one chick. These are the first wild condors born on the Atlantic coast in the last 170 years. At the end of 2010, another nest was discovered near Paileman; the spirit of the condor returns to occupy its ancient place!

This project is realised in the frame of the Binational Conservation Programme of Chile and Argentina (CONAF, Aves Chile, Parque Nacional de Santiago, Fundación Bioandina and Buenos Aires Zoo).

Luis Jácome – Buenos Aires Zoo, Argentina

WAZA Project 10027Andean Condor Conservation Project

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© Hernán PepeAndean Condor born by artificial incubation at Buenos Aires Zoo.

WAZAExecutiveOffice

Recent UpdatesFuture WAZA Conference Venues

• 2011 Prague, Czech Republic (2–6 Oct 2011)

• 2012 Melbourne, Australia (7–11 Oct 2012)

• 2013 Disney’s Animal Kingdom, USA (13–17 Oct 2013)

• 2014 New Delhi, India (9–13 Nov 2014)

• 2015 Al Ain, United Arab Emirates (11–15 Oct 2015)

Call forpapers66th Annual Conference and Congress 2011 will take place in Prague, Czech Republic, 2-6 October 2011. The venue is the Hotel Intercontinental Prague (www.icprague.com).

Registration will open on 10th March 2011 and the early bird rate will be available till 31st May 2011. The link for registering will be provided on the WAZA website (Events).

The overall theme is Partnering for sustainable zoos and aquariums. Contributions are especially sought for the following topics: • Secure Long -Term Animal Collections (sustainable collections)• Animal welfare, legislation and public opinion• Business prerogatives – making money and saving wildlife

Please send applications only in relationship to those themes, selection will be carried out strictly in order to guarantee to the point presentations and discussions.

Deadline for submission of title and abstract is the 31st May 2011. Please also notify whether the presentation is meant as a longer briefing paper or as a shorter contribution (like examples for solutions). A form for the call for papers is provided on WAZA’s website for download, www.waza.org (Events).

New Directors

• Dr. VáclavPoživil replaced Tomáš Kraus at Zoo Ústí nad Labem (Czech Republic)

• MilanŠovčíkreplaced VladimírŠrank at Zoologická záhrada Bojnice (Slovakia)

• Dr. Brice Lefaux replaced Dr. Pierre Moisson at Zoo de Mulhouse (France) as of 1 Sept 2010

New WAZA Members

• Fondazione Bioparco di Roma | Italy | as institutional member

• Jungle Cat World Wildlife Park, Orono, Ontario | Canada | as institutional member

WAZA Membership as of 1st January 2011

Associations 24 Institutions 253 Affiliates 15 Corporates 11 Life and Honorary members 98

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© Michal Stránský

Pavilion of gorillas in Prague Zoo.

WAZAExecutiveOffice

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

Call for PapersDeadline for submissions: February 28th 2011Please fill out the “Call for Papers form” on www.waza.org and return it to Ulrike Fox, WAZA Executive Office, IUCN Conservation Centre, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland or by e-mail: marketing@waza.org. You will be contacted before March 31st about the selection of your proposal.

•Strategic Marketing

•Marketing the Zoo and Aquarium Community

•Marketing, Education and Conservation

•Turn Bad News into Good News

•Social Marketing in Action

Modern zoos and aquariums are facing multiple challenges, as they simultaneously strive for setting and maintaining high standards and sustainable practices in education, recreation, research and conserva-tion.Havinganeffectivemarketingstrategyiscrucialforcommunicatingthe value that zoos and aquariums serve in these multiple roles.

To help achieve this goal, representa-tives of the global zoo and aquarium community will share case studies, best practices and strategic propos-als at 7th International Zoo and Aquarium Marketing Conference. This conference is jointly organised by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and Granby Zoo in Granby (Quebec) in Canada, which will host the conference from June 13 to 16, 2011.

Strategic Marketing in Action

Costs • Early bird fee – before May 1st 2011:

$525 CDN• Regular price – after May 1st 2011:

$565 CDNIf more than one delegate from a zoo registers for the conference, a 10% discount will be given.

Visit www.waza.org or www.zoodegranby.com/waza for updates on the conference

32 WAZA news 1/11

WAZAExecutiveOffice

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

Get Your Membership Kit!Show that you are a member of WAZA! The WAZA membership kit is ready for you (as long as stock lasts). Please find the details in the membership area of our website or order from secretariat@waza.org.

WAZAExecutiveOffice

Contacts• Executive Director:

Gerald.Dick@waza.org• Secretariat (Monica Gamp):

Monica.Gamp@waza.org or secretariat@waza.org

• Marketing/Communication: Ulrike.Fox@waza.org

• Conservation/International Studbooks: Markus.Gusset@waza.org

Package 1 | 30 CHF (for handling and shipping)• 1 × WAZA Pin• 1 × WAZA Tie• 1 × WAZA Sticker Set

(12 stickers in 3 different sizes)• One copy of the WAZA NEWS

Edition 1/2010, 2/2010, 3/2010 and 4/2010 and WAZA Strategy flyer (eng/span/ger/fr)

Package 2 | 20 CHF (for handling and shipping)• 1 × WAZA Pin• 1 × WAZA Tie

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(12 stickers in 3 different sizes)

Of course you can also order all items separately – all you have to do is send us an email secretariat@waza.org – and we will send it out immediately and only charge you for the handling and shipping costs.

Make Your WAZA Membership Visible!

Follow the good examples of Nordensark, PAAZAB and others and make your membership visible on your website and other materials. The images can be obtained from the WAZA executive office (Ulrike.Fox@waza.org).

33WAZA news 1/11

Membership Application Nominated as affiliate member

Recent Updates

Membership

Bioparque M’bopicuá, Uruguay

• Sponsors: Osvaldo D. J. Guaita (Buenos Aires Zoo) and Wolfgang Kiessling (Loro Parque, Tenerife)

• Founded: 2001• Mission: Montes del Plata promotes

the responsible management of resources through the conservation of soil, water, air and biodiversity. The company manages two areas of high conservation value. Each has specific management plans, includ-ing actions such as the restoration of natural habitats and the moni-toring of flora and fauna, as well as other areas that are representative of different ecosystems such as native woodlands, wetlands, rocky areas and natural pastures.

• Area: 160 ha• Collection

Mammals: 14 species and 119 specimens Birds: 39 species and 202 specimens Reptiles: 1 species and 26 specimens

• Staff: 6 permanent • Visitors: 20.000 students in eight

years, not open to public• Owned by: Montes del Plata company.• Director: Juan Villalba -Macías• Address:

Ruta 24, km 0, Dpto., 65.000 – Dpto. De Río Negro, Uruguay

The Bioparque M’Bopicuá was founded on 5 March 2001, when the government of Uruguay author-ized its operations for scientific and educational purposes. It has a surface area of 160 hectares and is located at the banks of the Uruguay River.

Its main objective is the ex -situ repro-duction of endangered Uruguayan fauna to be later introduced into natural habitats. Although it is closed to the public, at special times (when there is no reproductive activity) educational institutions are permit-ted to visit. Throughout its eight year history, 20,000 students have visited the facilities.

The current collection consists of 347 specimens from 54 different species. Over the years of operation, several species have been reproduced, such as Pampas Deer, Grey Brocket Deer, Pampas Cat, Geoffroy’s Cat, Coatimundi, Southern River Otter, Prehensile -tailed Porcupine, Collared Peccary, Green Cardinal, White Wood-pecker, Crested Cariama, Coscoroba and Black -Necked Swans, Red Shov-eler, Roseate Spoonbill, Dusky -legged Guan, and Broad - Snouted Caiman, among others.

In compliance with its main objective, Coatimundis and Broad – Snouted Caimans have already been reintro-duced to their natural habitats.

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Membership Application Nominated as corporate member

Membership

To find out more: www.t-dcl.com

Torre Design Consortium, Ltd. A Professional Architecture Corporation, USA

• Sponsors:

• Ronald Foreman (Audubon Zoo) and Chuck Brady (Memphis Zoo)

• Founded: 1980• Membership:

AZA, AIA (American Institute of Ar-chitects), FASLA (Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects), FAAR (Society of Fellows, American Academy in Rome), APA (American Planning Association), IIDA (Inter-national Interior Design Associa-tion), AAM (American Association of Museums), USGBC (United States Green Building Council), LEED AP® (Leadership in Energy and Environ-mental Design Accredited Profes-sional).

• President: L. Azeo Torre • Address:

Torre Design Consortium, Ltd. A Professional Architecture Corporation 5005 Magazine Street 70115 New Orleans, LA, USA fon: +504 899-2932 fax: +504 897-5088 a.torre@t -dcl.com

Torre Design Consortium, Ltd. (a 25-plus year AZA member) has over 35 years of architecture, land-scape architecture, exhibit, graphic and interior design experience throughout North America, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm has done extensive master plans for zoos, aquariums, and a broad range of other projects. The firm has garnered over 100 national state, and regional

design awards for their work. Their designs extend from entry complexes to themed restaurants; aquariums to African savannas, rainforests to desert exhibits. Their experience is focused on a wide variety of build-ing types, zoos and aquariums in many different styles, and designs the capture the history and rich-ness of the environment and times. From conceptual master planning to detailed design, Torre Design pursues each project with a comprehensive approach that educates and enter-

tains while delineating the intercon-nectedness of all living things and our world. Their designs have led to many zoological facilities exceeding their regional population in annual attendance. With a proper balance between exhibit opportunities and visitor services needs, many of their zoos are operationally self ‑sufficient and are the most popular and most attended of all regional attractions. Torre Design is dedicated to: “Bring-ing the World to your Zoo!”

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Recent Updates

Sumate Kamolnorranath – ZPO Thailand

Obituary

Mr. Amnart Cholwattana in Memoriam

The 3rd Director of Songkhla Zoo, Zoo-logical Park Organization under the Royal Patronage H. M. the King (ZPO) Mr. Amnart Cholwattana was born on 16 December 1941, in Chonburi province, Thailand. He got a bachelor degree from Bangpra Agricultural College, Chonburi province, Thai-land. In 1978, he started off as a Zoo Keeper at Khaow Kheaw Open Zoo before being promoted to a curator at Khaow Kheaw Open Zoo in 1981. From 1994–2001, he was a Head of Zoo Planning and Public Relations Division and was pioneer initiating Zoo Education of ZPO. In 2001, he was relocated to Dusit Zoo, Bang-kok then to Nakorn Ratchasima Zoo in 2002 before taking Deputy Direc-tor position at Nakorn Ratchasima

Membership

Zoo in 2003. His last position during 2006-2010 was a Director of Songkhla Zoo. One of his initiated projects was establishment of internal audit for animal welfare and ethic of Songkhla Zoo. He passed away peacefully from heart failure in Germany on the way to attend the WAZA conference on 16 October 2010.

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Membership IIIWAZA news 1/11WAZA news 4/10

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ISSN: 1662-7733

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