Status: 12/18/2022 8:47 a.m
Almost one in five vertebrates is threatened with extinction. Zoos around the world promote conservation and invest millions in animal husbandry and local projects. How useful is that?
They are the Grandes Dames of Wilhelma: Pama and Zella have been living in the Stuttgart Zoo since the 1960s, which everyone just calls Wilhelma. At least four directors have already witnessed the two elephant cows. They are among the crowd favourites. However, because they are considered old at 55 and 56, they can no longer have offspring. But that would be urgently needed, because the stock of Asian elephants in nature is endangered according to the Red List of the World Conservation Union IUCN. There are still around 50,000 animals in the wild and the numbers are getting fewer and fewer.
“Pama and Zella should and may of course enjoy their twilight years here,” says the Zoological Director of Wilhelma, Volker Grün. However, the old, small system is to give way. Together with zoo director and elephant expert Thomas Kölpin, they are planning a new facility that will be ten times larger with space for up to 14 animals that live together in a herd. There should then be bred again for the preservation of the species, says Grün. The zoo is spending a lot of money on the project, probably 44 million euros.
#right in the middle of the Wilhelma in Stuttgart: options for protecting species in zoos
Tim Diekmann, SWR, daily topics 10:30 p.m., December 15, 2022
Species protection – an essential task of modern zoos
Theo Pagel has made species protection his life’s work. The director of the Cologne Zoo is just about to talk to tagesschau.de of the CITES Species Conservation Conference from Panama returned. As an observer for the World Zoos Association (WAZA), he has followed how the member states have agreed, among other things, on stricter protection for sharks and rays.
“Species protection is now an essential task of a director of a scientifically managed zoo,” says Pagel. “Species protection is our topic. Also in the sense that we actually want to educate our visitors and win them over for nature and species protection.” The Cologne Zoo supports species protection projects worldwide, from the protection of green toads on the Rhenish front door to the protection of reptiles and amphibians in Vietnam. The zoo has donated around two million euros to species protection over the past 13 years.
The role of modern and scientific zoos has changed, says Pagel. The times of zoos as pure fun and leisure facilities are over. “Zoos have made another quantum leap in the last ten years. We are now working very closely with the World Conservation Union, the largest nature conservation association in the world. We zoos are partners in species protection,” says Pagel.
Release only possible under good conditions
But why do zoos have to keep animals in captivity when more and more projects are being supported in the regions of origin of the animals? Zoologists like to answer the question by speaking of “reserve population”. Animals in zoos therefore serve to preserve the species and could eventually be released into the wild. If the conditions are right. And that, according to Volker Grün from Wilhelma, is often lacking: “First of all, you have to create the conditions on site so that animals can be released back into the wild”. So it’s also about practical questions: Is there still enough habitat and food sources?
The breeding of endangered species in zoos is coordinated by experts from the European Endangered Species Program (EEP). “The EEP has all the data from the animals in Europe and knows exactly which animals are a particularly good match, both genetically and in terms of character,” says Grün. In this way, the new elephant breeding group will be put together in Stuttgart together with the EEP.
Critics: Zoos need to do more
Biologist Torsten Schmidt from the Federation Against the Abuse of Animals has been dealing with the keeping of wild animals in zoos for some time. In his view, the zoos’ efforts to protect species are more of an “additional factor” to attract visitors. Far too few animals have been released back into the wild. “The preservation and protection of natural habitats must clearly be at the forefront of all efforts” and that has not been the case so far, says Schmidt. “If these habitats disappear, the attempt to keep and reproduce individual specimens of endangered animal species as a supposed reserve population in distant zoos is already questionable for ethical reasons”.
Because many native species are also endangered, Schmidt also demands that the focus must be on keeping, breeding and repatriating endangered native animal species. A rejection of the zoo system sounds different.
Knowledge transfer is also important
There are more than 800 zoological institutions nationwide, 71 work scientifically. The nature conservation organization WWF now also supports scientifically run zoos: “Especially in environmental education, zoos play an important role in knowledge transfer and activation – with millions upon millions of visitors, the reach is also enormous,” says Arnulf Köhncke, head of the Species Protection department at the WWF.
Zoo director Theo Pagel from Cologne emphasizes this: “Our advantage is the emotion: If you have ever smelled an elephant, then let yourself be won over emotionally and donate money for protection, for example.”
“We’ve Saved Species”
Zoo director Pagel also encounters critics again and again. He then likes to throw this sentence at them: “Regardless of how you think about zoos, we can definitely say: We have already saved species. And many of those who criticize us have not yet done so.” Pagel is alluding to the rescue of the golden lion tamarin.
In the 1990s, scientists counted just under 600 animals in the wild. Thanks in part to the release of animals born in zoos, there are now around 3,700. WWF species protection expert Köhncke adds: “Without zoos, bisons would very likely have become extinct today.”