EAZA News 57-12 - European Association of Zoos and Aquaria

More documents

Recommendations

Info

eaza news 57 2007 08 eaza madagascar campaign Why is Madagascar so special? Lesley Dickie, Zoological Society of London, United Kingdom During the campaign year you will often be reminded (in case you still need any further reminding…) of how special Madagascar is. One way is through articles written by different members of the campaign core group, in this issue starting with the carnivores of Madagascar. Despite being so close to the African land mass, Madagascar has no dogs or cats, and no predators as large or highly visible as hunting dogs and lions. Yet the carnivores of the island are a fascinating group and just as charismatic in their own way. They have been overlooked in the past because there is a paltry eight species; a very low number for an island of this size. They are also relatively small in body size, mostly nocturnal, some solitary and when living in groups, the photo hermann will/chemnitz zoo Madagascar competition for school children Stanislav Derlich, Ostrava Zoo, Czech Republic groups are small. However, they share in common with the majority of the other inhabitants of the island, high levels of evolutionary distinctiveness. After many years of fervent scientific discussion, the carnivores of the island have been taxonomically assigned to their own family, the Eupleridae. This is further subdivided into two subfamilies; the Euplerinae consisting of the fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox), the falanouc (Eupleres goudotti) and the Malagasy civet (Fossa fossana), and the Galidiinae consisting of the ring-tailed mongoose (Galidia elegans), the broad-striped mongoose (Galidictis fasciata), the Grandidier’s mongoose (Galidictis grandidieri ), the narrow-striped mongoose (Mungotictis decemlineata) and the little-known brown-tailed mongoose (Salanoia concolor). Six of the eight species are thought to be monotypic. The fossa, falanouc, narrow-striped mongoose and Grandidier’s mongoose are all classed as Endangered in the 2006 IUCN Red List, while the Malagasy civet, ring-tailed mongoose, broad-striped mongoose and brown-tailed mongoose are all classed as Vulnerable. This entire family of carnivores is threatened with extinction, yet it receives little conservation attention. We hope that the EAZA Madagascar Campaign 2006/7 will help change this parlous state of affairs. There is an EEP for the fossa, the largest of the island’s carnivores and a fascinating species. New holders are always needed, so please consider keeping this species. The narrow-striped mongoose and ring-tailed mongoose are also held in captivity, though in much lower numbers. Think about how you can use your current exhibits of non-threatened small carnivores to talk about this group… and hopefully raise funds for the campaign. Winners of the competition photo ostrava zoo EAZA Madagascar Campaign activities at Ostrava Zoo started already in early November 2006 with the competition ‘Mammals and birds of Madagascar’. The competition included questions on Madagascar fauna and conservation issues. In total, 2213 schoolchildren (10-15 years old) from almost hundred schools in the Moravian- Silesian region took part in the first round, and the winners participated in a final that was held on 2 December 2006. We hope that this competition has increased the awareness on the unique wildlife of Madagascar amongst the younger generation in our region. The release of a pair of endangered crowned lemurs (Eulemur coronatus) in its new enclosure was a perfect opportunity to promote the campaign again. Not only journalists, but also sponsors and schoolchildren were invited to this event on 4 December 2006. A special travelling exhibition was also prepared, with many photos and information about Madagascar and the EAZA Madagascar Campaign. The exhibition will be presented to as many inhabitants of our region as possible (e.g. in libraries and town halls). The latest campaign event took place during Christmas as part of the ‘Painting and drawing for Madagascar’ activity. All children younger than 15 years were allowed to enter the zoo free of charge if they had drawn an image of a lemur species kept in the zoo. All the drawings collected will be sent to the children in Madagascar via our partner Malagasy radio station. Our efforts will continue in 2007. We will try to collect more drawings, particularly in cooperation with the local media. Furthermore, we are preparing a special Madagascar Day in April and many other activities!
Chris Peters Position Zoo educator at Rotterdam Zoo and past IZE president Favourite animal Elephant Favourite sustainable(!) exhibit The Oceanium at Rotterdam Zoo with its solar roof, which probably is the biggest solar roof in a European zoo Hobbies Working for IZE and hiking with family Please describe your career path. In 1976 I wrote a letter to the director of Rotterdam Zoo, the well-known Dick van Dam, informing him I desperately wanted to work for the zoo. Fortunately, he was not at all discouraged by the fact that I am disabled. In fact, he told me that he wanted me to work for the zoo no matter what problems had to be solved to realise that. I started setting up an animal information system for the zoo keepers. In 1983 Bert de Boer, current EAZA chair, started to organise a modern education department, after which I became a zoo educator, with my main task being to produce education panels. Later I became involved with educational aspects of developing new enclosures. Rotterdam Zoo really stands out in integrating education; our educators are involved in zoo design, collection planning and even in the zoo management. What is the most memorable or fascinating event in your career so far? Probably my involvement with the International Zoo Educators (IZE). In 1992 the former head of education wanted me to go to the IZE Conference in Sydney. At first, I thought he was joking, as because of my handicap I had never travelled that far abroad. Nevertheless, I ended up in Australia and became fascinated by the inspiring cooperation of the IZE. As I really missed the contribution of zoo educators from developing countries, a few years later I started to assist the IZE in getting these colleagues on board. Thanks to funds of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs we managed to finance the attendance of one African and two South American educators to the IZE Conference in Copenhagen, 1996. Besides being a dedicated zoo educator, what other activities do you have within the zoo world? I have to mention IZE again. After the IZE Conference in 1996, I became the regional representative of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. One of my first actions was to split up this enormous region; I assisted the African participant of Copenhagen Zoo, Peter Micheni, in setting up the AZOREN (African Zoo and Reserve Educators Network). In 2000 I became the ‘president elect’ of IZE, to become president in 2003 and 2004. Last year was my final year in the assisting function as past president. What are the main challenges for the IZE president? During my presidency, my main goal was to professionalize the structure of IZE; it now has a permanent office in Bern, Switzerland, which makes the organisation more stable. Other challenges are to achieve a good cooperation with WAZA and regional zoo organisations like EAZA. Currently, we are the official education organisation under the umbrella of WAZA. Furthermore, I would like to see more educational input in the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG). You helped organise the 18 th IZE Conference in 2006. What did you see achieved through the conference, focussing on the United Nations’ Decade of Education for Sustainable Development? During an ‘open space activity’ we gathered a lot of concrete suggestions for sustainable education. Nevertheless, the most important message that popped up was that we should invest more in evaluating our education. The sustainable message is important, but do we succeed in getting it into the minds of our visitors? IZE will focus on better evaluation tools to make our sustainable message more successful. • interview “ We are not only spreading the message, we are the message. By acting green and telling about it, hopefully we will be able to create awareness and change the lifestyle of our visitors”. eaza news 57 2007 09
Page 1 and 2: EAZANEWS quarterly publication of t
Page 3 and 4: 12 photo bristol zoo 26 30 photo jo
Page 5 and 6: Exhibit evaluation and visitor stud
Page 7: Trip to Madagascar in 2007 Many of
Page 11 and 12: The Somali wild ass lives in sandy
Page 13 and 14: institutions as possible to read an
Page 15 and 16: The disadvantage of heterotrophic b
Page 17 and 18: Zoos as green models with green roo
Page 19 and 20: Bristol united kingdom source press
Page 21 and 22: Lemurs flourish in their easy acces
Page 23 and 24: Termites nest photo eugène bruins/
Page 25 and 26: Projecto Aquila The protocol to rec
Page 27 and 28: Thus, it is important that zoos con
Page 29 and 30: photo brenna hernandez/shedd aquari
Page 31 and 32: Bengt Holst, CBSG Europe, Copenhage
Page 33: Update on the development of ZIMS T
Page 36: zims; what will it do for you? ISIS

EAZA News 57-12 - European Association of Zoos and Aquaria

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?