Trends in European zoo collections in the 21st century

lintworm said:
So while we can lament the loss of a number of primates, those losses were for a large part unavoidable, there are more losses on their way in the coming decades which could be just as substantial as what we have seen until now. But let us also not forget how lucky we are to still have high diversity and celebrate that and hope more zoos become serious about the species that do need new holders. Even with future losses there will be over 100 primate species in European zoos, which means this group will remain well represented with a diverse cast, though the overall loss in terms of species richness remains large.
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I, for one, am certainly jealous of how well-represented primates are in European zoos. I would LOVE if we somehow managed to keep 100 primate species in US Zoos in the future. Right now, there's only slightly more than that number, with many of the species either dead-ends or only represented at a handful of roadside zoos. I suspect in the US we are heading towards a reality of only 50-60 primate species present, perhaps closer to 70 if we are lucky.
 
lintworm said:
There are however instances where one species is phased out in the name of phasing out, where it is then replaced by the “wrong” species, which only adds to the decline. An example is the recent departure of the moustached monkey (Cercopithecus cephus) from ZOOM Gelsenkirchen. This species is a phase-out species as its ESB was discontinued recently in favour of more endangered guenons (though its future depends on whether Zooparc de Beauval wants to continue breeding them). But what does ZOOM do, it remodels their enclosure for ring-tailed lemurs and crowned lemurs. These species are endangered and EEP managed, but they are not crying for new holders and are already well established in captivity. The zoo then makes some nice PR with how it keeps more endangered species now, but it only makes the capacity crisis for small African monkeys larger as the guenons weren’t replaced by their supposed replacements: guenons/mangabeys. More coordination at a higher level and some sort of thinking at the zoo level will be needed in the future to avoid this. EAZA should steer zoos away from more commonly kept EEP species towards ones with vulnerable populations and use a stick/carrot for that if the managed species are going to be conserved long term.
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While EAZA might have control over the EEPs and the regional collection plans, the control that EAZA has over each institution's collection plan is rather limited. Each institution is free to stop housing any species or to choose the ones they want. I do not think agent A or B deserves to be blamed by the end of the day. Each institution has to work with what it has (or does not have). There might have been several reasons to favour the lemurs over the guenons. Perhaps Zoom had to wait a long time to receive the animals, and between having an empty enclosure for some months versus having an attractive species in there, the choice seems to be very logical to me. But I do not know the details of this.
 
remar said:
Zoom sent their animals to Beauval, so the argument of to long waiting doesn't make sense as this action has to be planed too.

It just a perfect demonstration of how it should not be done.
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Thank you for the clarification. But well, by the end of the day, each institution decides its own collection plan. It was their choice, legitimate I may argue.
 
OkapiJohn said:
Thank you for the clarification. But well, by the end of the day, each institution decides its own collection plan. It was their choice, legitimate I may argue.
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Of course this is a legitimate choice of ZOOM, but I used it as an example as to how it is not a helpful choice at a higher level and currently the EAZA/TAG has no way to prevent such stuff happening. ZOOM even already has a lemur walkthrough to which said species could be added, but presented this change as a conservation minded step. While they do now keep 2 extra EEP species, it would have been much more beneficial had that space been used for other endangered species that are in greater need of new holders. The added conservation value of another zoo with ring-tailed lemurs is basically 0. That is my beef with it. I don't think a TAG/EAZA should have a final say over collection plans at a single zoo, that would probably do a lot of harm to diversity apart from being an unhealthy situation in general, but there should be more incentive for zoos to not opt for easy and go with more struggling species.
 
lintworm said:
Of course this is a legitimate choice of ZOOM, but I used it as an example as to how it is not a helpful choice at a higher level and currently the EAZA/TAG has no way to prevent such stuff happening. ZOOM even already has a lemur walkthrough to which said species could be added, but presented this change as a conservation minded step. While they do now keep 2 extra EEP species, it would have been much more beneficial had that space been used for other endangered species that are in greater need of new holders. The added conservation value of another zoo with ring-tailed lemurs is basically 0. That is my beef with it. I don't think a TAG/EAZA should have a final say over collection plans at a single zoo, that would probably do a lot of harm to diversity apart from being an unhealthy situation in general, but there should be more incentive for zoos to not opt for easy and go with more struggling species.
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which incentives do you think it could be?
 
OkapiJohn said:
Thank you for the clarification. But well, by the end of the day, each institution decides its own collection plan. It was their choice, legitimate I may argue.
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For sure it's their choice. But if all zoos show as much zoological commitment as Zoom zoos will abolish themselves.
 
OkapiJohn said:
which incentives do you think it could be?
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I think an option would be that zoos that are planning to replace a certain species are forced to contact the TAG. The TAG would then give a list of options of alternative species for which new holders are desperately needed, first within the TAG, but possibly also outside for related TAGs in some cases.

But the root problem is a zoo management that isn't too interested in species diversity at a European level, but apart from hiring more people with an animal background at those levels, it would be hard to change that...
 
Lintworm, What an interesting thread you have created here! Keep up the good work, I love reading these comprehensive taxonomic overviews!
 
Zoom zoos are clout based. Is a brand. A lemur walktrought is simply more profitable than mangabeys. They have tooth big as a human finger.

For my (probably biased) experience a decent chunk of people do not recognize the De Brazza has monkeys when see them. And that the other monkeys where better. And I think that when you do a market based zoo you will discard an animal group with that characteristic
 
lintworm said:
I think an option would be that zoos that are planning to replace a certain species are forced to contact the TAG. The TAG would then give a list of options of alternative species for which new holders are desperately needed, first within the TAG, but possibly also outside for related TAGs in some cases.

But the root problem is a zoo management that isn't too interested in species diversity at a European level, but apart from hiring more people with an animal background at those levels, it would be hard to change that...
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I do not consider anything "forced" as an incentive. An incentive has to be something positive or rewarding. It is not the role of the TAGs to force these decisions. Maybe they can influence it, but it is the local zoo management that has the right to decide its collection.
The lack of focus on biodiversity is a decision that comes from a high level. Just a month ago I had a talk with a zoo curator that told me that about 20 years ago the EAZA community had to make the decision between "we will keep all these species but we will not excel at any and none will have any great conservation value" or "let's focus on those species that have a good population potential and invest to make them into good conservation tools". The decision was taken for the latter and in my opinion for good! And he is not the first to have told me that. This was a collective decision at the EAZA level.
 
OkapiJohn said:
I do not consider anything "forced" as an incentive. An incentive has to be something positive or rewarding. It is not the role of the TAGs to force these decisions. Maybe they can influence it, but it is the local zoo management that has the right to decide its collection.
The lack of focus on biodiversity is a decision that comes from a high level. Just a month ago I had a talk with a zoo curator that told me that about 20 years ago the EAZA community had to make the decision between "we will keep all these species but we will not excel at any and none will have any great conservation value" or "let's focus on those species that have a good population potential and invest to make them into good conservation tools". The decision was taken for the latter and in my opinion for good! And he is not the first to have told me that. This was a collective decision at the EAZA level.
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If you reread my posts I don't think we disagree and you seem to misinterpret what I wrote. I was reffering to TAGs recommending other managed species, many EAZA managed species desparately need new holders from roloway, diana, owl-faced guenons and black-crested mangabeys to name a few. But even they struggle because zoos like ZOOM don't consider diversity at a European level but opt for easy. That is their right, I wrote that already, but it isn't helpful to tje current EAZA goals.
 
Jurek7 said:
Considering apes, what happened to the idea that there were unrecognized Tapanuli orangutans in zoos?
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Surely there would not be any pure ones around as they would have been mixed into the Sumatran population most likely... There's still Bornean/Sumatran hybrids hanging around in some zoos. I'd say there's a decent chance of there being some Tapanuli in the Sumatran population of there ever was an import from that region.
 
The US has some individual orangutans that are known to have Tapanuli genes, so it wouldn't be a surprise if Europe did as well.
 
Number of zoos kept (current and former during the holding period):
A 1 zoo
B 2-5 zoos
C 6-10 zoos
D >10 zoos

Time period kept:
1 < 1 year
2 1-5 years
3 6-10 years
4 11-20 years
5 > 20 years

* Species successfully bred
♱ Dead end (in case of species gained)
↑ Species gaining popularity (in case of species gained)

RABBITS, HARES AND PIKAS - LAGOMORPHA
108 species across 2 families
6 species kept this century (6%)

A familiar group that is a lot more diverse than just a rabbit and a hare, though diversity of this group isn’t really displayed in zoos. Domestic rabbits are common, but all wild species tend to be scarce. Hares are easily stressed in captivity and I can imagine being adapted to (running in) wide open spaces doesn't combine well with the relatively small enclosures hares are often kept in.

Hares and rabbits - Lepidae
# Species kept 1-1-2000: 3-4
# Species kept currently: 3-4
# Species gained: -
# Species lost: -

Only European native species are kept currently and 3 of those are relatively uncommon but have a stable presence in European zoos. The Arctic hare (Lepus timidus) being the rarest of those. A fourth species is allegedly present in a single Italian zoo.

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@Toddy An Arctic hare showing its two different season outfits

Status uncertain

Italian hare - Lepus corsicanus
The Parco Zoo della Fauna Europea in Poppi, Italy, claims to hold this species. It was seen and signed in 2016 and is still listed on their website, but is not on their map. But that is all the information I could find about this rare species. Whether it is still kept or when the species arrived is unclear.


Pikas - Ochotonidae
# Species kept 1-1-2000: 1
# Species kept currently: 1
# Species gained: 1
# Species lost: 1

A family that is hardly seen in captivity and that is hard to maintain given high mortality rates, despite high breeding rates too. There is no stable population of them in European zoos, nor has there been in the past. That is a pity for us as these are very interesting animals, which given their cuteness factor could do well with the general public too.

Species gained

Daurian pika - Ochotona dauurica A3*♱
This species arrived in 2017 in Tierpark Berlin and while breeding results were good initially, mortality was also high. From a high point of 16 individuals and 20 births in 2019, there were only 4 animals left at the start of 2023 and 2 in summer 2023. So this species will most likely disappear again before it has ever been on show and could well have died out completely before this thread is completed.

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@Jakub One of the last 2 Daurian pika left in Europe

Species lost

Plateau pika - Ochotona curzoniae B4*
This species was kept for around a decade from the early 1990s to 2003. Initially in Tierpark Berlin from 1992-1993 (and later 1996-1998), it was kept in Tierpark Goerlitz from 1993-2003 where it was also bred.

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@Chlidonias A plateau pika in the wild

Next stop: rodents

Progress
16/22 orders completed
44/106 families completed
218-223 species present in 2000
207-208 species present in 2023
48-52 species gained since 2000
59-63 species lost since 2000
 
I had studied Lepus corsicanus. They are well breeded in captivity by statal istitution in Italy so theorically they can be easily acquired if someone want expose them

The fact that the lepidae are easily stressed and needs relatively big exhibits for their size, and also shielding from predatory birds, well, i think is very detrimental for their presence in Zoo
 
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