Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust Ensuring there's no 'con' in zoo conservation

R

Rick J

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

Could I invite you all to take a look around on the new 'Durrell Index' please? Put simply, it's our effort to measure the impact our work has had on the species we've targeted. For now there are just 11 species represented, but we'll be building on it from now on.

http://www.durrell.org/index

The associated press release can be read here.

I'd love to hear some honest feedback from this community, so please fire away Zoochatters. :)

Rick
 
I've had a look through some of it and on first impressions, I think it's great! Looking further in and it's still great! I will note the page to come back and have a more thorough look but it looks like a very well presented and informative resource so far.
:)
 
Thanks for the link to this resource Rick, its a really exciting thing to be able to show people, although the detail in it might make it suited most to people with an existing interest.

On their own some of the figures are a bit misleading, but with text they are fine, and I'm being a bit nitpicky saying that. I saw them without text on the Durrell Facebook page last night and was a bit bewildered by what some of them meant (e.g. the summary stats graph showing 63% vs -23%, with no real indication of what those numbers meant, although the gist was that Durrell was very helpful!). Having seen them in context now they are much more understandable.

It appears that there is no Durrell app yet, which are becoming increasingly common for big zoos. Incorporating this sort of info into an app for general visitors would be brilliant and reach many more "unconverted" people than the website would.

In terms of interesting figures, it was fascianting to see how the number of species held at Durrell has changed, and glad to see the upward trajectory to 2010. The publication and training figures are also great to see - keep up the good work!
 
Thank you so much for the feedback so far folks, very much appreciated. It's true that you have to drill down a bit to figure out what some of the figures are in fact saying, but it's very tough to get it all across without over-facing the average website or social media visitor. As we add to the species list, we'll hopefully get a bit better at refining the messages, and used to using the index as a source of reference for the things we are saying.

zooboy28 said:
It appears that there is no Durrell app yet...
Click to expand...

That's a big wish of ours, but with a tiny team –our Digital Team is two full-timers and one outside consultant who built the majority of the site whilst he was on the staff) – we just don't have the resources at the moment. As you can probably tell, everything, from collection plans to communications, are focused on conservation first and foremost these days. Durrell intends to go to work for the most threatened and overlooked animals from now on.
 
Rick J said:
Thank you so much for the feedback so far folks, very much appreciated. It's true that you have to drill down a bit to figure out what some of the figures are in fact saying, but it's very tough to get it all across without over-facing the average website or social media visitor. As we add to the species list, we'll hopefully get a bit better at refining the messages, and used to using the index as a source of reference for the things we are saying.

That's a big wish of ours, but with a tiny team –our Digital Team is two full-timers and one outside consultant who built the majority of the site whilst he was on the staff) – we just don't have the resources at the moment. As you can probably tell, everything, from collection plans to communications, are focused on conservation first and foremost these days. Durrell intends to go to work for the most threatened and overlooked animals from now on.
Click to expand...

It is very difficult to compress science down into soundbites, but the figures do clearly show their main point - that Durrell's work helps and is needed; I was being very pedantic. Obviously if the index becomes more widely used, perhaps on species signage within the zoo, then more people will encounter and learn from it. Hopefully the park is able to develop an app, I definiteyl think they can be very powerful for conservation.
 
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