The Moscow Zoo is looking for donations to help pay its membership fees required for participation in the Zoological Information Management System
04.02.2011
[The Moscow Zoo is looking for donations to help pay its membership fees required for participation in the Zoological Information Management System]
Zoo visitors seldom think about how hard it is for an isolated zoo or another zoological institution to maintain its live animal collection by itself. If left to breed with their relatives, any animal species, just like humans, will accumulate genetic defects, and will finally become extinct. In the past, this problem was usually solved by getting new animals from the wild to provide an infusion of new blood. But now, when biodiversity conservation has been recognized as the priority task of zoological gardens, removing animals from the wild has become the last resort, when all the other ways of preserving a particular species have failed.
Modern zoos care for their animal collections and strive to ensure their physical and genetic health by cooperating with each other on a global level. World zoos manage populations of each endangered animal species as a whole and inseparable captive population. This is a major task which can only be accomplished by exchanging animals world-wide. In order to facilitate this complicated process, and to achieve desired results, a comprehensive international database was created in 1973, and has been maintained, updated and improved ever since. This highly complex and intricate International Species Information System, or ISIS, has expanded throughout the years to include more and more aspects of zoo animal management, and is now evolving into a global tool of the new generation called Zoological Information Management System, or ZIMS.
The design, development, maintenance, and deployment of these complicated projects depend on funding that is provided by the world zoo community. The Moscow Zoo is an active partner in many international conservation projects, and has been an ISIS member for a long time. The annual membership fee of the Moscow Zoo has always been on the same level with other major global zoos, an up until now we have been able to pay it. But, because of the steadily rising operating costs of ISIS and ZIMS, we have now reached a point where we are unable to meet our membership fee, as it has exceeded the allowable amount that can be paid from our budget under the current state legislation.
According to the regulations of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), zoos that do not participate in ISIS will also be excluded from the EAZA, which also means inability to participate in international conservation projects and breeding programs for endangered species. This will not affect the welfare of our individual animals, but will put under threat the very existence of the most valuable and interesting part of our animal collection, and will also badly hurt the international reputation of the Moscow Zoo. So we have to turn for help to those individuals, companies or institutions who would be willing to contribute to paying our ISIS fees, and thus help our whole collection rather than just individual animals.
If you would like to donate any money, however small the amount, towards the remaining $10,000 US that the Moscow Zoo is unable to pay out of its total annual ISIS membership fee, please send an e-mail to
moscowzoosci@gmail.com or
zoopark1@inbox.ru. In case of substantial donations, we will gladly place a plaque with your name, or the name of your company, in a prominent location on the zoo premises, and/or inform the media of your choice.
General Director
Vladimir Spitsin
