How Do Zoos Help Us Learn About Animals
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Why Zoos and Aquariums Are Beneficial
eleven/13/2020
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Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited (AZA) facilities are benign considering of the loftier standards they exemplify in animal welfare, conservation, research, didactics, and recreation. All AZA-accredited facilities must encounter the Association's rigorous, scientifically based, and publicly-bachelor standards that cover a facility'southward unabridged functioning, including creature welfare, veterinary care, conservation, education, invitee experiences, and more than.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature
The International Wedlock for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)Red List of Threatened Species is the most comprehensive information source on the global extinction chance condition of beast, mucus, and plant species. Visitors to AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums can see many species listed on the IUCN Blood-red List as threatened with extinction, some of which are beingness managed under AZA Species Survival Program (SSP) programs.
How Do Zoos and Aquariums Aid In Animal Conservation?
In 2019, AZA and its members spent more than than $230 one thousand thousand on field conservation piece of work in 127 countries, focusing on population biological science and monitoring, reintroduction, conservation didactics, and more.
AZA Rubber: Saving Animals From Extinction, the Association'due south flagship conservation program, brings AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums together to focus their collective expertise and leverage their massive audiences to save species like sea turtles and American red wolves. There are currently 28 SAFE species engaging more than 300 partner organizations in the work of saving species.
Engaging zoo and aquarium visitors is a key part of SAFE species programs and other AZA education programming like Political party for the Planet™: Spring into Action. In 2019, Political party for the Planet™: Bound into Action supported members in offering inclusive family-friendly volunteer opportunities with a direct touch on the planet. Members offered events like pollinator garden plantings, invasive species removal, and beach clean-ups.
Zoos and Aquariums Protect Endangered Species
AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums help reintroduce animals into the wild. In 1982, California condors were on the brink of extinction with only 22 birds remaining in the wild. In 1985, but 9 birds remained. In 1987, the California Condor Recovery Program was established as a collaborative programme with the San Diego Zoo in San Diego, Calif., the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Game, the National Audubon Social club, and the Los Angeles Zoo in Los Angeles, Calif. Condors were bred and the young then raised by people wearing manus puppets that mimicked adult birds to avoid immature condors imprinting on their caregivers. In 1992, the beginning condors bred in managed care were released into the wild in California. The population of California condors has now grown to more than than 400 birds, including 240 condors living in the wild. Conservation success stories like this and many others are only possible with the help of zoos and aquariums.
AZA, its members, and other partners piece of work together to maintain healthy populations of species in managed care through SSP programs and Global Species Direction Plans. These programs strive to professionally and cooperatively manage populations amidst AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums through breeding and transfer recommendations. SSP programs identify population management goals and assure the sustainability of a healthy, genetically diverse, and demographically varied population.
Repairing Ecosystems
AZA-accredited facilities restore habitats to support reintroduction and rehabilitation programs for a variety of species, including critically endangered orangutans. Orangutans are threatened by habitat loss due to unsustainably grown palm oil. The AZA Rubber: Saving Animals From Extinction orangutan plan was launched in 2018 to focus on these threats to assist in the recovery of the species. CREATE (Corridor Restoration for Animals Threatened and Endangered), a project started by the Kansas City Zoo in Kansas City, Mo., and in partnership with APE Malaysia, is an case of one partnership supported by the AZA SAFE orangutan program. Past hiring local community members to institute, maintain, and grow trees to connect wildlife corridors, CREATE supports the local economy and repairs ecosystems. In November 2018, a team of AZA experts from 4 AZA-accredited zoos traveled to Northeast Borneo to help with habitat restoration efforts and offer preparation to enhance animal welfare at a local zoo.
Rehabilitation
AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums frequently work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to help rescue, rehabilitate, and care for wild animals like bounding main turtles, manatees, and ocean otters until they can be released dorsum into the wild.
The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, EPCOT's Living Seas, ZooTampa at Lowry Park, Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, SeaWorld Orlando, and SeaWorld San Diego partner on the USFWS Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership. These facilities provide disquisitional intendance to injured and common cold-stunned manatees and assist partners in their release.
Are Zoos and Aquariums Educational?
In 2019, 138 AZA-accredited facilities delivered 2,500 education programs covering topics like habitat loss and human being-wildlife conflict. Twoscore percent of guests reached past education programming participated in activities like nature play spaces and discovery carts or were engaged by exhibits interpreters.
Irresolute consumer behavior can be a powerful tool in the conservation arsenal. AZA members, like Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Spring, Colo., and Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, Calif., have developed smartphone applications that aid consumers make educated choices about sustainable palm oil and sustainable seafood choices. Palm oil is used in many everyday products and when used from sustainable sources can provide real economic benefits. When it comes from unsustainable sources it is a cardinal cause of deforestation, impacting many species like orangutans and tigers. Likewise, consuming sustainable seafood provides a valuable source of food for people and helps promote sustainable jobs. When fishing is unsustainable, information technology tin can cause real damage to ocean environments, atomic number 82 to dramatic collapses in populations of aquatic species, and impairment or eliminate once-healthy fisheries.
When COVID-nineteen caused many members to shut downwards, AZA-accredited members moved their educational programming online. You can find many of these educational resources on AZA's website.
AZA and its members also offering a variety of citizen science projects that allows the public to contribute to scientific research in their community.
How Do Zoos and Aquariums Assistance in Animal Research?
AZA'due south Annual Study of Conservation and Science documents the field conservation efforts, education programs, green (sustainable) business practices, and research projects at AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums and certified related facilities.
In 2019, AZA-accredited facilities invested over $26 million on inquiry and studied over 560 species and subspecies. Fauna care, health, and welfare (45%) are the AZA customs'due south most common focus of research followed by basic biological science (21%). Together, these two disciplines comprised near two-thirds of the AZA community'south research.
Other research explored species and habitat conservation (focused primarily on populations in the wild or those existence prepared for reintroduction into the wild; 12%), sustainable animal collections (focused primarily on populations held in human care; 10%), and conservation pedagogy and public engagement (6%).
AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums conduct or facilitate inquiry in both in situ and ex situ settings that advance scientific cognition of the animals in their care, enhances the conservation of wild populations, and engages and inspires the visiting public.
Ecology
AZA members have access to diverse animal populations and enquiry their behaviors and their biological, physiological, and psychological needs. This increases our understanding of the animals' roles and needs in the wild and in managed care. AZA's Research and Technology Committee, Wildlife Conservation Committee and Scientific Advisory Groups join professionals with the expertise to aid drive animal care, conservation, research, and best practices in zoos and aquariums. By studying how species in their care and species in the wild interact with other species and their environments, AZA members are able to use ecology research to address species conservation problems and preserve ecosystem health and biodiversity.
The Smithsonian'southward National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute'southward Conservation Environmental Middle develops new and advanced analytical tools to study and model how ecosystems and species collaborate with their environs and how these systems answer to global changes. One instance of environmental inquiry that has aided in species reintroduction is the swift fox program, in which swift foxes take been reintroduced to the grasslands of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana afterward an absenteeism of more than 50 years.
Educating the public on the ecological niche these animals occupy and nearly the wild habitats they inhabit creates a strong connection with guests and enables zoos and aquariums to share the conservation story.
Biodiversity
Research and conservation projects conducted by AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums better biodiversity. AZA members are contributing to scientific discoveries about how animals in their intendance are vulnerable to climate modify, habitat loss, and other threats. AZA members understand that work to save one species frequently protects many others in an ecosystem. Many AZA-accredited facilities, like the Wildlife Conservation Society and San Diego Zoo, besides as the Disney Conservation Fund, work with global conservation efforts to research and promote biodiversity.
How You Can Help a Zoo or Aquarium Nigh You
Visit the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Currently Accredited Zoos and Aquariums page to find an AZA-accredited facility nearly you. Follow your favorite zoos and aquariums on social media to keep upwardly with their animals and their conservation efforts. Y'all can besides bring together your local facility as a member, or donate to aid zoos and aquariums feed their animals, pay their staff, and continue their conservation work.
Photo Credit: © Julie Larsen Maher, WCS
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Source: https://www.aza.org/connect-stories/stories/benefits-of-zoos
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