Why save an endangered species?

Why do we bother saving an endangered species? Why not let nature take its course? What does it matter if one or two species are allowed to peter off until they disappear completely, forever?

Aside from the fact that humans are responsible for the decline of so many species, and we should therefore buck up our ideas and take responsibility for some of the damage we've done, and the fact that ecosystems rely on each individual species to play a part, I think that this quote from Laurens de Groot's upcoming book, 'Hunting the hunters: At war with the whalers' sums it up brilliantly:

"If mankind fails to protect rare whales then that seals the fate of all endangered animal species as far as I'm concerned, from European hamster to Rwandan mountain gorilla, from badger to snow leopard, from tuna to Andean condor. They will all be doomed."

'Hunting the hunters' is released on January 2nd 2014. I am currently halfway through my copy and I'm loving it - and I'm not being paid or bribed in any way to say this!

Okapi listed as "endangered"

Another species was today considered to be in increased danger of extinction, as the okapi was reclassified from "near threatened" to the more critical "endangered".

Also known as the "forest giraffe" -although many people think it is more closely related to the zebra-, the okapi is only found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and was only rediscovered in 2006 after not having been sighted since 1959. It is the national symbol of the DRC, even featuring on their banknotes. Poaching and habitat loss are the main causes for the decline in okapi numbers.

In 2010, ZSL launched a project to assess the okapi situation and plan an okapi conservation strategy. Data on okapi numbers is difficult to ascertain due to the remote and dangerous forests that they live in, the political instability of the area, and their shy nature. Find out more about ZSL's okapi conservation here: https://www.zsl.org/conservation/regions/africa/okapi/protecting-okapi,1806,AR.html

Large parts of their habitat are in the Virunga National Park, which is currently at risk of being destroyed by oil exploration drills. Please consider signing the WWF's petition to stop oil exploration in Virunga.

It's not all bad news. ZSL London Zoo welcomed Daphne the baby okapi in April this year. Furthermore, two species of albatross and the island fox are now considered less endangered than previously.

More danger for Sumatran tigers

Jae Jae, London Zoo's male

Tigers have become the poster child for endangered species in recent years, with Sumatran tigers in particular being hailed as one of the most endangered species on the planet. Palm oil plantations, amongst other things, have seen their habitat massively reduced, and what little habitat is left is heavily at risk of poaching or conflict between these animals and local human settlements.



The ball park figure often thrown around for the number of Sumatran tigers left in the wild is around 300. The Bali tiger and Javan tiger, from the same group, are already extinct. Just as the public were becoming aware of the severity of the plight of these animals, they've been dealt another blow in the form of plans to build a road through their habitat.

There are plans to build a 50km road through the Harapan (which translates as "hope") Rainforest, to aid in the delivery of coal to power stations across South East-Asia. British conservationists from the RSPB have been working in the area due to the prevalence of bird species there. Conservationists in the area say that the construction of the new road is entirely unnecessary, as sufficient access routes to the power stations currently exist.

Melati, the female Sumatran tiger at London Zoo

If built, the road would remove 154 hectares of forest (equivalent to around 154 rugby pitches), but would cause even more damage by splitting the remaining forest into two, separating the habitat of the tigers and many other animals, as well as providing poachers easier access to central parts of the forest which were previously inaccessible to them. Currently, around 40 tigers a year are poached, so the building of this road could, literally, be the death of them.

For more information about the RSPB's work in the Harapan Rainforest, click here.

The Blackfish debate

The Twittersphere was abuzz last night with opinions about Blackfish, the documentary about one of Seaworld’s orca whales, Tilikum, who killed a trainer during a live show.

The publicity surrounding the film has led to many people calling for Seaworld to be closed down, due to the conditions the whales and other creatures are kept in.

Blackfish first came to my attention when I saw it mentioned in a small corner of a newspaper film section at some point over the summer, overshadowed by the big blockbusters of the week, but carrying an important message. It didn’t have a large scale cinematic release, showing at a few select cinemas across the country and being released on DVD immediately afterwards.

I was mainly drawn to it as I visited Seaworld in Orlando several times as a child, so I ordered the DVD  as soon as it was released, and watched it immediately. I loved my visits to Seaworld as a child, when a Shamu cuddly toy was the most exciting thing in existence (hands up, to this day I still own three) and before any concept of a moral code has kicked in.

To my adult self, the concept of watching dolphins jumping through hoops, whales  performing to the crowds in pools nowhere big enough for their body mass, and yes, even the Clyde and Seamore sealion show, sits very uncomfortably. Animals should not be forced to perform tricks or carry out actions that they would not do in the wild, especially not for the entertainment of the human race. From this standpoint, it is clear that Seaworld need to make some changes. However, what Blackfish didn’t mention, and what very few naysayers seem to have taken into account is that:

• Seaworld is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, meaning that they have met or exceeded standards in education, conservation and research.

• The SeaWorld& Busch Gardens Conservation Fund  is a charity which helps a variety of conservation groups around the world, working towards Species Research, Habitat Protection, Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation, and Conservation Education. 

The fund has several professional partners including the WWF, which is largely seen as the most influential wildlife and conservation organisation in the world, and the Rainforest Alliance. It is highly doubtful that such organisations would have anything to do with the SBGCF is their work was questionable in any way.  Having looked into their work it seems that they do not do any conservation work directly, rather their fund offers financial help to others who do, which disappointingly suggests that the animals they hold in captivity have no conservation purpose, but rather are purely for visitor entertainment.

Seaworld make no attempt to hide their commerciality, with theme park rollercoasters included in the ticket price, and this is their downfall. Allowing human interaction with the creatures is what has brought them into the spotlight (there have been NO recorded incidents of an orca whale killing a human in the wild, but Blackfish highlights several such incidents in captivity).

It is my belief that there is a place in the world for Seaworld, but they need to rethink their priorities – mainly by abolishing their principles of keeping animals in small enclosures and forcing them to perform for the public. Blackfish may have kickstarted a revolution, not just regarding the Seaworld parks, but in zoos and animal captivity businesses all over the world.

What do you think? Should Seaworld be shut down? Share your thoughts in the comments section below, on Twitter @WildWorldBlog, or on Facebook.

See the Blackfish movie site here. Particularly interesting is Seaworld’s response to the film.

ZSL wins BIAZA awards

Congratulations to ZSL London Zoo, who have won an award for one of their breeding programmes.

The white-naped mangabey breeding programme won the BIAZA (the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums) Best Breeding Programme award, as the zoo is home to the most successful mangabey breeding group in Europe.

ZSL also won awards for Best Education project, Best PR project (Tiger Territory) and shared the award for Significant Advances in Zoo and Wildlife Medicine with Whipsnade and Chester Zoos for their work on the International Primate Heart Project.

Unfortunately the full list of winners hasn’t appeared on the BIAZA website yet, but for further information about ZSL’s successes, click here.

On zoos

Ricky, London Zoo's infamous
rockhopper penguin

The Zoo. As a child, the zoo was a very exciting place, the sort of place that you went to as a very special treat, a birthday maybe. I have a personal memory of going to London Zoo with my parents - I must have been about 8 years old at the time, and although my memory of most of the day is quite hazy, I still remember seeing the elephants. 11 or so years later, when I had my induction for working at London Zoo, I immediately spotted the elephant enclosure. The elephants were long since gone- moved to London Zoo's sister zoo, Whipsnade, where there is more space for such famously large creatures - but my memories remained.

Moving into adulthood, the zoo is still a fascinating place, but throws up an ethical conundrum. Are zoos "right"? Should we be keeping animals in enclosures, however large the enclosure or well cared for the animals are? In a manner, the recent documentary, Blackfish, has thrown the issue of keeping animals in captivity back into the limelight (but more of that in a future article).

I sat down to write about my thoughts on this matter, and by coincidence a programme called "A day at the zoo" was being broadcast on BBC4. The programme was absolutely fascinating, giving an insight into the history of zoos around the world, from the humble beginnings of London Zoo in Regent's Park. More interesting than the basic history of the zoos was the changing attitude of the mass public towards the concept of zoos. From the early days of "bear-prodding sticks" being sold at London Zoo, to the construction of the "barless" Dudley Zoo which made people feel "less troubled" as it gave the "illusion of freedom", it was interesting to see how people's thoughts on animal cruelty have changed.

If you want to watch this fascinating programme, click here- I highly recommend it, as it sums up attitudes towards zoos far better than I ever could.

As it stands, I will attempt to sum up my feelings about zoos. As I have said, there are many split opinions about zoos, and I can see why; for every decent zoo out there (of which I hold ZSL London Zoo in the highest regard), there is another zoo - at the risk of stereotyping, often in poorer countries with less strict regulations - which does nothing to improve the reputation of zoos, often keeping animals in sub-standard conditions, putting visitor revenue ahead of animal welfare.

As to whether we should be keeping animals in cages and enclosures at all, I think it's a case of the greater good. Well-managed zoos have contributed so much towards conservation in the past, mainly in terms of breeding animals on the breed of extinction, that as long as the animals are kept in excellent conditions, I believe they have a place in our society. One of the things that stuck with me from the BBC programme was a description of one of the featured historic zoos as "of it's time", and this is how I see zoos today. Could they be entirely outlawed in 50 years time? It's entirely possible. Will we look back one day and see today's zoos as barbaric? Perhaps. But for now, I'm all for zoos with good standards, which place animal welfare ahead of visitor numbers and contribute a significant amount to conservation science.

And for the zoos which do not have good operating standards,  Born Free's zoo check programme does a great job at eliminating the suffering of animals in captivity. If you visit a zoo with questionable animal care standards, contact them!

What do you think about zoos? Do you have a favourite memory of going to the zoo? Share your thoughts in the comments section below, on Twitter @WildWorldBlog, or on Facebook.