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!

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.