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As the world's population continues to increase and
wildlife and their habitats disappear, more and more
people live in urban centres disconnected from the
natural environment. In fact, more than 50% of the
world's population currently resides in cities and
this will increase to 70% by 2030. For millions of
these people, zoos provide the only way to regularly
see and connect with the other living creatures that
share our planet.
Zoos have moved away from
their old ‘stamp collection mentality' where one or
two of as many species as possible were displayed to
satisfy the curiosity of and provide entertainment
for the visiting public. These days reputable zoos
are respected scientific institutions that work
cooperatively towards attaining serious conservation
goals. We are guided in our actions by the ‘World
Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Strategy” published in
2005 by the World Association of Zoos and Aquaria
(WAZA) of which Johannesburg Zoo is a member. Zoos
strive to integrate all aspects of their work with
conservation activities and promote fundamental
values of sustainability and social and
environmental responsibility. Our core business at
the Johannesburg Zoo is the preservation and
management of biodiversity through direct
conservation action, education, research and
recreation.
We carefully plan our animal
collection to ensure that each species has a defined
role of conservation or educational significance,
and we maintain the highest standards of care to
ensure their physiological and psychological well
being. Zoos work together at both national and
international levels to maintain self-sustaining,
viable populations of animals for conservation
purposes and to illustrate important conservation
issues. Increasingly zoo exhibits are linked to
conservation efforts in the wild and many zoos are
directly involved in field conservation and research
projects. Zoos employ professional and highly
skilled staff with expertise in areas such as
population biology and small population management,
wildlife and conservation medicine, assisted
reproduction and animal behaviour. Increasingly
these skills are needed to conserve wild
populations. Zoos keep captive populations of
endangered species to act as genetic reservoirs or
assurance populations and for potential
reintroduction to the wild should that become
necessary. In 2009, zoos ran studbooks or
cooperative breeding programs for more than 650
different taxa (groups of animals). In addition zoos
annually generate millions of dollars for direct
funding of conservation projects and protection of
habitats in the wild.
Worldwide 700 million
people a year visit zoos, which provides a huge
educational potential. Zoos therefore play a vital
role in educating our visitors about biodiversity,
the need to take urgent conservation action.and to
manage our natural resources sustainably. By
providing a safe and fun educational environment, we
are able to engage our visitors and encourage them
to take action. At the Johannesburg Zoo, we place
particular importance on education of the thousands
of children that visit us annually.
Here at
the Johannesburg Zoo our flagship conservation
program is the Wattled Crane Recovery Programme
(WCRP) which was formed in 2000, when concern over
the decline of the Wattled Crane in South Africa,
and its potential genetic uniqueness, led to a
Population and Habitat Viability Assessment
workshop. Following the recommendations made at this
workshop, the WCRP has two main objectives. Firstly
the maintenance of a captive breeding flock to serve
as a genetic reservoir in the case of catastrophic
extinction of the species in the wild and secondly
supplementation of the wild population through the
release of captive-reared fledglings into existing
wild populations. See
www.wattledcrane.co.za
The worldwide
decline in amphibians was the catalyst for the
establishment of our Amphibian Conservation Program.
This project involves keeping four species of south
african amphibians; painted reed frogs, guttoral
toads, bushveld rain frogs and ghost frogs and using
them as analogue species for similar but much more
endangered species. By learning how to keep and
breed the more common species successfully, we will
be prepared for keeping assurance colonies of the
endangered species in the future.
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