When the zoo shuts its gates

The role of zoos in protecting and conserving wild animals has come into sharp focus during the Covid-19 pandemic as the origins of this new coronavirus has been linked back to wild animal food markets in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

And although the Chinese authorities have since banned the consumption of wild animals, international poaching of wild animals for food and medicines continues to be a concern for conservationists across the world.

Most of us visit a zoo to catch a glimpse of wild animals from different parts of the world that we would otherwise never get a chance to see. But did you know that zoos also play a role in protecting many of these wild animals in their natural habitats?

And zoos also breed animals that are then reintroduced into countries where their populations have been decimated by poaching, farming and other threats.

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Sandra Molloy is the research and conservation co-ordinator at Dublin Zoo. Before the Covid-19 restrictions she brought me on a tour of Dublin Zoo to specifically talk about endangered or extinct species that zoos across Europe and North America breed to re-establish populations in the wild.

Our first stop is to see the golden lion tamarins in the South American House at the zoo. These small ginger-coloured monkeys, which are native to the Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil, almost went extinct in the 1960s, and because they breed well in zoos they have been successfully reintroduced into private reserves in Brazil. “About one third of golden lion tamarins in the wild are now descendent from zoo animals,” says Molloy.

However, in 2018 an outbreak of yellow fever wiped out many family groups, and the population of wild golden lion tamarins in the wild has reduced from about 3,200 to 2,300. “While conservation measures such as reforestation projects with local landowners protected their habitats, the outbreak of yellow fever demonstrates just how fragile populations are,” says Molloy.

The scimitar horned oryx is an antelope which was once widely seen across northern Africa, but due to over-hunting and habitat loss on farm land it has disappeared from the wild. There are about 1,500 scimitar horned oryxes in zoos across Europe and North America.

“Dublin Zoo has supported the reintroduction of scimitar horned oryx into Senegal, Tunisia and Morocco and they are faring well,” says Molloy.

Poaching

Before animals are reintroduced into the wild conservationists must check that the original reasons why they became extinct have gone. “Animals become extinct due to poaching, civil unrest, loss of habitat or loss of watering holes which were fenced off for farming livestock,” says Molloy.

She says that for reintroduction projects to work they must have the support of the government where they are being reintroduced, and have long-term funding so populations can be monitored.

Getting local communities involved in conservation projects is also important because often members of those communities have caused the animals to become endangered or extinct in the first place. For example, farmers in central Asia often kill snow leopards for killing their livestock, but when conservationists instigate vaccination programmes for livestock (more cattle die from disease than from being killed by snow leopards) and better corrals on farm land, the farmers agree to stop killing the snow leopards.

The reintroduction of key species can also bring tourism to areas which in turn bring money back into the local economy.

Selecting genetically diverse animals which will not be susceptible to diseases or parasites is another crucial factor in selecting zoo animals to be reintroduced into the wild. Sometimes animals are released into semi-wild areas first before being let loose to cope with predators and other threats.

The eastern bongo, a critically endangered antelope from Kenya, was reintroduced from North America zoos in the early 2000s, but a lot of them died from a tick-borne disease which the zoo animals were not immune to.

“The ones that survived were brought into enclosed areas in Kenya, and they probably have built up their immunity by now,” says Molloy.

However, conservationists are now considering increasing numbers of wild bongo by doing embryo transplant from a zoo-bred bongo to introduce more genetic diversity into the wild population.

“Once the animals that have been released have grandchildren you can feel that it is working. Then you know they have reared offspring that are strong enough to breed themselves,” says Molloy.

Wild animals

Dublin Zoo, which is itself a charitable foundation, donates funds to many conservation projects for wild animals and birds around the world. From time to time staff at Dublin Zoo gets a chance to visit one of these projects.

In 2017, Molloy visited Sulawesi in Indonesia to see critically endangered macaques. “The main threat to these primates is they are eaten as a delicacy at Easter time in this Christian part of Indonesia. They are also taken as pets so I visited an education project where children became ambassadors, teaching their families how they are endangered and unique to the area and shouldn’t be eaten. They are also protected under Indonesian law.”

On her trip Molloy visited food markets where snakes, bats and wild pigs were sold. “You don’t see the Sulawesi macaques in the markets now, and they are being monitored in the wild.”

And while Dublin Zoo is part of the European breeding programme for over 35 species, no animals bred in Dublin Zoo have yet been released into the wild.

“Breeding zoo animals is also an insurance programme for those animals which become extinct in the wild. We share information about the species we manage and protect in zoos with those who are protecting wild animals so it’s important to make sure that the zoo populations aren’t damaged either,” says Molloy.

And this is no mean task in itself. Molloy says how putting males and females together doesn’t automatically lead to offspring.

“We realised recently that simply selecting a male and female cockatoo to mate won’t always produce chicks, so I’ve started putting juvenile flocks together – ensuring there are no male and females related to each other – so that they can choose their own mate. It’s a bit like leaving a group of teenagers together,” she laughs.

DUBLIN ZOO’S BABY RHINO

In February 2020, a rhinoceros calf was born to a female rhino in the seven-strong herd of southern white rhinoceros at Dublin Zoo. With only about 18,000 of these animals left in the wild in Africa, the breeding of rhinoceros in zoos in a type of insurance policy against their extinction.

Dublin Zoo financially supports many conservation projects for endangered or near-extinct wild animals across the world. The Lowveld Rhino Trust in Zimbabwe is one such project which helps protect rhinos from poachers, treats wounded and orphaned rhinos and monitors rhino populations.

Although Dublin Zoo is currently closed to the public the animals continue to be fed and looked after by zoo keepers. You can watch feeding time on live web cams on dublinzoo.ie Also read about all the conservation programmes that Dublin Zoo supports around the world.