In Australia, Zoos to receive $95 million coronavirus lifeline from Australia Federal Government
FROM NAT GEO ….. British zoos are starving to death – and the most historic of all may be about to slip away
The Zoological Society of London’s work has saved species across the globe. Now, amidst the uncertainty of post-lockdown – it’s the zoo that needs saving. “Many assume a venerable institution like ZSL London Zoo receives regular government funding in the same way Kew Gardens and the Natural History Museum do. But that is not the case. ZSL’s world-leading science and conservation work is underpinned by the money we earn, with every penny put into achieving our vision of a world where wildlife thrives.” ARTICLE.
The benefits of zoos might be debated – research, conservation of endangered species, environmental education and advocacy, amongst many others versus ‘keep wildlife in the wild’ approach but then there’s the poachers…. Zoos are also a huge tourism driver. The full debate of the good versus the bad of zoos, will form a separate discussion.
As NPR reports, In Germany, one zoo director said this week that as a last resort, the zoo may have to consider killing some of the animals to feed to others. Director Verena Kaspari told the German Press Agency that the Neumünster Zoo near Hamburg has had to draw up a last-resort plan detailing which animals would be euthanized first, and in which order.
The Birmingham Zoo’s Pfefferkorn said that won’t happen at his zoo. “I’d get out on the highway and collect aluminum cans if that’s what it took to keep our level of care at the highest for the animals,” he said.
But Dan Ashe, CEO of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, told Buzzfeed he doesn’t believe it will come to that at any of the zoos accredited by his international organization. In the worst-case scenario, Ashe has said, zoos could transfer animals elsewhere.
The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums…..
