The Convention on Biodiversity has developed the concept of ‘ecosystem services’ and ‘natural resources’ in order to describe ways in which humans benefit from healthy ecosystems. Biodiversity, conceived through the economic approach, was recognized to be of great social and economic value to both present …

Next-generation sequencing technology allows culture- independent analysis of species and genes present in a complex microbial community. Such metagenomics may overcome the inability to culture microbes in isolation. Microbial communities of interest are for example responsible for making biogas. Many …

Cooperative population management is essential for the long-term viability of animal populations held in zoos and aquaria. In several regions, zoos are working together on population management by cooperative breeding programmes. Since most of these managed populations are not viable, it is suggested …

The Southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) is a vulnerable species in Northern Australia. Literature research on the cassowary population in Mission Beach, Queensland, revealed the vulnerability by identifying various threats endangering the cassowaries. Those threats were assessed by various …

The European Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus citellus) is an endemic, non-social, hibernating rodent, distributed through several Pan-European countries. Its habitat is semi-arid grass steppes and analogical man-made landscapes with short vegetation layers, such as meadows and golf courses. Since 1996, …

The mission of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) is to facilitate cooperation within the European zoo and aquarium community towards the goals of education, research and conservation. The reason why people visit zoos does not necessarily match these goals. These differences between …

To increase overall knowledge of housing, the experience of individual institutes needs to be shared with other zoos. To coordinate the exchange of knowledge on housing and husbandry between European zoos, the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), was formed in 1992. EAZA set up Taxon Advisory …

Despite the polar bears’ long history of high popularity in zoo settings, many studies indicate that this wide-ranging species expresses many abnormal repetitive behaviours in captivity, such as stereotypic walking, head swinging and repetitive swimming bouts. This is also the case in the male polar …

This research contributes to the Living North Sea project. The aim is to select and apply a socio-economic method in four pilot areas to determine the current and potential value of the areas in relation to the present migrating fish species. This valuation and comparison of the areas are lessons for …

This research aims to provide an overview of the current status of the three walrus sub-species found in the Arctic: the Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus), the Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) and the Laptev walrus (Odobenus rosmarus laptevi). In this report the focus will be on …