Nature Conservation 6/2011 — 1. 3. 2012 — Cross-cutting Topic — Print article in pdf
Kůs E.: Ex situ or In situ? A Zoological Garden Dilemma in the 21st Century
Dilema zoologických zahrad 21. století
The role of zoological gardens has changed drastically in recent years.
Traditionally, zoos were organized to display a menagerie collection of animals for public entertainment. Nowadays, they implement four main tasks: (1) recreation, relaxation and leisure of visitors (2) education of visitors (3) involvement in science and research (4) saving endangered wild animal species and other taxa, traditionally in situ by captive breeding, more recently also in situ through various field programmes and projects, habitat management and communication, education and public awareness. The author discussed pros and cons of captive breeding in zoos. In September 2011, the Prague Zoo was celebrating the 80thanniversary of its founding. The zoo substantially contributed to survival of some species, particularly the Przewalskis Horse (Equus ferus porzewalskii) and has been recently involved in the species reintroduction into Mongolia. In addition, it carries out some other conservation project in the field, e.g.for Western Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla g. gorilla) in Cameroon or Eastern Gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.