Using zoos to protect climate change threatened taxa and to understand species traits for wildlife tourism

利用动物园保护气候变化威胁的类群并了解野生动物旅游的物种特征

• 批准号: 2401771
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Durham University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2401771
• 关键词: Using; zoos; protect; climate; change

Background: Modern zoos have multiple objectives including public recreation and education, and aiding ex situ species conservation; the latter being increasingly important. Currently, zoos host collections that combine attracting visitors with conserving threatened species. However, there is little consideration of species that are likely to become threatened in future. Ongoing and future climate change is a major threat that will produce new species of conservation concern, yet this is not currently considered. In addition, conservation in the wild is increasingly dependent upon wildlife tourism income, the drivers of which are not well understood.Aims: Here we propose to address how climate change might impact on both in situ and ex situ species conservation, and to assess to what extent terrestrial species threatened by climate are overlooked in zoos currently. In addition, we will assess, though both field studies and in zoos, the primary drivers of species attractiveness to visitors in these different environments. Armed with such knowledge, we will produce information on: (a) species of climate threat that are not currently conserved in zoos; (b) the traits of species that make them attractive to wildlife or zoo tourism, and; (c) protected areas globally that are projected to lose wildlife tourism attractor species and identify areas where translocations could benefit long-term conservation goals.Methods: Species modelling methods Ongoing work in Durham is predicting future range shifts of birds and mammals globally under climate and land-cover change scenarios, so we already have projections of range changes for birds and mammals (our two focal taxa) under future scenarios. These models will provide the basis for subsequent zoo, field and simulation research.Zoo-focussed methods We will assess the attraction value of species to zoo visitors using several approaches. We will record visitor durations at exhibits in relation to species traits, their visibility and behaviour. This will combine the use of cameras to monitor the species and data collection by the student and volunteers/self-certification (we aim to develop a citizen science approach). We will also use people counters to monitor visitor traffic through exhibits. The resultant data will be used with species trait data to understand the drivers of attraction. We have already collated relevant traits data for most birds and mammals globally.We will extract data from a global database of species in zoos, which we will compare to species that are currently threatened with extinction, or likely to be threatened in future. Such data will also permit an exploration of the typical species assemblages maintained at individual zoos (e.g. proportions of different taxa, easy/difficult to maintain species, functional types, attractive species, species of conservation concern). Armed with this knowledge, we will assess for the first time, the extent to which the world's zoological collections are not protecting species threatened with future changes. We will use complementarity approaches (Margules & Pressey 2000) to simulate collections of species across the world's zoos that would maximise the objectives of public recreation and education and ex situ conservation.Field-based methods To complement the research above, the student will also spend time at two wildlife tourism hotspots in Africa (Kruger NP, SA & potentially Nairobi NP, KE), during which time they will record visitor stops at wildlife, and relate these to species and their behaviour, traits etc., in a similar manner to the zoo analyses. Such data on visitor preferences could be combined with travel and spend information to simulate future changes to visitors and therefore income streams from wildlife tourism globally.

背景资料：现代动物园有多重目标，包括公共娱乐和教育，并协助迁地物种保护;后者越来越重要。目前，动物园举办的收藏联合收割机结合吸引游客与保护濒危物种。然而，很少考虑到将来可能受到威胁的物种。持续和未来的气候变化是一个主要的威胁，将产生新的物种保护的关注，但这是目前没有考虑。此外，在野外保护越来越依赖于野生动物旅游收入，其中的驱动程序还没有很好地understood.Aims：在这里，我们建议解决气候变化可能会影响在原位和迁地物种保护，并评估在何种程度上受到气候威胁的陆地物种被忽视的动物园目前。此外，我们将通过实地研究和动物园评估这些不同环境中物种对游客吸引力的主要驱动因素。有了这些知识，我们将提供以下方面的信息：（a）目前未在动物园中保护的气候威胁物种;（B）使其对野生动物或动物园旅游具有吸引力的物种特征;（c）预计将失去野生动物旅游吸引物种的全球保护区，并确定易位可能有利于长期保护目标的地区。方法：物种建模方法达勒姆正在进行的工作是预测未来的范围变化的鸟类和哺乳动物在全球气候和土地覆盖变化的情况下，所以我们已经有预测的范围变化的鸟类和哺乳动物（我们的两个重点类群）在未来的情况下。这些模型将为后续的动物园，实地和模拟研究提供基础。动物园为重点的方法我们将使用几种方法评估物种对动物园游客的吸引力价值。我们将记录参观者在展品中的停留时间，这些时间与物种特征、可见度和行为有关。这将结合联合收割机的使用，以监测物种和数据收集的学生和志愿者/自我认证（我们的目标是开发一个公民科学的方法）。我们亦会使用人流计数器，以监察参观展品的人流。由此产生的数据将与物种性状数据一起使用，以了解吸引力的驱动因素。我们已经整理了全球大多数鸟类和哺乳动物的相关特征数据。我们将从动物园物种的全球数据库中提取数据，并将其与目前面临灭绝威胁或可能在未来受到威胁的物种进行比较。这些数据还将允许探索在单个动物园中维持的典型物种组合（例如不同分类群的比例，容易/难以维持的物种，功能类型，有吸引力的物种，保护关注的物种）。有了这些知识，我们将首次评估世界动物学收藏品在多大程度上没有保护受到未来变化威胁的物种。我们将采用互补的办法（Margules & Pressey 2000）来模拟世界各地动物园的物种收集，以最大限度地实现公共娱乐和教育以及迁地保护的目标。实地方法为了补充上述研究，学生还将花时间在非洲的两个野生动物旅游热点地区（克鲁格NP，SA和潜在的内罗毕NP，KE），在此期间，他们将记录游客在野生动物的停留，并将这些与物种及其行为，特征等，类似于动物园的分析。这种关于游客偏好的数据可以与旅行和消费信息结合起来，模拟游客未来的变化，从而模拟全球野生动物旅游的收入流。