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

背景：现代动物园有多个目标，包括公共娱乐和教育，以及帮助迁地物种保护；后者越来越重要。目前，动物园拥有吸引游客和保护受威胁物种相结合的收藏。然而，很少考虑未来可能受到威胁的物种。目前和未来的气候变化是一个重大威胁，它将产生新的物种保护问题，但目前还没有考虑到这一点。此外，野生动物保护越来越依赖于野生动物旅游收入，其驱动因素尚不清楚。目的：这里我们提出气候变化如何影响就地和迁地物种保护，并评估目前受气候威胁的陆地物种在动物园中被忽视的程度。此外，我们将通过实地研究和动物园评估，在这些不同的环境中，物种对游客的吸引力的主要驱动力。有了这样的知识，我们将产生关于以下方面的信息：(A)目前未在动物园保护的气候威胁物种；(B)使它们对野生动物或动物园旅游具有吸引力的物种的特征，以及(C)全球预计将失去野生动物旅游吸引物物种的保护区，并确定易位可能有利于长期保护目标的区域。方法：在达勒姆正在进行的物种建模方法正在进行的工作是预测未来气候和土地覆盖变化情景下全球鸟类和哺乳动物的范围转移，因此我们已经预测了未来情景下鸟类和哺乳动物(我们的两个重点分类群)的范围变化。这些模型将为后续的动物园、野外和模拟研究提供基础。以动物园为中心的方法我们将使用几种方法来评估物种对动物园游客的吸引力。我们将记录参观者在展品中停留的时间与物种特征、能见度和行为的关系。这将结合使用摄像机来监测物种以及学生和志愿者收集的数据/自我认证(我们的目标是发展公民科学方法)。我们还将使用人员柜台来监控展品的参观者流量。结果数据将与物种特征数据一起用于理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未来可能受到威胁的物种进行比较。这些数据还将允许对个别动物园保存的典型物种组合进行探索(例如，不同分类群的比例、易于/难以维护的物种、功能类型、有吸引力的物种、受保护关注的物种)。有了这些知识，我们将第一次评估世界动物收藏在多大程度上没有保护受到未来变化威胁的物种。我们将使用互补性方法(Margules&Pressey 2000)来模拟世界各地动物园的物种集合，这将最大化公共娱乐、教育和迁地保护的目标。作为上述研究的补充，学生还将花费时间在非洲的两个野生动物旅游热点(Kruger NP，SA和潜在的内罗毕NP，KE)，在此期间，他们将记录野生动物的游客停留，并将这些与物种及其行为、特征等联系起来，以类似于动物园分析的方式。这些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来源。

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.