Presentation at Poznań Zoological Garden

Educational initiatives on endangered species should not, and are not, restricted to the countries of their occurences. Zoological gardens play big part in those efforts. Most often they have those animals in their collection, which makes education more powerful. Modern zoos should not only conduct educational activities, but also support in-situ projects on different levels, which sometimes could not exists without their help.

Visitors of zoos can read from numerous boards about conservation efforts of scientists and zoos, but most often do not have any idea on struggles which in-situ projects encounter. With this in mind, our field manager, Filip Wojciechowski visited Poznań Zoological Garden, during his visit back home, with a lecture on challenges of in-situ projects in developing countries with focus on Tarsius Project and tarsiers. Interested could hear about differences between in-situ and ex-situ conservation and how they are conducted in the field. Then, based on the Tarsius Project, the aspects of exact work of such initiatives, including all of their aspects as scientific part, logistics, funds, local perspective and collaborations with Filipinos, educational challenges and others were clarified to the audience. Participants had also an unique chance to get tarsiers ecological bags made by local people collaborating with the Project, directly in Subayon. Numerous questions and participation in answering questions allows for making assumptions that the lesson was taken home and hopefully will be spread.

Text and photos: Filip Wojciechowski