An exciting Year of the Rooster (2017)

2016: what a year! Our organization launched our new brand (Species360: Global information serving conservation); made great progress in developing our new ZIMS for Studbooks module; released enhancements to our ZIMS for Husbandry and ZIMS for Medical modules; and intensified our efforts to support our members’ conservation work with the wealth of data in ZIMS. We also welcomed our new Director of Science, Dr. Dalia Conde.

2017 is shaping up to be another very full and exciting year. I recently completed a two-week trip to Southeast Asia, along with Dalia, her graduate student Rita Silva, and her post-doctoral colleague Lio Jouvet. Dalia, Rita and Lio spent much of their time in Kuala Lumpur working with TRAFFIC’s Southeast Asia offices on a new approach for fighting the illegal turtle trade. In short, ZIMS data can be used to understand captive breeding capacities and costs, allowing CITES organizations to better challenge permits for large numbers of animals traded under the guise of “captive breeding.”

During the trip I visited current members, prospective members, and regional conservation programs in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Taiping, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City. I want to say a special thank you to the member institutions that hosted my visits at Wildlife Reserves Singapore, Dusit Zoo, Zoo Taiping, and Saigon Zoo, as well as the representatives from regional associations including the South East Asian Zoo Association (SEAZA), the Vietnam Zoo Association (VZA) and the Malaysian Zoo Association (MAZPA). I am very grateful for the warm welcome, and feel more than ever that with partners like these, we can make a significant impact by supporting animal welfare and conservation initiatives around the world.

We will continue to keep you updated on this exciting work.

And happy 2017! I look forward to working with you in the Year of the Rooster,

Jim Guenter, CEO
Species360