Species360 Update at WAZA 2017

October 16, 2017
Species360
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Advancing best practice animal care and conservation through data science – Species360 update at WAZA

(16 October 2017 ) Species360 releases its 2017 update at the 72nd World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) conference, taking place October 15-19 in Berlin. The focus of the WAZA conference is on the contribution that zoos and aquariums make to society in three areas:

How WAZA zoos and aquariums are acting as leaders in their communities
How WAZA members are working collaboratively across continents to develop best practices
How WAZA members are evidencing their impact both on the natural world and on society

In addition to the Species360 update, CEO Jim Guenter will also be presenting a session on animal data science, highlighting the work that the Species360 team is doing to facilitate best practices and conservation through advanced analytics.

Species360 update at WAZA 2017

Thank you to members

Thanks to our members, Species360 provides the world’s most current, comprehensive, and reliable source of knowledge on intensively managed species. We serve institutional, regional and global animal management (ex-situ and in-situ) and conservation goals.

Looking back at our history

Throughout our 44 years as a non-profit organization, Species360 has helped our zoo and aquarium members increase their understanding of animal care through information sharing and collaboration. As the database grows, so does its value as a source of best-practices and globally aggregated information.

Where we are now

Species360 now has over 1079 institutional, education, and regional association members from 93 countries, including 390 in just over four years, with an annual member retention rate of 98+ percent. Twenty-one thousand individual users now rely on ZIMS as their animal records management solution.

Your Species360 Board of Trustees is comprised of more than 20 zoo and aquarium volunteer representatives from our worldwide member institutions, including association trustees from WAZA, AZA, EAZA, ZAA (Australasia), CZA, JAZA, and PAAZA. Institutional trustees also represent SEAZA and AZCARM.

Looking ahead

In 2018, we are looking to broaden the capacity of our science team, allowing them to leverage data to continue informing and serving conservation.

In closing

As 2017 draws to a close, Species360 once again extends our thanks to the global zoological community for supporting animal welfare and conservation. Your financial contributions keep us financially sound and your data contributions allow us to provide invaluable data sharing and collaboration in addition to global reference data. You have provided information on 7 million animals and 22,000 species plus aggregate knowledge accumulated from 50 million individual medical records and over 145 million individual husbandry records. What an amazing treasure of information!

About WAZA

World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA – http://www.waza.org) is the unifying organization for the world zoo and aquarium community. The 300+ WAZA members are leading zoos, aquariums, associations, affiliate organizations and corporate partners from around the world. WAZA’s mission is to guide, encourage and support the zoos, aquariums and like-minded organizations of the world in animal care and welfare, environmental education and global conservation.

About Species360

Successful animal care depends on applying the best actions possible for long-term animal health and survival. And that means tapping into the best knowledge available. As a nonprofit serving our community for more than 40 years, Species360 continues to advance knowledge sharing for excellent animal care and conservation. Today, more than 1070 zoos, aquariums and other wildlife member organizations in 90+ countries use Species360 ZIMS software to help them achieve best practice animal management and conservation goals.