The Species360 Conservation Science Alliance recently hosted four online workshops as part of the Species360 Experts Workshop Series in November and December 2023. The workshops brought together around 50 big cat and great ape experts to further research on these species.
The workshops shared preliminary life expectancy and lifespan equality results based on research conducted by Species360’s Science Team. The research aimed to calculate trends across the last 150 years in summary metrics based on population age at death distribution for five species of big cats and four species of great ape managed under human care. The results were based on member-contributed data in ZIMS and indicate that the longevity of these nine species has increased over the last six decades. To delve deeper into these promising outcomes, experts hailing from diverse backgrounds—zoos, universities, and NGOs, spanning in situ and ex situ conservation fields—shared their wealth of knowledge and insights, shedding light on the factors influencing these preliminary results.
The workshops served as a dynamic forum, fostering collaboration, knowledge exchange, and discussions on landmark management practices that have evolved over time. Topics included changes in juvenile hand-rearing protocols, advancements in nutrition practices, and innovative naturalistic habitat modifications.
The results of these workshops will be co-authored by the participants and summarized in reports due to be released later in 2024. We hope the zoo conservation community will utilize these reports to provide evidence-based data to inform decisions about the management and conservation of these critical species.
We would like to thank all the workshops participants for the insightful discussions and contributing to this important research. The Species360 Conservation Science Alliance plans to continue hosting similar workshops and webinars in the future as opportunities to collaborate and promote the exchange of information through data.
For those eager to learn more about the Conservation Science Alliance and how to become involved, or to participate in future workshops and webinars, please reach out to us at support@species360.org.
