Blog

From Tanks to Tablets: How Digital Records Are Improving Aquatic Animal Care

Blog / Aquatic animal care has always relied on close observation, specialist knowledge, and careful record keeping. For decades, much of that information lived in notebooks, binders, whiteboards, or disconnected spreadsheets. While these methods reflected the realities of their time, they also limited how information could be shared, analysed, and preserved. As aquariums take on […]

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Aquarium

Why Data Matters in Conservation: Key Lessons from Aquatic Species Management

Blog / Straslund Aquarium. Image credit: Uljana Kalazny Conservation is built on understanding. For aquatic species, that understanding depends heavily on data collected over time, across institutions, and through changing environmental conditions. Aquariums play a vital role in conservation by caring for species, contributing to research, and supporting population sustainability. At the centre of this

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The 5 Biggest Challenges in Aquatic Species Management and How ZIMS Solves Them

Blog / Aquatic species management is one of the most complex areas of zoological care. Aquariums are responsible for maintaining healthy populations, supporting research, and contributing to conservation, all while managing animals that often live in groups, move between life stages, and respond quickly to environmental change. These realities place significant demands on how information

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How ZIMS for Aquatics Is Transforming Aquarium Animal Care

Blog / Aquariums play a vital role in caring for aquatic species, supporting conservation, and advancing scientific understanding. Managing this responsibility depends on access to accurate, consistent, and long-term animal information. ZIMS for Aquatics supports aquarium animal care by providing a structured way to record, manage, and interpret aquatic animal data across institutions and over

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Giant panda eating bamboo

Introducing the Reproduction Dashboard in Taxon Profiles! 

Species360 is excited to share the first major ZIMS release of 2026: the Reproduction Dashboard, now available in Taxon Profiles.

The Reproduction Dashboard provides a wealth of data on reproduction for over 12,000 species supporting smarter collection planning and improved animal welfare, and enabling members to make evidence-based decisions for the animals in their care.

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Hope in Flight: How Collaboration is Helping the Poweshiek Skipperling

The Poweshiek skipperling (Oarisma poweshiek), once a common sight across North American prairies, is now one of the world’s most endangered insects. To prevent its extinction, an international coalition – including the Minnesota Zoo, John Ball Zoo, Assiniboine Park Zoo, and the IUCN SSC Species Survival Specialist Group – is leading an intensive recovery effort.

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Image of Proboscis monkey female with baby in tree

ZIMS in Research: Sterilization and contraception increase lifespan in mammals

A new study published in the prestigious journal Nature used data from the Species360 Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS) to examine the effect of hormonal contraception and sterilization on life expectancy in mammal species living in zoos and aquariums.

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Why Data Matters for Saving Species: Species360 and the Extinct in the Wild Action Partnership

Around the world, a growing number of species now exist only because a zoo, aquarium, or conservation organisation continues to care for them, they are lost entirely from nature. These are the species formally listed by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as extinct in the wild (EW), taxa that survive exclusively in human care or in managed settings. For these species, the work of ex situ conservation institutions is critical to their survival.

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Image of a group of Asian elephants

1,400 Strong: How a Global Community is Transforming Wildlife Data

Blog / This year, more than 80 new institutions joined the Species360 community, bringing our global membership to over 1,400 zoos, aquariums, conservation organizations, and research partners Spanning almost every continent and reaching 102 countries, this growing network reflects a shared commitment to improving animal care and supporting conservation through high-quality, collaborative data. Together, Species360

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