The conservation, originally Captive Breeding Specialist Group of IOCN SSC had some forerunners that were not very successful. The intention always was to have a link between in situ and ex situ conservation and conservation breeding. And therefore we changed, finally, the naming to Conservation Breeding Specialist Group. And in… Read More
And there were not enough sleeping rooms, so we had to share sleeping rooms. But it was like a family and it grew and nowadays there are, I think, about 300 attendants to the annual meetings. So it’s a very important organization. But as acceptance of CBSG is again very… Read More
When you talk about loans, the question comes up then, with captive breeding, how did the Captive Breeding Specialist Group, now the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group, begin?… Read More
What was going on that made this group important?… Read More
And what countries were involved with this group?… Read More
Did you find that most curators were collegial to one another?… Read More
That they did work or wanted to work well together?… Read More
The curators, I think, worked very well together. I can bring one example, in Switzerland. As mentioned before, I was curator of mammals and birds and a fellow curator in Bern was curator of birds. And by the way, Klaus Robin was another student of Heini Hediger. And we more… Read More
How did you exchange animals?… Read More
In the ’60s, ’70s, it was quite difficult to get in contact with fellow curators. And in fact, in the German-speaking countries, most curators attended the annual meeting of the German Society of Mammalogists. And so we formed the Bamberg Rebels during one of these mammalogy meetings. But, of course,… Read More
Did you communicate as a curator of mammals and birds?… Read More
Did you communicate easily with your counterparts in other parts of Europe?… Read More
How did you share ideas?… Read More
But at that time, we had a lot of old-fashioned fellows and so we were excluded. So in, I think, 1977, what was later on called, we founded the Bamberg Rebellion, it was in the German Bamberg and we were about seven, eight, nine curators who thought, we should be… Read More
And I think, in 1991, we were for the first time invited as part of the German zoo directors association. There are still two different memberships. It’s a full membership for directors and associate membership for curators. And the name was retained. There were several trials to change the name… Read More
Can you explain a little about the connect, how connected at the time you were working at Zurich were the European zoos connected to each other?… Read More
What was their significance?… Read More
What was the group able to accomplish?… Read More
Germany, especially Germany, is a very specific country. The zoo organization in Germany is the oldest worldwide, and it’s called (speak in foreign language). It’s the Association of German Zoo Directors and since this, how it was actually done, it was zoo directors only. But the zoo directors couldn’t produce… Read More
Lions sleep and rest about 83% of their time. And if this would be shown in the TV, the viewer would sleep after three, four minutes. In the zoo, we try to present a good natural background, but the visitor has the normal behavior. 63% of time lions rest and… Read More