Keynote speakers
 

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ELISABETTA PALAGI

 

VALERIA TORTI

   ​ ​ Dr. Valeria Torti is a Research Technician the University of Torino, Italy. She is part of the Ethology and Bioacoustic Lab at the Department of Life Sciences And Systems Biology (DBIOS). A common thread throughout Valeria's research career has been joining her bioacoustics and ethological work with the biodiversity conservation issue. Her work in Madagascar investigates vocal communication in indris and other lemur species and demonstrated that patterns of vocal communication are much more complex that what usually thought. She is currently the Executive Manager of the Maromizaha Conservation Project, led by Prof. Cristina Giacoma of the University of Turin in collaboration with GERP Madagascar. Nowadays, her research focuses on non-invasive census techniques, based on vocal fingerprints, as a mechanism for monitoring vocalizing animals’ groups and lemur populations in the wild. Valeria was awarded grants from the CRT Foundation (Master dei Talenti della Società Civile), is a PCI fellow, and is a CO-PI for a Margot Marsh funded grant. She participated in writing several funded projects for conserving Malagasy wildlife, collaborating with different international organizations including GERP and Association Mitsinjo. To preserve natural hotspots like Madagascar, as well as to ensure well-being and prosperity among the local populations, it is fundamental to invest in research, training and in situ conservation. In the last 14 years the University of Turin is leading the Maromizaha Conservation Project, to promote research, education, capacity building, and training in the Alaotra-Mangoro Region (Madagascar), to preserve species and habitat integrity in the remaining forest patches of the Ankeniheny-Zahamena corridor. The Maromizaha Conservation Project largely focuses on working together with local communities and partners to ensure the sustainable exploitation of natural resources and the management and protection of forest species. The main aim is to reduce human pressure on the forest habitat, by creating income-generating activities that alleviate poverty among the rural communities. Thanks to the support of zoos, foundations and private/public organizations, we are running a long-term study, following the life histories of around 152 recognizable individuals in 30 family groups of 5 lemur species (Indri indri, Propithecus diadema, Varecia variegata editorum, Hapalemur griseus, Eulemur rubriventer) and monitoring forest habitat (camera traps, transects, Passive Acoustic Monitoring) at the Maromizaha NPA. Accurate information on the demographic parameters driving lemur population dynamics will help decision-making regarding the conservation of this iconic species.

 

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PETER PRASCHAG

  After he received his degree in Biology and Zoology, Peter Praschag founded the conservation breeding and research institution Turtle Island, together with his father Reiner. Next to his duties as a turtle-breeder and conservator, he supports various ORF UNIVERSUM TV productions as a scientific advisor. Furthermore, he is a sworn and court-certified expert for biology (keeping and breeding of zoo animals) and a member of the Freshwater Turtle and Tortoise Specialist Group/IUCN, the Field Conservation Committee, and a scientific consultant at the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA). He serves as Vice-President of Turtle Island Corporation, a U.S.A based nonprofit with 501(c)(3) status. 
According to the IUCN, 62 % of the world's freshwater turtle species are either threatened or endangered. Alongside with apes, turtles are the most threatened group of vertebrates. Between 1970 and 2020 the Living Planet Index observes a decline of wildlife populations of freshwater animal species of 84 %. 11 out of the 14 turtle families are freshwater species. Because of the ongoing habitat destruction, it seems to be crucial to work on creating assurance colonies of all the most endangered freshwater turtle and tortoise species to prevent biological extinction with the final goal to set out to recover populations to their former full ecological roll across their former distribution. Conservation breeding programs for turtles are long term endeavors, which require international collaboration between zoos and private keepers and the linking of ex-situ and in-situ measures. Turtle Island houses today more than 240 turtle and tortoise taxa on four different locations and has big plans to establish a state of the art conservation breeding center, which is going to be partly open to the public.
 

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SPARTACO GIPPOLITI

   
Spartaco Gippoliti is a conservationist and mammalogist with experience in both ex situ and in situ conservation. He is author of more than 150 published papers and book chapters dealing with the conservation and taxonomy of African Primates and Ungulates, role of zoos in conservation biology and the interface between mammal taxonomy and conservation. Among his   books La Giungla di Villa Borghese. I cento anni del Giardino Zoologico di Roma (2010) deals with the centenary history of the Rome Zoological Garden. One of his field of interest is the application of conservation ecology theories to a social landscape, both in Europe and tropical countries. He is a member of IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group, Honorary member of Italian Union of Zoos and Aquaria (UIZA) and of the Società Italiana per la Storia della Fauna “G. Altobello”.
 
“Zoos are or should be one of the last bastions of organismal biology...” Seidensticker and Forthman (1998) - In Italy zoos and aquaria have been often considered a kind of amusement parks specialised in animals, with little perception that they are cultural institutions. While most zoos are open to collaborative research programs or to support environmental NGO's projects, very few can afford to maintain their own scientific staff. This may reinforce the overall view that Italian zoos' only value lay in their zoological collections and in the funds they can direct toward 'conservation', therefore downplaying the contribution scientific, educative and curatorial staff may give to both theoretical and practical issues related to science education, conservation biology, zoo management and animal welfare. Half a century ago, a national association of Italian scientific museums (ANMS) was created under the auspices of the Accademia dei Lincei. It includes botanical gardens, zoos and aquaria together with several other scientific institutions. Despite the relevance of such partnership, the contribution of zoos to the ANMS' journal Museologia Scientifica has been negligible. If the lack of a specific Italian journal on zoo-biology is added, a question is raised about how Italian zoos think to fulfill their cultural mission.
An historical approach allows to appreciate the intrinsic importance of zoos and aquaria when managed as indipendent scientific institutions. Examples, limited to Italy, include the Giardino Zoologico in Rome under the directoriship of Ermanno Bronzini, the Giardino Zoologico in Turin under the scientific directoriship of Alula Taibel, the Civico Acquario in Milan led by Menico Torchio.
Relying on my personal experience, the last part of this presentation is dedicated to show as questions about management issues led to a growing appreciation of the relevance of taxonomy for both Primate conservation and zoos ex situ programs.
 

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JEROEN STEVENS

  I am a behavioural biologist, interested in zoo animal welfare as well as in social relationships in exotic animals, and relationships with physiology. Since my teenage years I have been passionate about great apes and most particular about bonobos. After obtaining my Phd in Sciences at Antwerp University on “Machos or Don Juans, the reproductive strategies of male bonobos in captivity”, I have worked in Antwerp Zoo and Zoo Planckendael as research coordinator on Animal Behaviour and Welfare for 12 years. Here I focused on understanding social relationships and reproduction in zoo-housed bonobos, and did smaller projects on welfare and behaviour on various animal species, from poison-dart frogs to Asian Elephants. Nowadays, I teach animal behaviour and welfare related courses at Odisee University of Applied Sciences in Belgium, where I also supervise bachelor students’ projects, mostly on zoo animals.  I am also coordinator of the Bonobo EAZA Ex Situ Project, and member of the Zoo Committee in the Flemish Ministry for Animal Welfare, and I am chairman of the Dutch Zoo Association peer review visitation process.
 
The welfare of great apes in human care is becoming more and more important. There is however little consensus on how to measure welfare in these highly developed primates. While animal welfare science is making major progress in farm, lab and companion animals, its concepts are not readily applied to great apes. Following Fraser’s view, welfare can be regarded from three angles: biological functioning and health; natural living and positive feelings or affective states. Here we review which animal based indicators in behaviour, physiology and cognition may be available and propose using more multidimensional welfare assessment in great apes. In Biological functioning and health, we lack good reference values of physiological and health markers for great apes, and may not take individual variation into account. Cortisol is often taken as physiological marker, but care should be undertaken with the interpretation of this pleiotropic hormone. In Natural living, the validity of putative behavioural indicators of stress or anxiety, such as self-directive behaviours, and a focus on either seeing wild activity budgets as golden standard, or a focus on negative indicators such as abnormal behaviours can be problematic. Affective states are now central in describing good welfare, and have been said to correspond to ‘Happiness’ in human Quality of Life Assessments, but are of course harder to measure. Science is now making progress in measuring emotions in primates, for example through cognitive bias tasks and this knowledge should be integrated into great ape welfare science. Using Qualitative Behavioural Assessments is now commonplace for farm and domestic animals, and may be a useful approach in great apes as well, if anthropomorphism can be avoided. In conclusion, animal welfare science may offer different physiological, behavioural and cognitive indicators of welfare, which could be applied to great ape welfare, if properly validated.

 

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ALEZANDRU BULACU