In-situ Conservation
Another important element of conservation for zoos is helping animals in their native homeland and this is called in-situ conservation. Folly Farm does its bit for in-situ conservation primarily by raising funds for campaigns and projects running in these native homelands. In the future Folly Farm is hoping to be able to send its zoo keepers abroad to provide hands-on help for these projects and for them to gain valuable conservation experience to bring back to the park.
WILDLIFE VETS
INTERNATIONAL
In 2006 Folly Farm began a partnership with a then relatively new
conservation charity called Wildlife Vets International
(WVI). Set up by the International Zoo Vet Group, consultants
to Folly Farm for a number of years, the charity provides
veterinary care, training, expertise and equipment for various
conservation-based charities around the World and now boasts
televsion presenters and conservation champions Kate Humble and
Steve Leonard amongst its patrons.
Folly Farm does its bit through a permanent collection box at the
park and through the sale of WVI pin badges at our keeper
talks. To date we have raised over £1500 for WVI and made
hundreds of people aware of the charity.
Click here to find out more about WVI and the
projects it supports.
FOSSA FUND
In June 2006 Folly Farm was accepted to
join the European Breeding Programme (EEP) for the Fossa, an
incredibly rare endangered carnivorous mammal from Madagascar and
since the arrival of our first female in 2006 we now have an
unrelated male we can attempt to breed from.
As part of our EEP commitment we have raised over £1500 for the
Fossa Fund which is an organistion set up to help Fossa in the
wild, where they are under increased threat from hunting and
de-forestation, by aiding further research into the breed and by
providing a re-introduction facility in its native homeland of the
forests of Madagascar.
Our keeper talks on the Fossa help raise awareness of in-situ
conservation projects and raise money for the Fossa Fund.
THE BIAZA RESERVE
Folly Farm is working with the World Land Trust to secure
an area of critically-threatened Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil.
With only 7% of the original forest remaining, preventing the loss
of what remains is an absolute priority.
Folly Farm is a member of the British and Irish Association of
Zoos and Aquarium (BIAZA), and a number of BIAZA members are
raising money for the purchase and protection of a reserve in one
of most threatened eco-regions in the World which will be known as
the BIAZA Reserve. It will be managed and protected by REGUA, a
Brazilian conservation organisation that already protects 17,500
acres of Atlantic forest.
The Atlantic Rainforest is a 'biodiversity hotspot' and we
consider it vital to support projects that protect that native
homeland of many of the animals at the park. At Folly Farm, we have
two species of bird that have been recorded at REGUA; the barn owl
and the orange-winged parrot. The capybara you see at Folly Farm
can also be spotted lazing in the restored wetlands at REGUA. The
ocelot is a great example of ocelots that are known to live in and
around REGUA and the proposed BIAZA Reserve.
For more information:
Zoos & Aquariums Protecting the
Wild
BIAZA
BARN OWL TRUST
Halloween half term sees the return of our interactive owl show
which involves live flying of our barn, tawny and Eurasian eagle
owls and a chance for willing volunteers to meet the birds.
It also allows us to highlight a serious in-situ conservation
message educating guests on the plight of barn owls in the UK,
which are at risk from habitat destruction from barn conversions,
modern farming practices and pesticides and the destruction of
hedges where vital food sources can be found.
Click here to visit the Barn Owl Trust's website.
