Basel Zoo and its native biodiversity between the enclosures: a new strategy of cooperation with academic institutions

Abstract

In many zoos, the area separating the enclosures of zoo animals harbours highly diverse communities of free‐living animals and plants. These organisms have received little attention so far. Using an all‐taxa‐biodiversity‐inventory approach, a team of 46 zoologists and botanists carried out a 3 year study to assess the free‐living organisms (plants, fungi, animals) occurring in the areas between the enclosures of zoo animals at Basel Zoo. A total of 3110 free‐living species could be documented in this relatively small city zoo. However, not all taxonomical groups could be considered, mainly owing to the lack of experts. It was estimated that the actual richness of free‐living species in Basel Zoo may exceed 5500. Thus, the number of free‐living species is approximately eight to ten times higher than the 646 species of zoo animals maintained at Basel. The findings are important for preserving both the valuable remnants of natural and semi‐natural habitats and threatened free‐living species at the Zoo. The project combines research and outreach, which can improve the understanding of native biodiversity while simultaneously raising the awareness of the threats to it. The success of sustainable garden management in protecting native biodiversity may motivate the public to aspire to their own ‘wildlife‐friendly’ gardening activities.

Ground-dwelling invertebrate diversity in domestic gardens along a rural-urban gradient: Landscape characteristics are more important than garden characteristics

“…In contrast, a multi-taxon approach provides both a more comprehensive assessment of the overall biodiversity and an estimate for the phylogenetic diversity and offers the opportunity to disentangle group-specific responses [ 47 ]. However, such an approach has rarely been used in urban environments (for exceptions see [ 48 ]).…”

Bryophyte flora of the Košice Zoo (E Slovakia)

“…Similarly, in Slovakia mostly parks, gardens and cemeteries of the capital Bratislava (Mišíková & Kubinská 2010;Godovičová 2017;Godovičová & Mišíková 2017;Godovičová et al 2020) and other selected villages in its vicinity (Mišíková et al 2015;Mišíková et al 2018;Godovičová et al 2020) have been studied. In European cities, however, zoological gardens were rarely examined (Baur 2011;Segarra-Moragues et al 2019), even though their landscape is often diverse and substantial in size (Frediani 2009). Moreover, besides providing leisure and recreation, zoological gardens play an important role as scientific and educational centres (Urban et al 2015;Adamska 2017).…”

The effects of a zoo environment on free‐living, native small mammal species

“…One of their main aims is to educate the public about the natural world, both globally and locally, providing visitors with achievable goals to help preserve native species. Furthermore, zoos provide suitable habitats, vegetation, food sources and shelter that free-living animals are able to exploit (Baur, 2011;Harmon et al, 2005). Zoos, therefore, have a huge potential for native species conservation in urban areas.…”

“…Zoo grounds host many groups of free-living animal species, such as small mammals, mesomammals, birds and invertebrates (Baur, 2011;Harmon et al, 2005). Small mammals are very good study species because they are ubiquitous and play vital roles in many ecosystems with functions in seed dispersal, tree regeneration and vegetation composition (Ecke et al, 2017;McCleery et al, 2014; Stephans & Anderson, 2014).…”