Registro de Instituciones, Colecciones y Bases de Datos de Biodiversidad: Institución

Descripción

Barcelona Zoological Park first opened its gates on the Day of the Mercè, patron saint of Barcelona, 1892. The collection of animals on show there came from a private collection kept by Lluís Martí i Codolar at La Granja Vella, his estate in Horta. He offered the animals to Barcelona City Council, and the mayor, Manuel Porcar, gave his approval to their purchase and the subsequent move to the publicly-owned site that was left vacant in Ciutadella Park after the 1888 Universal Exposition.
The approach to the zoological park has evolved with the times, forming a process in which improvements in the living conditions of the animals has been the prime objective. Nowadays, Barcelona Zoo is set in a magnificent garden, covering 13 hectares of Ciutadella Park and containing a collection of some 7,500 individual animals belonging to more than 400 species from all over the world.
Barcelona Zoo adheres to the World Zoo Conservation Strategy and hence carries out a series of activities which can be summarized as follows:
1- Conservation: Our institution collaborates on several international and European programmes for breeding and preserving species threatened with extinction, particularly EEPs (European programmes for breeding in captivity) and ESBs (European programmes for recording captive populations).
2- Research: A great deal of behavioural studies and other scientific research projects are carried out in collaboration with universities, the authorities of protected areas and other institutions. The most important of them are listed below:
2.1. Veterinary research studies: use of drugs to lower the levels of stress and cryptosporidiosis in the Zoo and in wild animals, and toxoplasmosis in zoo animals and its epizootiology.
2.2. Research studies in higher primates: aspects of reproduction (Callitricidae, Pongo pygmaeus, etc.), ontogeny and lateralization (Erytrocebus, Cercocebus i Mandrillus, etc), ontogeny of manual pressure, genetic studies of the drill (Papio leucophaeus) and the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), a study on karyotypes in different species,
ethnological studies such as self-recognition in front of a mirror with various species, and nutritional studies on various species. Gorilla (gorilla gorilla), the Iberian wolf (Canis lupus sygnatus) and bears (Ursus arctos, Thalarctos maritimus).
2.3. Studies on mammals: behaviour of the red panda (Aylurus fulgens) and its relation with the environment and climatic influences, spatial distribution of a pack of Iberian wolves (Canis lupus signatus), identification of acoustic models of interspecies communication in the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and a study on stress in the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).
2.4. Studies on amphibians and reptiles: skin-changing in snakes, and reproduction of the Majorcan midwife toad (Alytes muletensis) in captivity.
2.5. Studies on birds: laterality in psittacids.
2.6. Creation of a bank of tissues (Nerves Central System) and DNA, a bank of germinal cells and studies of cryopreservation of embryos.
2.7. Form part of research projects «in situ».
3- Education: Today education is regarded as the main objective of any zoo, and the reason for its existence. In order to achieve this goal there is an Education Department whose prime aim is to ensure that those members of the public who visit the Zoo throughout the year learn to understand, appreciate, respect and love animals, which is a great asset towards the safeguarding of wildlife and nature. Various activities are organized for children (with a yearly attendance of more than 50,000), while others are aimed at adults.

Strength:
1. Ethological studies to guarantee the animal welfare, diagnostic, introduction of programs of enrichment, evaluation of the effectiveness of the program. Elaboration of handling manuals. Revision of diets. Studies on sanitary state: pathology, endocrinology, physiology of the stress. 2. Studies on dynamics of the social interactions, resocialization / new individuals’ integration in groups. 3. To try to retain the maximum of genetic variability in captive populations. Studies about Physiology of the reproduction, controls of sexual cycles, behavioral indicators and hormonal controls. 4. Participation in the elaboration of the studbook that contain the history of the population of a species in captivity, registering the dates of birth and death and other data of interest for the handling. The Zoo of Barcelona participates in 10 european and 10 international books of registration of reproducers (studbook), moreover, it coordinates the studbook of the gray mangabey (Cercocebus atys lunulatus) (total: 21 studbooks).