Reports
HOPE Report No.36 2004-11-03
HOPE 5th International Lecture
Date: Oct 27, 2004
Place: PRI
Title: The Regenstein Center for African Apes at Lincoln Park Zoo and the
AZA Chimpanzee Species Survival PlanR : Two programs working for
chimpanzee welfare and conservation.
Speaker:
Stephen R. Ross
Behavioral Research Specialist, Lincoln Park Zoo
Chair, Chimpanzee Species Survival Plan
Advancing the science of animal care and conservation requires careful
planning but also progressive effort. In this talk, I discuss two programs
affecting chimpanzees in the United States: a new state-of-the-art ape
facility at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois and a revitalized
national population management program overseeing the 300 chimpanzees
living in accredited North American Zoos.
The Regenstein Center for African Apes opened in July, 2004 with a
mission to not only be a progressive facility for animal care and
husbandry, but also provide excellent educational experience for visitors
and research opportunities for resident and visiting scientists. The
exhibits combine aesthetic naturalism to inspire a conservation ethic in
visitors with structural functionalism to encourage species-typical
patterns of behaviors in the apes. Design features such as soft mulch
substrates, adjoining indoor and outdoor yards, and a selection of
animal-activated devices provide the animals with choices and control over
their environment thereby promoting animal wellbeing.
On a national level, the Chimpanzee Species Survival Plan (SSP)
provides leadership for the 40 participating institutions housing
chimpanzees in the United States. Since its inception in 1989, the SSP has
grown from a primary focus on population management to a diversified scope
of concern on issues from the promotion of species-typical groups (larger,
age-stratified, multimale groups) to researching the effect of adolescent
male aggression on social group dynamics. The SSP is committed to being an
advocate for chimpanzees in zoos worldwide as well as wild populations in
Africa and encourages global collaboration with other management programs
as a primary means to achieve these goals.
Chimpanzee SSP logo
Regenstein Center for African Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo
http://www.lpzoo.org/
HOPE Project<hope@pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp>
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