Newquay Zoo

Just a quick post about Newquay Zoo. We went there at the end of the Kew week, and again, it was an inspiring place. We had a day of discussions about the role of zoos in conservation and although the conclusion was that historically they haven't had a great deal of impact on conservation, this seems to be changing.

They have some great animals there, such as a Madagascan Fossa, and a couple of Sloths, and we had a talk from the zoo director who explained how they are funding in-situ projects.

It raised interesting questions about the value of keeping animals in captivity, of making things real for people so they were interested in saving them, about how best to have an educational impact and about whether local zoos should have local wildlife in them.

I'm still not sure what I think about them overall, but it was lovely to see some of the species at Newquay.

Kew

I meant to write this post last week, but what with stats practicals and wader research to be done, didn't quite get round to it!

The week before last, we spent 3 days at Kew Gardens, being shown round the Herbarium, the nursery, and sitting through a dizzying number of lectures and talks from an astonishingly enthusiastic staff. Everyone was passionate and so eager to talk to us and pass on information and experiences, it was quite surprising. I guess we had got used to having talks from slightly more guarded conservation professionals, warning us of the constant battles, the defeats and disappointments and trying to maintain their hope in the face of overwhelming human short-sightedness.

However, everyone in Kew was the total opposite, and I ended our time there thinking this was partly because they had only been involved in conservation for 10 years or so, but mainly because they could do so much towards conserving species, and teaching the government and the public about conservation. I hadn't expected the weight of the institution that is RBG Kew, but it is immense, the expertise that they have there is world-leading. The main reason I think though, was because they could actively grow endangered species at Kew, as well as preserving them in-situ, and work towards preserving genetic diversity long-term in the Millennium seedbank and their micro-propagation department. The latter is looking at doing amazing things with plant cell samples.

We learned about how the Lady's Slipper Orchid (Cypripedium calceolus) is being reintroduced to places in the UK, the work they are doing in the UK Overseas Territories, the Plant Conservation Strategy, and the amazing stats, such as how Kew aims to have 10% of all the world's flowering species conserved in the seed bank, and how they already have 7 million herbarium samples.

It is by far the most affecting thing we have done on the course, and the calm confidence that the staff had in the importance of their work, and the ability of the general populace to appreciate that was truly inspiring.

Thank you Kew!