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Conservation

Zoos also keep animals to breed with them. This is especially important when it concerns animal species on the brink of extinction and regretfully there are more of those all the time!

For dozens of years zoos have been working together closely to keep these animals from becoming extinct and there are even animals that exist only because of these efforts of the zoos.

Special breeding programs, under which all animal species still present in zoos are listed, must make sure that inbreeding is prevented as much as possible and that its population grows as quickly as possible. About 350 zoos in Europe are involved in this and manage their animals jointly.

For seriously endangered species there is the so-called EEP (European Endangered species Program): these are European breeding programs for which a coordinator sets rules for keeping the animals and whereby he and a number of other experts determine what happens to the animals that are born and which animals are allowed to breed with one another, foremost keeping in mind the prevention of inbreeding. Burgers' has 35 EEP species in its collection. Burgers' coordinates the EEP for Blue Duikers and King Vulture.

In addition there are also species that are less threatened, but which do deserve extra attention. For these there are international stud books, the so-called ESB (European Stud Book), with a Stud Book keeper who carefully registers all present animals and their kind, but who does not give emphatic breeding advice or arranges exchanges.

If a species does not appear to do very well the Stud Book can switch over to an EEP and immediately a stricter policy can be put in place. Burgers' Zoo participates in approximately 30 ESB's and is Stud Book keeper of Aardvarks and Hooded Pittas.

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