While observing animals in their spacious enclosures, in beautifully landscaped terrariums or aquariums, or admiring the frolicking fluffy tiger or bear cubs or cute little deer, few people think about all the hard work that is required for ensuring the well-being of these lovely animals. But, in order to create the conditions that would make these animals flourish and breed in an artificial environment, it is critical to achieve a full understanding of the specifics of their behavior, physiology, and their lifestyles in the wild. Most of this information can only be obtained by conducting highly specific scientific research. It is no accident that this kind of research has been acknowledged as one of the top priorities of zoological parks and gardens. The staff of the Moscow Zoo have always invested a lot of their energy, time and efforts into this important task. They conduct research aimed at improving the husbandry conditions for the animals, developing new methods and techniques for breeding animals in captivity, and investigating new opportunities for improving their psychological condition. Zoo animals also serve as subjects of research in the fields of ethology and reproductive biology and provide potential material for the reintroduction of rare species into the wild.
While keeping and breeding various animals in captivity, which is especially true of primates, zoo professionals often encounter the problem of individual incompatibility. The number of animals that can be maintained in zoos is always limited, and it is not always possible to introduce a picky bride to one potential mate after another, until she finds the perfect Mr. Right of her dreams. In order to solve this problem, the research staff of the Primate Department has conducted a long-term research project aimed at developing methods for correcting primate behavior, which can facilitate considerably the process of pair formation. These efforts were rewarded with the birth of several adorable orangutan babies.
Most zoo visitors can recall some animals who were the source of irritation in their otherwise pleasant visit to the zoo by pacing for hours along the same pathway inside their enclosures, repeating the pattern of their movements up to the tiniest little detail over and over again. For a long time this form of stereotypic behavior had been considered either a sort of a psychiatric condition, or the result of the lack of natural movement requirements. Only a research project conducted at our zoo revealed that this kind of behavioral phenomenon is a form of self-satisfaction in animals who find themselves in a situation similar to that of the proverbial fox with the sour grapes. This resulted in developing methods for helping animals get rid of these obsessive movements.
One of the aspects of the zoo science that is least known to the general public is the reintroduction of animals into the wild. This means releasing zoo-born animals into those areas that used to be inhabited by their ancestors, but whose species has either died out from natural causes or been destroyed by man. Breeding animals in zoos for the purpose of future reintroduction is one of the most important methods of preservation of endangered species. Some examples of species that have been saved in this way are the Arabian Oryx, the California Condor, and many others. Reintroduction of animals into the wild always involves an extensive amount of research and physical effort, as it requires not only breeding and raising a large number of unrelated animals of the species in question, but also choosing an appropriate reintroduction area, and, last but not least, teaching the “graduates” to survive in a harsh natural environment, where their life is so different from their care-free existence in the sheltered conditions of a zoo. The job of the staff involved in these difficult projects becomes easier if most behavioral patterns are inborn, and there is little individual teaching to be done, as it is typical for lower invertebrates like fish and amphibians. The staff of the Aquaculture Laboratory of the Research Department of the Zoo is focusing its efforts on the threatened species of amphibians that occur within the territory of the former USSR. The researchers have been able to achieve stable reproduction in captive populations of rare amphibian species and to carry out a successful reintroduction of these species into the wild. Thus new self-sustaining populations of the rare Eastern Spadefoot and Banded Newt have been established in the wild.
The Moscow Zoo possesses one of the largest collections of venomous snakes in the world, and this would also be impossible without extensive research. Snakes maintained in a captive environment are frequently subject to becoming seriously ill, which creates a lot of problems with their husbandry. Considerably little research has been done in the field of wild animal diseases in general, and venomous snakes have never been a favorite study subject of professional veterinarians, for obvious reasons. The staff of the Zoo Herpetology Department had to develop their own approach to treating venomous snakes, and a lot of unprecedented research has been done in this area. By this time, the results of this research have been published in various scientific books and periodicals, and they are being used by herpetologists in many zoos throughout the world.
Another practical result of zoo research has been implemented in the zoo exhibit called The Nocturnal World. Small animals that can be seen there are
not often found in zoological collections, and are usually displayed in small terrariums. The Laboratory of Ethology has been working for many years on developing methods of exhibiting small nocturnal mammals in spacious enclosures imitating specific areas of their natural habitat. The staff has investigated the structure of burrows and activity patterns of many species, and determined the species that could not only inhabit the same enclosure, but would make the fullest use of its whole space, while concurrently enriching each other’s behavior. They have successfully developed methods of behavior inversion, which allow the visitors to see active nocturnal animals during the day.
These are just a few examples of the vast variety of research projects being conducted at the Moscow Zoo.
Most of the research projects have been conducted by the Research Department. It is staffed with experienced professionals working at well-equipped laboratories of biochemistry, reproductive biology, ethology and aquaculture. Research is aided by staff of other zoo departments and even other institutions. A great help is also provided by volunteer biology students who work at the zoo as interns, and members of the Zoo’s Young Biologists’ Club.
