“Parship for the drill” is the name given by Rasem Baban to one of the projects he would like to present. The drill is a nomadic species of monkey that lives in the tropical rainforest between Nigeria and Cameroon and is in serious danger of extinction. The reasons for the species’ extinction are poaching and the destruction of its habitat by humans. “We owe the drill something,” says Baban, the director of the Hellabrunn Zoo – namely that reproduction is progressing faster than extinction. A race against time, with the help of the European Endangered Species Programme, a dating agency for monkeys, if you will. He would have to explain in more detail how this works exactly.
It is a cloudy afternoon in the zoo’s administration building, not far from the “flamingo entrance” and souvenir shop, a group of kindergarten children trudge past. Normal hustle and bustle of day-trippers. “But something has to change in the awareness of Munich residents,” says Baban, too few people know about animal husbandry and species protection in Hellabrunn. He receives encouragement from Verena Dietl, third mayor and chairwoman of the supervisory board: “The zoo is an educational institution,” she herself is also here “as a learner.”
Zoo director Baban goes on to explain. In practice, the conservation breeding program, the matchmaking program, looks like this: Based on scientific analyses of genes and ancestors, an animal from a zoo somewhere in Europe is sent on a journey to find a “match” in another zoo – the right male or female for reproduction, to expand the gene pool and “give the species a helping hand” in survival. The long-term goal: to resettle the strengthened species where it is at home. In the case of drill, this would be the rainforest of West Africa, where they work together with the local population and politicians.
An ambitious plan with many steps – will it work? “With primates like the drill, you need sensitivity and patience,” explains Carsten Zehrer, a qualified biologist and head of the zoological department at the zoo. The monkeys need contact with familiar keepers at all stages of their journey. “But what is the alternative?” asks Zehrer. “Doing nothing is not an option.” The project has been running for 25 years, and since then 15 drills in European zoos have become more than 100.
Breeding the West African drill is just one of the zoo’s ongoing species protection projects. Ibexes are being resettled in the Alps, injured songbirds are being cared for in Indonesia, the rainforest in Ecuador is being protected for the spider monkey – in total, the zoo is involved in 14 projects worldwide. The zoo is also dependent on donations for this.
Despite such species protection programs, it is disputed, especially among animal protection associations, whether zoos are still appropriate for the times. How appropriately can large animals such as lions, elephants or polar bears be kept in small enclosures? Zoo director Baban emphasizes that Hellabrunn was the first geozoo in the world after the renovation in 1928. Animals are kept there in a “natural” manner, organized by continent. In the “jungle house”, for example, everything that comes from the jungle lives, in the “polar world” the seal lives next to the king penguin.
Nevertheless, Baban says that they are in a “learning process” and want to “step on the gas” to become even more sustainable and animal-friendly. And they need to exchange ideas with other zoos. Zoos must certainly do their part to protect endangered species and biodiversity. “If they didn’t exist yet, zoos would have to be invented now.”