Flying bamboo?

A free paper from the AnimalConcepts team is available open access and you can download it below.

This paper is part of the book Transforming food systems: ethics, innovation and responsibility by Donald and Ann Bruce, and discusses the challenges zoos face to be more environmentally-conscious and make decisions in regard to the sourcing of food for both animals and people. This paper also highlights the efforts undertaken by zoos to mitigate these challenges.

Abstract

Contemporary zoos, aquariums, sanctuaries, and other facilities housing animals in human care (hereafter zoos) are concerned with their core values of animal wellbeing, education, and nature conservation. There is a wide variety of species living in zoos worldwide, spanning across many different taxa, which results in an enormous diversity of diets – each bringing its own set of challenges. Meats, fishes, insects, fruits, vegetables, and browse are some, among many, of the necessary components for...

Every June the world celebrates Pride Month, marking the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and reflecting on how far we have come towards LGBTQIA+ rights and where we still need to go. At AnimalConcepts, we are celebrating LGBTQIA+ inclusion and championing diversity in the zoo and aquarium community with a brand-new free resource addressing the ways in which animal care and other facilities can support staff, students, and visitors no matter how they identify. You can download the free resource HERE

While we wear the rainbow flag for June, it is important to remember as a community that Pride is not something we think about only for one month of the year. There are always things we can do year-round, whether it is day-to-day changes like sharing your pronouns or using inclusive language, or systemic changes like rewriting our DEI policies or building new gender-inclusive infrastructure.

We presented a webinar on gender diversity and...