burrowing owl
 
  • Recycled aluminum reduces pollution by 95 percent.
  • Four pounds of bauxite are saved for every pound of aluminum recycled.
  • Enough aluminum is thrown away to rebuild our commercial air fleet four times every year.
  • Recycled aluminum saves 95 percent energy versus virgin aluminum; recycling of one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours.
 

Reintroduction Research

Reintroduction involves returning a species to an area of its former historical range. Species reintroduction is an established conservation strategy for species at risk and has been used by Zoos and Wildlife Parks around the World to successfully restore extirpated and endangered species to their former habitats. The Centre for Conservation Research (CCR) works hard to help Canada’s endangered and threatened species develop sustainable populations in the wild through the process of reintroduction. The four main components of reintroduction research include evaluation, captive breeding/translocation, release and monitoring.

The Calgary Zoo's Approach

The Calgary Zoo's Centre for Conservation Research (CCR) is conducting fundamental research to determine success factors in bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian captive-breeding reintroduction programs. The study can be divided into the following three phases:

  • Assess life history traits which characterize viable candidates for reintroduction.
  • Identify factors that allow captive-breeding programs to transcend to the release stage.
  • Determine predictors for successful captive-breeding reintroduction programs.

Objectives of this research are to improve predictive capabilities for determining viable candidate species for reintroduction and develop improved guidelines for taxa-specific captive-breeding reintroduction programs. Our ultimate goal is for reintroduction practitioners to use these scientifically-informed decision-making tools to aid them in allocating their resources towards maximum conservation benefit, thereby improving the likelihood of success of future reintroduction programs.