Zoo animal of the year 2021: the crocodile
Tierpark supports the campaign with Tierparkfreunde Chemnitz e.V.
The crocodile is "Zoo Animal of the Year" 2021, as decided by the Zoological Society for Species and Population Conservation (ZGAP), thus drawing attention to an animal group that suffers from major image problems.
Chemnitz Zoo supports the campaign every year as part of its educational and public relations work. And the zoo's sponsorship organisation, Tierparkfreunde Chemnitz e.V., is once again donating a species protection contribution to the "Zoo Animal of the Year" from the proceeds of the sponsorships. Although the zoo does not exhibit any representatives of the real crocodile family, it does keep a species from the order of crocodiles in the form of the smooth-browed caiman.
For the title "Zoo Animal of the Year", animal species are selected whose threat is not in the public eye and which have little or no lobbying. The aim of the campaign is therefore to draw more attention to the unknown endangered animal species or groups and to support the conservation breeding efforts of zoological gardens and conservation projects in the countries of origin.
The species conservation campaign was launched in 2016 and brings together four active partners; the Zoological Society for Species and Population Conservation (ZGAP), the German Zoo Society (DTG), the Association of Zoological Gardens (VdZ) and the Association of Zoo Supporters (GdZ). In this year's campaign, the money raised will primarily be used to support three projects that are concerned with the conservation of Cuban, Siamese and Philippine crocodiles.
Crocodiles have inhabited the earth for more than 200 million years and have hardly changed during this time. Then humans arrived. And to this day, they continue to encroach on the crocodiles' habitat. They kill them because the animals are seen as a threat. The crocodiles' meat and eggs are eaten, the musk glands are used to make perfume and because crocodiles eat fish, they are also seen as competitors for fishermen.
In addition, the loss of habitat, for example through the construction of dams, and increasing water pollution are decimating crocodile populations. However, the crocodiles were brought to the brink of extinction by the growing demand for their skin, as the fashion industry began using it to make handbags, shoes, suitcases, belts and other goods.
Many crocodile species are therefore considered endangered and six species are already categorised as "threatened with extinction" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The ZGAP would like to draw attention to this with the nomination of the crocodile as "Zoo Animal of the Year"