EEP & IUCN

EEP - European cooperation

Eindhoven Zoo cooperates with about 300 zoos in Europe. Together they form the EAZA, the European Zoo Association. Among other things, they ensure that we no longer have to take animals from the wild to show them in zoos. The EAZA is also committed to endangered animals. They do this through a management plan; an EEP.

IUCN - Endangered or not?

EEP stands for EAZA Ex situ Programmes. Such a management plan has been made for a lot of animal species. This plan contains rules about the animals' accommodations, food and care. Moving animals is not done lightly either. A coordinator has been appointed for each animal species with an EEP. This person keeps a herd book, which lists which animals live in which zoo, how old they are, who the parents and grandparents are and much more information. The coordinator decides which animals move to which zoo. In this way, the right animals are put together. This way the chances of healthy offspring are the highest. This ensures a good management program and hopefully keeping the species alive. On the signs in Eindhoven Zoo and on this website you can recognize animals with an EEP by the logo of a rhino and her calf.

Many animal species are endangered in the wild. But how do you know which animals are? There is a worldwide organization that researches this: the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The IUCN has studied how many species of animals and plants are still alive in the wild. They also look at whether numbers are declining, staying the same or increasing. Of all these species they have made the Red List. On this website and on the boards in Eindhoven Zoo you can find the IUCN yardstick that tells you how endangered an animal is. The further to the right the ruler is, the more an animal is threatened with extinction: