About Us
Species360 is a non-profit NGO with a global network that includes over 1,300 progressive zoos, aquariums, universities, research, and governmental members on six continents across more than 100 countries. Our mission is to facilitate international collaboration in the collection and sharing of knowledge on animals and their environments for aquariums, zoos, and related conservation organizations. In 2016 Species360 launched its science team, the Species360 Conservation Science Alliance (CSA). Led by Species360 Director of Science Prof. Dalia Conde and the Species360 science team, the Alliance is intended to be a broad, open collaboration of experts focused on using data to serve animal care and conservation science.
What We Do
Supporting Species Conservation
The Species360 Conservation Science Alliance conducts critical population and environmental impact research in collaboration with leading species conservation initiatives worldwide. Using data aggregation and analytics, researchers provide evidence-based strategies to help sustain endangered species.
One of the Conservation Science Alliance initiatives, The Species Knowledge Initiative (SKI) integrates multiple data sources to quantify current knowledge for every species. The SKI aims to map gaps and opportunities for research that can support evidence-based decision-making by policymakers, management authorities, zoo and aquarium leadership, and conservation practitioners. Using a landscape ecology perspective, the SKI methodology maps data from different knowledge areas to individual species using data-processing algorithms and open-data repositories. So far, the SKI methodology has been applied to developing guidance documents for CITES on songbirds, sharks & rays, and ornamental fish, including many ASAP species.
Improving Animal Care and Welfare
Species360 members use the Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS) to establish best practices in caring for the individual and groups of species in their care. ZIMS for Aquatics, ZIMS for Husbandry, ZIMS for Medical, ZIMS for Studbooks, and ZIMS for Education are used to conduct day-to-day and ongoing programs throughout the global wildlife conservation community.
Where We Work
We work globally, using global databases across all vertebrate species, including data from the Species360 Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS), which is the world’s most comprehensive database of knowledge on more than 22,000 species.
Photo Credits
Featured image: Klaus Rudloff