Dudley Zoo included on top ten survival list (From Dudley News)

Dudley Zoo included on top ten survival list

10:30am Thursday 16th August 2012 in News

Dudley Zoo has been highlighted in a top ten list of species most reliant on zoos for survival.

Compiled by The British and Irish Association for Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) the list features animals on the brink of extinction and includes the white-clawed crayfish at number two, which the Castle Hill attraction is helping to safeguard.

Zoo chief executive, Peter Suddock said: "Sadly 95 per cent of the population of Britain’s only native freshwater crayfish has now been lost and Dudley Zoo is among a team of four zoos leading the rescue of this rapidly-disappearing species.

"The top ten list highlights just how vital good zoos are in securing a future for these often little known but hugely important creatures."

Other animals on the list include a mountain chicken – one of the world’s largest species of frog, a blue-crowned laughingthrush, an Amur leopard, a Polynesian tree snail, a Blue-eyed black lemur and a Ploughshare tortoise.

BIAZA Field Programmes Committee member Dr Andrew Marshall, who drew up the shortlist, said: “This list highlights ten prevailing examples of how zoos are working to save these and many other species from extinction. Without the valuable conservation and breeding work of many of our member zoos and aquariums, many ‘at risk’ species such as these may be lost to extinction forever.