Thomas Ziegler, aquarium curator and coordinator of biodiversity and nature conservation projects for Vietnam and Laos at the Cologne Zoological Garden, has been campaigning for a new understanding of zoos for many years. In particular, he believes that the ‘species conservation zoo’ is a facility that serves as a modern ark where threatened species are given space and keeper expertise.
Ziegler has been involved in the discovery of more than 100 vertebrate species and in nature reserve extensions and creations. He discusses the IUCN’s One Plan approach to species conservation in TV, radio and newspaper interviews. Alongside his students and cooperation partners, he performs population and threat analyses. These have resulted in a number of species making the IUCN’s Red List.
Additionally, he is developing a growing international conservation network. On his ResearchGate project, The Conservation Zoo, he uploads scientific zoo biology and conservation papers. He has published more than 500 papers and books, mainly dealing with diversity research and conservation. Recently he has been invited by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to write a foreword for the WWF Greater Mekong report. He discussed the One Plan approach and highlighted the importance of investing in young people to create future conservation leaders.
Alongside his team, Ziegler keeps more than 100 threatened species in the Cologne Zoological Garden’s aquarium house. Some of these threatened species have been repatriated to support diminishing natural populations, including the critically endangered Philippine crocodile. The conservation and repatriation programme has been praised by Reverse the Red, a global movement that promotes cooperation and action to ensure the survival of wild species and ecosystems.
Ziegler studied biology at the University of Bonn in Germany and did his diploma and doctoral thesis at the Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum in Bonn. He focused on zoological systematics and amphibian and reptile diversity.