PLACES: Alameda Wildlife Conservation Park

The AWCP renovated its premises in 2013 resulting in an incredible transformation of its exhibits, embellishing its walkways and transforming the park into a veritable oasis away from Gibraltar’s urban stresses. Once inside, you will struggle to hear anything other than the trickle of artificial streams, the singing of parrots, and the clamouring of Macaques.

Jess Leaper, Manager of the AWCP, sat with the PANORAMA to discuss the doings of the Park, its future projects, conservation and environmental concerns. “We were initially set up because of the animals confiscated by customs”, she said. Borders being natural geographic points for smuggling, the Park at the time became a necessity to home these animals as a provisional matter. “But from there, there were unwanted pets people kept locally; some of the animals were donated from Jerez zoo - the Egyptian fruit bats and pot bellied pigs, I believe – but we’ve also had unwanted pet pot bellied pigs from the public since that time”.

COMMITMENTS

One of the AWCP’s commitments is the education of the public at large, intending to steer them away from exotic pets unless “they know what they’re doing and they definitely know they can appropriately care for the animal for its whole lifespan. If they can’t then we suggest they avoid keeping exotic species at home. Parrots are a prime example. They are incredibly intelligent, so they can become quite destructive and attention seeking if left alone or kept in a home situation”.

AWCP also work with conservation projects – now currently in Brazil with the Mountain Marmoset Conservation Project. “We’ve also been working on a breeding project with the Cotton-top tamarins as well. In fact, we’ve just managed to get the breeding area – the outdoor area – constructed today! It was a project that was held back by COVID19 but we’ve managed to get the netting up today, at least. That’s a step forward!”

The breeding programmes are obviously carried out with species that the Park can comfortably house. Gibraltar’s climate is incredibly suitable for tamarins, something, that other zoos have noted and are now “quite interested in working with us in the future”. Apparently, Gibraltar’s climate is similar to that of Brazil’s most of the year, though less humid; this environmental commonality becoming an opportunity that the Park could use in the long term for future breeding programmes.

The Park is also involved in awareness campaigns such as ‘Cut Meat, Not Trees’. “We’ve now moved onto “Habits for Habitats” to get people aware of their habits and how they can affect habitats – not just here in Gibraltar but also how it affects species, say, over in Brazil. There’s a huge amount of cattle-ranching and soy production for animal feed, so eating meat products in Europe can actually affect habitats of animals on the other side of the world”.

The international division of labour, supply chains, deforestation, mass consumption... in a word, capitalism becomes an inherently tied to the destruction of nature. Also, as Jess rightly points out, “voting for the wrong president”. Jair Bolsonaro “and his cronies” have had conservation teams in Brazil “pulling their hair out!”

“I was over in Brazil last February and they’re working with two species that are literally on the brink of extinction. We didn’t even see one of the species because it’s so elusive and there are so few left. They’ve been hit by Yellow Fever, they’ve been hit by deforestation for cattle ranching... when you actually see these places in the Southern Part of Brazil there’s this gorgeous pristine rainforest but it’s in clumps the size of the park. And you’ve got this group of highly endangered Marmoset just stuck. Where do they go? The rest is just farming and cattle ranching all around”.

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22-06-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR