Conservation

Human influence, the destruction of the natural environment and food, climate change and many other factors lead to the fact that there are fewer and fewer species of animals and plants on Earth. About 800 species of animals and plants have died out over the past 500 years, and the number of endangered species is increasing every year.

People realized that the extinction of animals can damage the entire ecosystem, and has also begun to take any measures to preserve endangered species of animals in XX century, that is when a Conservation discipline was established. Nowadays it works not only with animal protecting, but also with plants and whole ecosystems.

One of the methods of conservation of animals that are on the verge of extinction is special zoos. These zoos contain unrelated animals of an endangered species, they are constantly under the supervision of specialists, who restore the habitat and feed for each species. The purpose of such zoos is the artificial increase in the number of animals of an endangered species. When specialists are convinced that animals can live in their natural habitat (or similar): they constantly give healthy offspring and there are more and more animals in the flock, the whole flock is released into the reserve, where they are also looked after by specialists.

Genetic engineering approaches the day when extinct animals can be recovered from the surviving cells and DNA molecules. In the scientific community, disputes are on the feasibility and ethics of this possibility are very common. It is not known whether species that have died out a few centuries or even millennia ago will be able to adapt to changed conditions, as it is not known how this will affect the existing ecosystems.

Study programs in Conservation

Several study programs in Conservation can be found on our website, for example, MA Nature Conservation  in Czech University of Agriculture Prague, Czech Republic, MA Forest and Nature Conservation in Wageningen University, Netherlands,  MA Biodiversity Conservation and Evolution  in Universidad de Valencia, Spain. Some more study programs in Conservation or other related disciplines can be found with the Search button.