Amur tiger, anteaters and pottos: how the scientific department of the Moscow Zoo helps to preserve rare animals

Ensuring a balanced diet for pottos (small African primates), preparing recommendations to improve the living conditions of rare and endangered species, and trying to collect data on the world’s most secretive and little-studied animals — these are among the challenges facing the Moscow Zoo. On February 12, the Zoo celebrates its 161 st birthday. The zoo is not only a place of entertainment, where visitors can see exotic animals and, without leaving the capital, go on a journey through the jungle, savannah and desert. It also has scientists who study the behavior and characteristics of animals, try to create conditions close to their natural environment, and make every effort to preserve and breed rare species on the planet.

Here we describe some of the things the zoo’s scientific department is currently working on, why its specialists are focusing on giant anteaters, and whether it is possible to see a Pallas’ cat in the steppe.

From the South American section to zoology books

The Moscow Zoological Garden was founded in 1864 by Professor of Natural Sciences Karl Rouillier and his students Anatoly Bogdanov and Sergei Usov. From the very beginning the scientists planned to bring together in the zoo a collection of rare animals, birds and fish, both from different parts of the Russian Empire, and also from distant hot countries. Inquisitive visitors were allowed in, but the zoo was always a serious research center, and not a fairground attraction.

“Through the efforts of zoos, species that are on the brink of extinction have been saved. These include the sable, Przewalski’s horse, Père David’s deer, bison and California condor,” says Sergei Khlyupin, head of the Moscow Zoo’s scientific department.

Today, the scientific department team has a staff of five. It is also in charge of the South American habitat sector, where giant anteaters, capybaras, llamas, vicuñas and guanacos are kept.

“For example, we last had giant anteaters in the Moscow Zoo in the late 1970s. When these animals were brought here again, we began to collect information about how to look after them, observe their behavior, and share data with colleagues from other zoos around the world,” says Sergei Khlyupin.

In addition, the science department includes a library. “It has 16,000 books on zoology, some published as far back as the nineteenth century. The collection is constantly being added to. Access to the scientific literature is now open to all those who are interested. You can come with your passport, sign up, get a user card and discover the publications in the reading room,” he adds.

Natural habitat

According to Sergei Khlyupin, one of the main tasks of his employees is to help preserve the planet’s endangered animal species.

“Zoos create conditions as close to natural as possible so that animals retain their full range of behavior. Thus, we will have the opportunity, if necessary, to release endangered species into the wild (this is one of the main goals of zoos), and they will be able to survive,” says Sergei Khlyupin.

During the day, zoologists watch the animals on monitors: broadcasting from video cameras is carried out around the clock. They process the data obtained, and enter it into computer programs and compile tables.

In 2024, Moscow Zoo staff began working on a project to assess the well-being of capybaras.

“We fill in a special questionnaire every day: how the animals behave, what they react to, whether they eat often and so on. The system was specially adapted for the assessment of the capybaras’ living conditions, methodological guidelines were developed, and a baseline welfare assessment was conducted. At the end of the year, together with colleagues from Sakhalin and Leningrad Zoos, Limpopo Zoo (Nizhny Novgorod) and the Moskvarium, we assessed the well-being of the capybaras. Then we plan to adapt this method to other animals,” says Sergei Khlyupin.

The results are published in the annual collection of scientific research of the Moscow Zoo. It was first published in the 1990s under the leadership of Vladimir Spitsyn, then director. The publication also includes articles issued by zoological organizations around the world, translated into Russian.

The right diet for pottos

Now the employees of the scientific department are preparing for the publication the next collection of the Moscow Zoo’s scientific research in two volumes. Among the articles will be papers on African pottos.

“There are six pottos living in the zoo: three males and the same number of females. These are small-sized primates native to Africa. They can’t jump and move rather slowly. Visitors are often surprised that these animals are classified as primates. Pottos are an endangered species, and are virtually unheard of in other zoos. The difficulty is that these prosimians are endemic to west-central Africa, are found in forests, become active at night, move silently, can sit still for hours hiding from predators, and almost never come down from the trees. That is why it is not easy to observe them in the wild,” explains Anna Kizik, a senior researcher at the Moscow Zoo.

In the past, when pottos were brought into zoos, the animals were fed dairy products and fruit, as it was believed that these were appropriate foods for mammals from the tropics. Nevertheless, such a diet led to a metabolic disorder in these prosimians, and their lifespan was shortened. Employees of the scientific department of the Moscow Zoo tested more than 50 types of products and found that these African animals do not like sweet fruits, and only consume watery fruit from trees in the rainy season, while in the dry season they eat tree resin and hunt insects.

“Although in the zoo they live in the same conditions all year round — the air temperature is always 23 degrees — their biological clock works properly and pottos clearly perceive the changing seasons, so they need to be fed in accordance with their internal ‘sensors,’” Sergei Khlyupin adds.

We also learned that pottos are social animals and like to spend time with other members of their species. That said, they may have different personalities and habits. For example, some of them prefer to sleep longer while others do not.

There are three families of pottos at the Moscow Zoo, with one of the females being the daughter of an older couple. “The birth of an infant is a real achievement for us, as pottos do not usually breed in captivity. When we introduced a female to a single male, their relationship was very touching. At first they looked at each other for a long time, and then the future husband gave the bride his favorite hammock,” laughs Anna Kizik.

From the zoo to expeditions

Another area of activity which the staff of the scientific department are engaged in is participation in expeditions. For example, in the spring of 2024, a delegation from the Moscow Zoo traveled to the Black Lands nature reserve in Kalmykia.

“We usually go on an expedition when we need to help animals in distress or gather more information about their lives in the wild. In Kalmykia, we had to assess the health of saigas and check them for infectious diseases, including the dangerous pasteurellosis. Spring is the animals’ breeding season, during which veterinarians can spot weak individuals dropping out of the pack and collect the necessary material. We also visited Altai, where we discussed with colleagues the conservation of snow leopards and Pallas’ cats, Russia’s rarest cat species. We set up camera traps to monitor them. We managed to see one Pallas’ cat live, despite the fact that they are almost always hiding from people,” says Sergei Khlyupin.

And last October, Moscow Zoo specialists visited the Land of the Leopard national park, the Sikhote-Alin reserve, the Utes rehabilitation center, the Tiger Center interregional public organization, and the Priamursky Zoo in the Far East. “They discussed wolverines, Far Eastern leopards, Amur tigers, Himalayan bears and yellow-throated martens, as well as the goals and objectives of further cooperation,” Sergei Khlyupin tells us.

The Scientific Department of the Moscow Zoo cooperates with various research institutes, nature reserves, national parks and other conservation organizations throughout the country and abroad. After all, we have only one planet, and maintaining its ecosystem is a shared endeavor.