Discover Top Posts Tagged with #zsl

Happy #WorldOkapiDay!

Here is the first published image of an Okapi from a 1901 watercolor by ZSL fellow Sir Harry Johnston. Quite good #SciArt considering he hadn't yet seen a live one and only had a skin, skull, and verbal descriptions to work with! It was given the scientific name Okapia johnstoni in his honor. ("Okapi" was derived from its Indigenous name "o'api" from the local Lese tribe.)

See the plate in context with the original text here: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31888385#page/52/

🚨The Okapi is currently listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

#animals in art #animal holiday #european art #20th century art #Okapi #World Okapi Day #natural history art #scientific illustration #sciart #zoology #African animals #BHL #IUCN Red List #endangered species #British art #ZSL

The medicinal leech was once widespread in Britain but its numbers have declined dramatically.

HELL YES GET THEM LEECHES

#london zoo #leeches #zsl #conservation #conservation news #zoos

Two penguins “inspect” an architectural maquette of the new Penguin Pond, London Zoo.

Photograph by John Havinden, 1934 (RIBA)

#penguins #birds #avians #london #zoological society of london #1930s #1934 #ZSL #animal photography #RIBA #royal institute of british architecture #do you think they liked it?

Scimitar horned oryx downlisted to endangered by IUCN – marks first species in global Extinct in the Wild initiative to be downlisted

The scimitar horned oryx, (Oryx dammah), also called the Sahara oryx, was once widespread across North Africa, but in the 1980’s the population began to plummet - largely due to the antelopes being hunted for their horns and meat. In 2000, the species was declared Extinct in the Wild by the IUCN Red List.

Today its fate has been reversed – the first species from our Extinct in the Wild global initiative to be downlisted.

#oryx #scimitar horned oryx #conservation #wildlife #good news #animals #zsl