How universities and zoos can collaborate to improve conservation: Editorial

When zoos and universities work together, they can increase their contribution to conservation science, write Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde (Laurentian University), David Lesbarrères (Laurentian), Gabriela Mastromonaco (University of Guelph), and Trevor Pitcher (University of Windsor) for The Conversation. The authors share the success of ReNewZoo, a collaborative training program that launched in 2016 and paired graduate students with zoos across Canada. Thanks to these partnerships, many student-research discoveries were integrated into conversation practices at the zoos. The writers outline a three-pronged approach to bringing together zoos and universities: A foundation of trust must be established, graduate students should be funded to work with zoos, and formal agreements should be created to promote the sustainability of these collaborations.