Why do we do research?

They can cough or snort, of course, but otherwise you rarely hear giraffes. Still, they can make sounds. How that sounds? Scientists from Austria are now doing research into that. Also with us. In one of the giraffe stables there is now a microphone. It measures the sounds the giraffes make at night.

This is quite deliberate. In fact, during the day, animals communicate mainly with their eyes. They keep a close eye on each other and mainly watch each other's body language. When it gets dark, of course, this becomes much more difficult and giraffes would become more vocal (is the theory). Many of the sounds giraffes make are too low for the human ear to hear, so you need good microphones to record it.

In a few weeks the researcher will come to collect the recordings and hopefully we will be able to let you hear what sound a giraffe makes.

Not always research focuses on animals. Sometimes animals play an important role in human research. Erasmus MC is currently doing research on fighting cancer with viruses. After all, a virus can make people deathly ill, but it can also help cure them. For this study, they used poop from great apes from four different zoos, including Beekse Bergen.

From the poop of gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and bonobos, the research team isolated 42 cold viruses. In the end, six of the monkey viruses were indeed found to be effective against cancer cells in the lab.These viruses are administered to humans and go in search of tumor cells. The virus then divides into the tumor cells and destroys them. This wakes up the immune cells and allows them to attack the broken tumor cells, thus fighting cancer. It seems that the viruses can reach even the most elusive cancer cells, but the approach has worked in only a few patients so far. More research is therefore being done to find the cause.

The Rüppell's vulture is critically endangered in the wild. Blijdorp Zoo is the coordinator of this species and in cooperation with other parks ensures a healthy reserve population. Now with great results: a pair of Griffon vultures from Beekse Bergen has adopted and raised a young Rüppelsgier. Remarkably, the egg was laid in Avifauna Bird Park and hatched in Blijdorp Zoo.

To arrive at these beautiful results, a natural phenomenon was used. Vultures usually lay one egg per season, but when it is lost, the pair often lays a second egg. Keepers applied this knowledge by removing the egg and letting it hatch in the incubator at Blijdorp Zoo. The pair of Rüppellsgieren then laid a second egg, increasing the number of young of this endangered species.

Once the chick hatched, it was hand-fed for several days so that it was fit and strong. Then the chick was returned to its parents and swapped with the second egg. This second egg hatched and then suitable foster parents were searched for this chick. The pair of Griffon vultures in our park raised the foster chick as their own. With the use of knowledge about these animals and cooperation between different zoos, together we can ensure that as many young of this critically endangered species as possible are born.

Many people think that bonobos are sweeter than chimpanzees. But is that really true? That is what student Marie-Ornelia Verger is currently researching.

French Animal Behaviour student at Paris' Sorbonne University closely monitors the behavior of the 12 chimpanzees by following each monkey for 10 minutes several times a day. In doing so, she pays attention to aggression, social interaction and sexual behavior. Consider the reaction to food: do they share their portion, keep everything for themselves or steal from others?

Others have done the same with bonobos in other parks. At the end of March, Marie-Ornelia will compare her findings from chimpanzees with those of bonobos. As a result, we will soon know for sure whether it is true that chimpanzees have shorter fuses than bonobos, or whether, on the contrary, it has nothing to do with the species at all, but is a matter of personality.