Saving Species, One Individual at a Time. Zoo Veterinarians Between Welfare and Conservation

Who Killed Marius? On February 9, 2014, two-year old giraffe “Marius” was killed at the Copenhagen Zoo. Marius was not sick or old. He was killed because he was what zoo professionals refer to as a surplus animal. A member of the reticulated giraffe species (Giraffa amelopardalis reticulate), Marius was managed by the European Endangered species Programme, or EEP. According to Bengt Holst, scientific director at Copenhagen Zoo: “our giraffes are all part of the European breeding programme for giraffes, and as a pure reticulated giraffe, this giraffe was one of a European population of a little more than one hundred giraffes distributed over 35 European zoos.” “Because he comes from a genetic line that has bred very well over the past years,” Holst concluded, “there was no space for him anywhere in the population, and he was Humanimalia: a journal of human/animal interface studies declared ‘surplus’” (Holst 1). In simpler terms, the Copenhagen Zoo killed Marius to prevent in-breeding within the captive breeding program (McLaughlin and Wilkinson).