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Celebrated alumni look back at their time at UZH. For this issue, we talked to Robert Zingg, curator at Zurich Zoo.
Robert Zingg still has a scribbled drawing he did as a child, a portrait of his future self. It shows a bearded man in jeans with binoculars and field guide, and written underneath in childish letters: Zoologist. “Even as a small child it was crystal clear to me that I could not do anything else.” I meet Robert Zingg for our interview at the brick operations building next to the zoo, and encounter a bearded fellow in jeans who exudes the confidence and equanimity of a man who found his place in the world early in life. And although he is not holding binoculars and a field guide like in the picture, having long ago swapped them for the PC and mobile phone, his childhood fascination with animals – their lifeforms, habitats and ecosystems – remains to this day.
Love of animals is passed on through our genes, researchers have found, but is also supported by positive experiences in early childhood. What was Zingg’s upbringing like, I ask. Was there a pet dog to cuddle? A kitten adopted from the shelter? “No cuddly pets, just countless cuddly toys,” laughs Robert Zingg.
But then he reveals that his childhood home was right next to Basel Zoo with a view of the rhino enclosure. The gray giants were the first thing he saw in the morning and the last thing he saw before going to sleep. Also, the babysitter who regularly looked after him and his four brothers was studying zoology, and would often bring a box of stick insects or an axolotl with her. For the young Robert, his childhood love of animals soon took a scientific bent. From a young age he loved going out into nature; he was fascinated by living creatures, even slugs and snails. Anything that crossed his path ended up in his bedroom: “I had a couple of terrariums with frogs, toads, newts and fire salamanders.” Over the years, he collected a great many amphibians, which he constantly observed and even bred – which his mother was not necessarily pleased about. She nevertheless let the amateur researcher indulge in his projects, and set only one condition: “No snakes!”
School for Robert Zingg was simply something he had to get through in order to be able to study zoology. At age eight he got to know a taxidermist, who he soon began to assist. In this way he gained detailed knowledge of anatomy. “I've still got one or two animal skulls I preserved myself gathering dust in a drawer.”
In 1974, Zingg was finally able to matriculate at UZH to study zoology. He remembers his first lecture like it was yesterday: “The professor spent two hours trying to talk us out of becoming zoologists, as we couldn’t make a living from it. It had no effect on me.” Quite the opposite, in fact: The student Zingg threw himself into the subject, applied himself in the “auxiliary” subjects of chemistry, physics and mathematics, and started a study group with three fellow students, in which they competed to show off their knowledge. Because he was interested in all aspects of biology, he took as many practical courses as possible: Internal medicine, dissection and autopsies, field observations. “I wanted to learn everything and not narrow myself down to one field,” explains Zingg. For his final thesis he chose a morphological topic, studying the characteristics of the horns of ibexes.
After a brief detour as an intern with the Zurich countryside and nature department, Zingg then returned to the University of Zurich as a teaching and research assistant. At the professorial chair of primate researcher Hans Kummer, who introduced social and cultural anthropology and wildlife biology at the then Institute of Zoology, Zingg established various animal groups for scientific experiments and behavioral studies. He hand-reared a colony of 26 jackdaws, for example. Questions such as how to ethically keep banded mongooses in artificial conditions were of particular concern to Zingg at that time. He tried to put himself in the skin of each of the animals, to feel their needs.
Zingg wrote his doctoral thesis on movement behavior and spatial systems of hedgehogs in residential areas. “For this project I turned nocturnal,” he smiles. Over a period of four years, night after night, he tracked the movements of hedgehogs. He still remembers hedgehog number 35: “A coffee-colored male, who on some nights covered a distance of six kilometers.”
In 1994, Zingg took up his position at Zurich Zoo, where he still works today, but is soon to retire. As curator, he decides which animals to acquire for the zoo in accordance with the European Endangered Species Programme and draws up guidelines on how they should be kept. He is also responsible for scientific projects, supports the elaboration and implementation of conservation strategies, and is committed to visitor-friendly and engaging animal presentations. “Awakening enthusiasm for the animal kingdom in children and young people and increasing awareness about species protection are two of our most important tasks,” says Zingg. In recent years he has therefore focused mainly on public engagement. “My job is to let the animals speak.”
In the last 20 years, European zoos have undergone fundamental reform: Cages are out, animal-friendly simulations of the natural environment are in. Zingg was closely involved as an advisor in the renovation and reorganization of Zurich Zoo, for example with the Kaeng-Krachan elephant park, which opened in 2014. His last big project before retirement was the African Lewa Savanna for rhinos, giraffes, impalas, antelope, ostriches and zebras.
Robert Zingg says he doesn’t have a favorite animal, but he has a weakness for all things prickly. At home he currently has two scorpions, 13 bee colonies and several hundred cactuses. “My wife fears, however, that the number of animals at home will increase when I can’t go to the zoo every day.” If Zingg’s mischievous smile is anything to go by, she could be right.
