Frequently Asked Questions
Isn't NIRAH just another marine / salt water aquarium?
Is Nirah displaying animals simply for profit?
Isn't species conservation far better if it's done in the wild?
Will Nirah damage species populations by removing animals from the wild?
Can Nirah give adequate care to its animals?
Does Nirah intend to experiment on animals?
Will Nirah kill animals by extracting their secretions, venoms or toxins?
What does Nirah mean by ‘non-invasive research'?
Do captive fish, amphibian and reptile species exhibit stress and stereotypic behaviour?
Will Nirah advise on the farming of fish and reptiles for their meat?
What will be the relationship between Nirah and pharmaceutical and biotech companies?
What kind of pharmaceutical applications might Nirah’s research lead to?
Answers:
Isn't NIRAH just another marine / salt water aquarium?
No – Nirah will be over 95% freshwater. It will be unique in being the world's largest freshwater aquarium and herpetarium.
What’s more, one of its main considerations is the protection of freshwater habitats species and the galaxy of species they contain, many of which haven't even yet been identified.
In addition, Nirah will have active research programmes in water quality management that are likely to be of global significance, given that freshwater is what we drink.
Is Nirah displaying animals simply for profit?
We are not establishing Nirah purely for the entertainment of the fee-paying public. Nirah aims to help prevent species and habitats from slipping into extinction by playing a vital role in public education and supporting conservation initiatives.
Apart from those animals needing special facilities, Nirah will display all of its animals as openly as possible. Tours showing visitors ‘behind the scenes' and quarantine areas will allow them to see newly arrived animals and specialist breeding habitats.
To be truly effective for public and scientific education, researchers must be able to study actual living organisms. Sadly some species have no habitat left in the wild; they need the provision of a safe, secure and stimulating home just to survive.
As a caring & responsible species, we cannot leave critically endangered species (some below their breeding population threshold requirements) to their own devices and hope that they survive. So we aim to support a range of captive breeding programmes, all of which require extensive and realistic surroundings for the species concerned.
Isn't species conservation far better if it's done in the wild?
Yes it should be. In a perfect world, there would be sufficient conservation funds to save every wetland, mangrove forest, river or lake. However, we all live in the real world where single species of fishes, amphibians or reptiles are very low on the conservation wishlist. Indeed, it's extremely difficult for any conservation programme to protect a whole area of rainforest or wet place for a single biotope or species – unless it's a mammal, perhaps.
Biologists overwhelmingly view this loss of freshwater biodiversity as the most serious environmental problem that this world has ever seen, but the public is mostly unfamiliar with the concept of biodiversity in general, tending to consider pollution to be the biggest threat. It’s obvious, however, that biologists and the public see the world very differently in regard to environmental threats, which is why Nirah intends to become the public stage for freshwater biodiversity by uniquely exhibiting freshwater species in intelligently portrayed environments.
We now live in a very visual world where rainforests, coral reefs and rare exotic animals enter our homes whenever we watch any one of a hundred, superb TV natural history programmes. That said, very rarely do you see documentaries made about the rarer freshwater ‘fin & scale' species, not because film-makers haven't tried (now and then); it's because most tropical rivers and wet places are silt-laden to such an extent that filming is well nigh impossible – hence the emphasis upon footage from ‘crystal' streams, in reality a very small percentage of the world’s freshwater.
These conditions unfortunately affect the public’s views on and knowledge of the endangered state of freshwater species of fishes, amphibians and reptiles. Using professional conservation and highly specialised captive breeding techniques in combination with the highest standards of display, Nirah aims to reverse this trend on both counts – in terms of public education as well as actual conservation.
Will Nirah damage species populations by removing animals from the wild?
In reality, only a limited proportion of the animals in Nirah's care will come from ‘the wild'.
Wherever possible, most of Nirah's animals will be sourced from other aquariums and zoos; private collections; captive breeding programmes; licensed (and internationally recognised) farms; rescued or unwanted animals; and confiscated individuals.
If Nirah needs to source any animal from ‘the wild' it will only do so if; i) the wild population will not be under threat if a few individuals are removed; ii) the wild population will benefit by this removal; and iii) the species future survival depends on this removal.
Wherever possible, Nirah will initiate its own and/or work with local captive breeding programmes for any endangered species of fish, amphibian and reptile. Nirah will make sure that any removal of particular animals specifically enhances the survival of that species or the breeding population as a whole.
Developing in-situ programmes is an important part of European zoo licensing procedures and Nirah wholeheartedly supports this.
Can Nirah give adequate care to its animals?
Nirah will not consider keeping any species that needs any particular type of care (specialist or otherwise), if we do not have the space, habitat, curatorial & veterinary expertise to do so.
Nirah's curatorial care will be second to none. One of our most important curatorial departments is veterinary, which is now headed by one of the UK's leading vets for exotic species of fish, amphibian and reptiles. In addition, international support will be available through a network of experts.
Furthermore, Nirah will be unique in maintaining its own department of nutrition. One of this country's leading animal nutritionists will head up a small team whose only remit will be the feeding of our animals throughout all of the 24-hour cycle. This team will give individual attention to all of its animals – we will not play a game that calculates and accepts large losses.
Nirah will also maintain a large and purpose-built quarantine unit to safeguard all concerns about animal movement and the transfer of diseases.
Does Nirah intend to experiment on animals?
The word ‘experiment' carries powerful negative associations, so we’d like to be absolutely clear about out standards and policies here.
Nirah will conduct no procedure or ‘experimentation’ on any species that is not in the conservation interest of that species. So, for instance, if a species is threatened in the wild by pollution, Nirah may attempt to discover what substance is causing that threat. So limited number trials would be carried out for the benefit of that species, on the proviso that any such trials will be subject to intense ethical scrutiny beforehand.
Nirah will not conduct or condone vivisection on any living vertebrate for any reason whatsoever.
No surgical procedure will be sanctioned unless it is a veterinary treatment for the benefit of the individual or the safety of its species.
Autopsies however, will be a normal procedure as information is essential to clarify the causes of death when particular animal die.
Will Nirah kill animals by extracting their secretions, venoms or toxins?
Nirah will obtain all its venoms, toxins and secretions by ‘milking' the selected individual using non-harmful, non-invasive approved procedures similar to those already widely used on venomous snakes.
Because the ‘milking' is a specialist procedure, it is rightly covered by Home Office licenses which regulate even these minor interferences with animals. This ensures proper control.
The ‘milking' of skin and other body secretions involves nothing more serious than a light touch with a cotton swab; the collection of saliva, faeces or urine; the collection of sloughed skin; or the analysis of the animals water column or other environment. This involves minimal stress for the animal undergoing the ‘milking' process.
What does Nirah mean by ‘non-invasive research'?
‘Non-invasive' means without causing irreparable damage to the integrity of living tissues through any application of an unnatural procedure.
Nirah will therefore only consider procedures which do not cause any animal any pain or/and any long-term damage; it will only engage in the ‘milking' of venoms once it has been established that this does not harm the species involved.
Nirah will respect its stewardship of the animals in its care at all times, so no procedure causing undue stress of pain will be acceptable. All procedures will be subject to intense ethical scrutiny.
Do captive fish, amphibian and reptile species exhibit stress and stereotypic behaviour?
When held in captivity, fish, amphibian and reptile species do not exhibit the same sort of behaviour as mammals commonly do.
Most aquatic vertebrate and (especially) invertebrate species have very limited territories in the wild, some no more than a square foot or less. Even most of the highly coloured species from coral reefs have very limited territories. Some species are born, feed, reproduce and die in an area no larger than a kitchen sink. As a result, being held in captivity does not necessarily represent a huge disruption to their habitual behaviour.
In order to gain further understanding into this question, Nirah aims to conduct behavioural studies, where and when these are appropriate, with animals kept in environments replicating their natural biotopes as accurately and faithfully as possible.
Will Nirah advise on the farming of fish and reptiles for their meat?
Potentially. Fish farms in the UK and across the world produce mega-tons of needed protein for humanity every single day, and it’s possible that Nirah could assist in ensuring this is done more professionally, with proper consideration for individual ecosystems as well as the human community's needs.
Our belief is that as long as the species concerned are not endangered and can be sustainably managed, then they should be accepted as a needed food source – especially when their farming helps prevent the mass slaughter of so many rare and endangered species in the wild. So Nirah could well work with such species (and their human communities) to assess their suitability for such farming.
What will be the relationship between Nirah and pharmaceutical and biotech companies?
Nirah's main remit is to safeguard species from extinction by exploring the connection between freshwater and life.
The involvement of pharmaceutical and biotech companies is only one pragmatic way of our doing this. These companies are largely aware of the biodiversity crisis as it is already impacting upon their business of drug discovery. Working in partnership with them, Nirah aims to identify those toxins, venoms and secretions with the highest suitability for medical applications and human use. In so doing, we hope to make the relevant species and habitats more valuable to humanity and therefore give the less altruistic members of our own species a strong reason for conservation.
An excellent example is provided here by the Irula tribal people of Tamil Nadu in India. Their traditional skills in finding and catching snakes are now formally employed as the only legally accepted source of snake venoms for therapeutic anti-venom production in South India (namely ‘The Irula Snake Cooperative'). As a result, this group now protects snakes in an environment highly threatened by the burgeoning human population, because selling snake venom is their main means of livelihood.
Without a pressing reason like this to collect, identify, document and preserve freshwater species and habitats, more and more species of potential scientific interest and of great aesthetic beauty will continue to become extinct, and the secrets of their toxins, venoms and secretions lost forever.
Of course, the use of drugs derived from animals is not new; millions of pigs have been sacrificed over the years all around the world to supply millions of diabetics with insulin. By contrast, Nirah is not proposing to sacrifice such so much as a single animal – be it fish, frog or snake – we just want to make them as important (and common) to humanity as pigs now are.
What kind of pharmaceutical applications might Nirah’s research lead to?
As a guide, here are some of the areas in which drugs derived (without harm) from animals are being investigated at this moment:
Pain relief
The cone shell is celebrated for its beauty and feared
for its poison, which on occasion has been known to kill swimmers.
The deadly venom, however, is exceptionally rich in compounds called
conopeptides that could be used or synthesised to make an array of
pharmaceuticals. Cognetix, Inc. is researching applications for acute
and chronic pain, epilepsy, local anaesthesia, heart disease, stroke,
neuromuscular back pain, multiple sclerosis, and spinal cord injury.
Scientists are urging protection of the cone shell, which is on the
brink of extinction.
Painkillers
ABT 594 comes from the secretion of a South American
frog. It appears to be more effective than morphine without being addictive.
Cancer
TM 601 is derived from the Israeli yellow scorpion and attacks
malignant brain tumours called glioma tumours responsible for two-thirds
of the cases of brain cancer, without harming healthy cells.
Cancer
ET 743, which comes from sea squirts, is being tested for
treatment of ovarian cancer and soft tissue sarcoma.
Stroke
Ancrod, which will be marketed in the U.S.A. as Viprinex pending
U.S. – FDA approval, is an anticoagulant with potential to prevent
cell damage and death when someone suffers a stroke. The active ingredient
comes from the venom of the Malaysian pit viper. In Germany, where
Ancrod has been marketed for a number of years, a specially built facility
houses about 3,000 snakes (all captive bred, none removed from the
wild). Several other sources of anticoagulants are also being looked
at.
Antibiotics
A substance called magainin 2, which comes from the skin
secretion of certain frogs, looks promising in the search for antibiotics
that bacteria can't develop resistance to.
Diabetes
Today, another reptile (one of the few venomous lizards)
brings hope to people with type 2 diabetes whose blood sugar levels
remain high in spite of treatment. An investigational drug called exenatide
comes from this species saliva, specifically an enzyme in the venom
of the Gila monster, again without harming the animal. It also appears
to promote weight loss.
High blood pressure
The ACE inhibitor Captopril which is used to
lower blood pressure comes from the Brazilian arrowhead viper.
Leukaemia:
ARA-C, modelled after compounds from the Caribbean sponge,
treats leukaemia and lymphoma.
Heart problems:
Integrelin, which comes from a protein in the venom
of the southeastern pygmy rattlesnake, is used to treat acute coronary
syndrome.
Osteoporosis
Calcimar and Miacalcin are calcitonin hormones derived
from Coho salmon and used to treat osteoporosis.
Brain cell death
In the pipeline is a new class of drugs from precursors
found in spider and scorpion venom called ‘delucemines' (NPS1506)
which act to protect brain cells and minimise brain cell death in stroke
victims until blood flow can be restored. The drugs might also have
potential in the treatment of depression.
Anticoagulants
The use of snake venom in medicine was pioneered by
Dr Alistair Reid in the 1960s and 1970s. While he was investigating
the effects of snake bite in groups of people bitten by the Malayan
pit viper, he found that it was extremely difficult to stop bleeding
in affected patients. Dr Reid demonstrated that this was due to the
effect of venom on clotting agents – fibrins – in the blood.
Scientists were able to isolate the anticoagulant components in the
venom, and the resulting drug, Arvin, has been used clinically since
1968. Now marketed as ARVIN by Knoll Pharmaceuticals.