Linking – Concepts

It is possible for an individual’s records in ZIMS for Studbooks (entered by the studbook keeper)

to be linked with an individual’s records in ZIMS for Husbandry (entered by the institutions).

During migration, many individuals are automatically linked based on data such as Local ID and location. How do you know whether an individual in your studbook is linked ? If an individual is linked, it will have a GAN (Global Accession Number) in its records. For an easy overview, sort the All Animals table on GAN. If the GAN is blank, an individual is not (yet) linked to its ZIMS for Husbandry records.

The Suggested Animals list works differently than the other lists in your studbook. Rather than looking from the perspective of the studbook, this list looks from the perspective of ZIMS for Husbandry. It shows all individuals in ZIMS for Husbandry that have not been linked to an individual in your studbook. Clicking on an individual in this screen allows you to link it to animal in your studbook or import it as new individual. To find out how to do this, see Species360’s studbook updates document and data entry presentation for the basics.

Linking - Where to start after migration

Linking living individuals is the first priority for your studbook because for these you should still receive new updates from ZIMS for Husbandry.

• First sort the Suggested Animals list on living individuals with Possible Matches. These possible matches are individuals in your studbook for which the software suspects that they may be the same individual. This should be carefully checked though for each individual before linking.
• After completing the suggested links, attempt to link the living individuals without Possible Matches, starting with the oldest individuals.
• When you cannot confidently find a link for an individual in the Suggested Animal list, leave them in the list for now. In particular for the recently born individuals and those that died at an early age, there may not be any records to link to yet. Make a note of all animals in the list that you cannot confidently link, but do not yet import these as new animals. Note also the guidelines below in case the individual in your studbook is already linked or is not held at an institution within the regional association.

Now it is time to import new individuals .

• Only do this for the living individuals for which you are certain that they are not yet included in your studbook. Sort the Suggested Animals list on living individuals and start with the individuals with the most recent birth date on top, working your way down.
• After the migration process, new animals will be added in ZIMS for Husbandry and animals will continue to populate in the Suggested List; many of these can be imported into the studbook as new. In particular when this concerns older individuals, continue to make sure that these are not in the studbook already.
• Do not hesitate to contact the relevant institution for clarification or additional information on individuals. Communication between the studbook keeper and institutions remains essential for a well-managed population.
• If the Suggested Animals list only contains dead individuals, you can move to Updates for living individuals. In the long-term, you can then work through the list of dead animals in this list, which can still improve the accuracy of the pedigree and demographic data.

Linking – Duplicates and global settings

There may be duplicate individuals in the Suggested Animals list, entered by different institutions. If you find two animals in the Suggested List that you believe are actually the same individual, link the individual in your studbook to the Suggested animal at the institution where it currently is. In this way, you will still receive updates on this individual. At times, it may happen that the studbook individual has already been linked to the GAN at a location where it was historically. If this is the case, it is necessary to first go into the studbook individual’s records and unlink him, before it can be linked to the appropriate GAN. The other GAN can be rejected for now. Keep an overview of the animals for which more than one GAN exists. At a later stage, this list can be sent to Species360 to work towards merging these records. The latter is especially useful for living individuals.

Some individuals in your studbook will not be (currently) kept at an institution that is a member of your regional association (e.g. outside EAZA ), but are kept at a Species360 member. To link these, filter the Suggested Animals list on Global (open the filtering options by clicking the arrow in the upper-right corner). This list may also include individuals that are not (yet) included in your studbook. It differs per studbook whether it is worthwhile to import these. For example, keeping track of each okapi kept in a zoo somewhere in the world takes relatively little effort to keep track of and may be useful for e.g. demographic analyses. Doing the same for meerkats would take considerable more effort and would probably only be useful for assigning parentage of individuals within the managed population.