Captive Breeding and Reintroduction - Captive Breeding, Preparing For Successful Release, Reintroduction
species endangered
In 1973, the Endangered Species Act was passed in the United States to protect species that are rapidly declining due to human influences. Captive breeding and release is one of the tools available to halt or reverse the decline of some species in the wild. Such programs may be carried out by zoos, aquaria, botanical gardens, or conservation organizations. In some cases the efforts have met with a substantial degree of success, while in others the results have been limited. It takes a relatively deep understanding of the biology and ecology of an endangered species to implement a successful program of captive breeding and release.
Additional Topics
The primary goal of captive breeding, also known as ex situ conservation, is to develop a self-sustaining or increasing population of an endangered species in captivity, without the need to capture additional individuals from the wild. Any surplus captive-bred individuals are available to support a program of release into the wild. Another goal of captive breeding programs is to maintain an approp…
Captive breeding programs must address the issue of adequately preparing animals behaviorally for life in a wild environment. This is an especially formidable task with animals that have a complex social system, and whose behaviors for mating, communication, foraging, predator avoidance, offspring rearing, and migration are learned by observation of the parents or other experienced individuals. A …
If a successful reintroduction of an endangered species is to occur, the factors causing its decline must be understood and managed. The most common cause of endangerment is habitat destruction or degradation. Obviously, it is crucial that the habitat of endangered species is conserved before captive-bred individuals are released into the wild. This is not necessarily an easily attained goal, beca…
Citing this material
Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.
Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.
User Comments