Zoos and Captive Breeding

For an alarmingly large number of animal, and even plant, species, whose numbers have dwindled drastically, captive breeding possibly remains their last and only hope.

Captive breeding is the process of breeding animals outside of their natural environment in farms, zoos or other closed facilities. What animals are bred and who they breed within the same species are controlled by humans.

How does captive breeding help?
Captive breeding is a “last resort” strategy, because it is difficult, expensive and must be part of a greater plan - after all, what is the point in re-introducing an animal if it is simply going to be hunted down, or has no space to live, or no food to live on.

If these points are kept in mind, that there needs to be a long term plan in place, then captive breeding can have positive benefits for a species' conservation.

It gets a bit technical, but you can find out more on captive breeding - it's benefits, the caveats, the pitfalls and the role it can take with zoos on this site.

Other Resources

• Captive breeding and species reintroductions
• Back from the brink: is captive breeding creating viable populations...or zoo specimens?
• World Zoo conservation strategy
• Smithsonian National Zoological Park: captive breeding