Zoos and Gardens

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Part III Maintaining biodiversity

• Zoos Gardens and the role of captive breeding

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Zoos
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Zoos Gardens are not new!

• As early as 2500 B.C., nobility started to
  accumulate exotic animals.
• Early explorers encountered menageries in the New
  World, bringing home all sorts of weird and
  wonderful creatures like anteaters and sloths.
• In Mexico, Cortez marveled at Montezuma's zoo,
  where handmade bronze cages housed jaguars and
  pumas.

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Early husbandry

• Keepers had no knowledge of animal husbandry
  easier to replace lost animals from wild stocks
  than cultivate them in zoos

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Animals in captivity

1. Few social stimuli for group animals held
   singularly or in such confined areas.
2. Enforced idleness results in wild animals
   developing abnormal behavior patterns such as
   zoochotic behaviors, apathy or self-mutilation.
3. Also lose the skills needed to survive in the
   wild.

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Pre-1950s
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Post 1970s
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Other Improvements

1. By the 1950's veterinary medicine came of age
2. Newly developed tranquilizing drugs previously
   unmanageable animals could be diagnosed and
   treated safely
3. More congenial surroundings, better health and
   good nutrition made for healthier animals much
   greater tendency to breed!

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Other developments in 1960s and 1970s

1. Despite better displays at the more progressive
   zoos, humane groups became vocal critics of poor
   conditions in many zoos.
2. Zoos were the initial focus of animal rights
   proponents
3. Questioned the ethics of keeping animals at all
4. Plus, what were zoos going to do with all these
   captive-bred animals?

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Voila! The Zoo Garden as Ark Concept
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Recent Concept behind Modern Zoos and Gardens

• Plants and animals can be returned to their
  native haunts when two basic conditions are met
• the world's spiraling human population, the main
  cause for the destruction of animal habitats, has
  stabilized and
• the art of habitat restoration and reintroduction
  has been perfected

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!
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Predicated upon

• a noble cause, with
• technology to the rescue, with
• a predicted happy ending
• A public-relations bonanza

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The first bad news...

1. In 1979, scientists compared records of animals
   born of related parents with those born to
   unrelated parents.
2. Inbreeding had some devastating effects.

Severely inbred white tiger
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Implications of Ralls and Ballous work...

1. Zoos anticipate holding species for a century or
   more
2. But with only small numbers of each species to
   begin with
3. Inevitably after a few years, close relatives
   would be breeding with each other
4. Intense selection also occurs

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Genetic Effects of Captive Breeding Cause a
Rapid, Cumulative Fitness Decline in the Wild  
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SSPs as a response...

1. To minimize inbreeding, zoos came up with an
   elaborate computerized mating system known as the
   Species Survival Plan, or SSP.
2. Based on extremely complex studbooks or pedigree
   records
3. ISIS, the International Species Inventory System,
   manages information on 10,000 taxa in 500 zoos

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SSPs are great, but...

1. Consider all the species that need
   SSPs--orangutans, gorillas, tigers, snow
   leopards, rhinos, golden lion tamarins and more.
2. Each species and subspecies needs some 75 to 500
   individuals to form an adequate breeding pool.
3. For big animals like Siberian tigers and Asian
   lions, the space requirements are staggering.

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Limits to SSPs

1. Estimated that the zoo ark has room for lt 1,000
   of the 20,000-plus mammals, birds, reptiles and
   amphibians.
2. U.S. zoos have space to manage long-term breeding
   programs for
3. about 141 of the world's 8,600 bird species
4. only 16 of the world's 2,500 snake species

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Surplus animals...

1. About three-quarters of all the space allocated
   for tigers in North American zoos is filled by
   surplus animals.
2. Most zoos use separation and contraceptive
   implants to control breeding and limit surplus

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Controversies Zoo Costs

1. One successful in vitro fertilization for a
   gorilla, for instance, could cost as much as
   75,000.
2. Attracts a lot of media attention, but little
   else.

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To have pandas, must make a 1 million annual
payment to China -- plus a one-time 600,000
payment for each cub born -- goes to conservation
programs there???.
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Cloning to the rescue?
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First cloned endangered species dies 2 days after
birth (gaur, Indian bison)
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Reverse evolution? Turn cows back to aurochs
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• Pyrenean Ibex (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica),
• one of the two extinct subspecies of Spanish
  Ibex.
• last one found dead on January 6, 2000
• first taxon ever to become "un-extinct"
• Cloned from nuclei from frozen tissue of last
  dead female into goat ovum
• for a period of seven minutes in January 2009, a
  cloned female Ibex was born alive before dying
  from breathing difficulties

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Thylacine

• Ethanol preserved fetus
• 170,000 so far
• It would be immoral not to try Mike Archer
• See a thylacine http//www.arkive.org/species/GES
  /mammals/Thylacinus_cynocephalus/more_moving_image
  s.html

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Will woolly mammoths live again?http//www.theglo
beandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/2005
1220/MAMMOTH20/TPScience/

• SCIENCE REPORTER
• Scientists have sequenced part of the genome of a
  woolly mammoth that died 28,000 years ago, a
  discovery that raises the possibility of bringing
  the extinct ice age mammals back from the dead.
• Hendrik Poinar, a molecular evolutionary
  geneticist at McMaster University in Hamilton,
  says ancient DNA obtained from the jawbone of a
  long-dead Siberian woolly mammoth could be used
  create a modern version of the animal.
• He and his U.S. colleagues won't be able to clone
  the female that was found frozen in the
  permafrost because the DNA they obtained was
  fractured into so many tiny fragments. But they
  could create a hybrid of the woolly mammoth and
  its closest living relative, the Indian elephant.
  Once researchers have made male and female
  hybrids, they could breed the animals to obtain
  as pure a woolly mammoth as possible.
• "In theory, you could do it," Dr. Poinar says.

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The Ark on the rocks?
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The issues

1. Rapidly increasing numbers of endangered species,
   
2. Limited zoo capacity,
3. Lack of habitat for reintroduction as well as
   technical difficulties,
4. Expense
5. How practical is captive breeding anyway?

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Sumatran rhinos as a flash point

1. Highly endangered because of hunting and poaching
2. 200 in the wild (2000)
3. 38 captured for captive-rearing
4. 15 have died
5. Only a handful have bred
6. Many millions spent
7. What if this money had been spent on habitat,
   capacity building, and anti-poaching?

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Consider black rhinos inequities regarding in
situ versus ex situ conservation

1. In 1980 wildlife authorities in all the
   sub-Saharan African countries had an annual
   budget of about 75 million
2. the San Diego Zoological Society had an annual
   budget of about 70 million!

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Redefining the Ark Concept...

1. In response to changing public attitudes and
   rapidly worsening environmental conditions, zoos
   are increasingly deciding to focus on
2. field conservation
3. education
4. research

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Zoo-Field Connection

1. Many zoos adopt foreign parks and funnel money to
   them.
2. New York's Wildlife Conservation Society has
   helped found more than 110 parks and reserves
   around the world.

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Zoos and influence, education and

1. Visitation
2. Every year over 100 million people visit North
   American zoos.
3. More people visit zoos in the US than attend all
   professional sporting events
4. Worldwide, some 1,000 zoos attract 600 million
   visitors--nearly 10 percent of the world's
   population.
5. Funding
6. At the San Diego zoo, sales of rubber snakes
   14,000/year, all of it used for habitat
   protection in Peru

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Zoos and the future a modest but significant
contribution...

1. Zoo propagation can probably aid the survival of
   15 percent or more of all the terrestrial
   vertebrates likely to become extinct in the next
   century

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Aquaria
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Aquaria

• Much less successful than zoos in propagating
  threatened species
• Despite the large numbers of freshwater species
  threatened and that many of them take up very
  little space.
• Some efforts for propagating the cichlids of Lake
  Victoria, the desert fishes of North America, and
  Appalachian stream fishes

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Botanical Gardens
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Botanic Gardens

• Much easier and cheaper to maintain captive
  populations of plants than animals.
• Hundreds of species of plants can be kept in a
  small botanic garden
• require less care,
• do not require cages,
• mating can be arranged more easily,
• can be vegetatively propagated
• can easily be stored during their dormant seed
  stage.

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Botanic Gardens continued

• The world's roughly 1500 botanic gardens together
  contain at least 35,000 plant species or gt 15 of
  the world's flora.
• Seeds of many plant species, especially those
  with dry, small seeds, can be stored at low
  temperatures for long periods with little loss of
  viability.

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Some issues in plant storage

• Orthodox seeds usually maintained at 5 humidity
  and -20oC.
• A small seed storage facility can easily store
  thousands of such species.
• E.g., a 2,000 year old Judean date palm seed was
  successfully sprouted in 2005!
• Recalcitrant seeds do not survive well in storage
  
• Other plants that can only be propagated
  vegetatively (not via seeds).

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• Seed viability does decline, especially
  without cryopreservation
• Periodically growing out is done
• pull seeds from storage,
• grow new plants,
• harvest seeds,
• re-freeze them...expensive and time-consuming
• The role of botanic gardens in conservation
• is already larger and
• growing very rapidly
• with research into storage techniques, better
  data collection and better coordination.

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Reintroductions

• the follow-up to captive breeding

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Reintroductions

1. People love to reintroduce species - a very
   romantic notion
2. Some spectacular successes -- e.g., games animals
   in the Northeast US, including wood duck, wild
   turkey, white-tailed deer

Rescued siberian tiger being released (WCS)
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The idealPere Davids Deer

• An Asian deer with a tufted tail and big feet,
  extinct in the wild for 800 years before
  reintroduced.
• Originally lived in swamps in northeast China
• Became extinct in nature when these swamps were
  drained for agriculture during the Shang dynasty
  (1766-1122 B.C.).

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Pere Davids Deer

• Discovered by Pere David in the Hunting Park in
  Beijing
• Sent 18 of them sent back to some European zoos.
• In 1894, the stock in China was completely lost
• Worldwide the zoo population is now up to over
  1400, all descended from Pere David's 18 animals.

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Pere Davids Deer

• In 1964 the London zoo sent four of the deer to
  the Peking zoo, after the species had been gone
  from China for almost 50 years.
• In 1985, more were sent and released into a
  China's Dafeng reserve.
• reached 516 in 2001!
• Now three populations, all successfully
  reproducing

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The reality

• Most are reintroductions are failures
• Of 80 translocations of endangered birds and
  mammals, 44 were successful
• Of 407 attempts with desert fishes, 26 were
  successful
• Of 15 plant translocations in California, only 4
  succeeded

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Setting Aims

• The principal aim of any re-introduction should
  be to establish a viable, free-ranging population
  in the wild, of a species, subspecies or race,
  which has become globally or locally extinct, or
  extirpated, in the wild.
• Should occur within the species' former natural
  habitat and range and should require minimal
  long-term management.

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Identification and elimination, or reduction to a
sufficient level, of previous causes of decline

• Has the release site undergone substantial
  degradation caused by human activity?
• If so, a habitat restoration program should be
  initiated before the re-introduction is carried
  out.
• Has another species filled the void created by
  the loss of the species concerned?

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Taxonomic Issues

• What is the taxonomic status of individuals to be
  re-introduced?
• Should be the same subspecies or race as those
  which were extirpated, unless adequate numbers
  are not available.
• Similar ecological characteristics (morphology,
  physiology, behavior, habitat preference) to the
  original sub-population.
• A study of genetic variation within and between
  populations of this and related taxa can also be
  helpful.

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Pinta Island Tortoises
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Vital information for plants

• Biotic and abiotic habitat requirements,
• Dispersal mechanisms,
• Symbiotic relationships (e.g. with mycorrhizae,
  pollinators),
• Insect pests and diseases

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Vital information for animals

• Habitat preferences,
• Intraspecific variation and adaptations to local
  ecological conditions,
• Social behavior/group composition,
• Home range size,
• Shelter and food requirements,
• Predators and diseases.

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Other considerations

• Are there potential migratory/movement areas at
  the release site?

http//www.bnl.gov/esd/reserve/Hognose_Radio_Telem
etry.htm
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Disease issues

• If transhipments are involved, stock must meet
  all health regulations prescribed by the
  veterinary authorities of the recipient region
• Adequate provisions must be made for quarantine
  if necessary.

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Stock must be aversive to human contact

• Care should be taken to ensure that potentially
  dangerous captive bred animals (such as large
  carnivores or primates) are not overly confident
• In the presence of humans they might be a danger
  to local inhabitants, their livestock, and/or
  themselves

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Cranes
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Determination of release strategy, e.g., hard
versus soft releases

• Toss em out (hard) versus (soft)
• acclimatization of release stock to release area,
• behavioral training - including hunting and
  feeding
• group composition,
• number,
• release patterns and techniques
• timing

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Hard Release
Soft Release
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SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND LEGAL REQUIREMENTS

• A thorough assessment of attitudes of local
  people and laws
• The program should be fully understood, accepted
  and supported by local communities.
• Professional training of individuals involved in
  the long-term program
• Public relations through the mass media and in
  local community
• Involvement where possible of local people in the
  program

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Be cautious of motivations for re-introductions/tr
anslocations

• Rather than culling overabundant populations,
  wildlife managers often resort to translocating
  individuals to other parts of their range
• Release of confiscated animals
• Translocation of endangered populations out a
  site slated for development

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POST-RELEASE ACTIVITIES

• Post-release monitoring is required of all (or
  sample of) individuals, perhaps through tagging
  and telemetry or indirect methods
• Was it successful?

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End captive breeding/reintroduction
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Addendum

• THE JAGUAR
• The apes yawn and adore their fleas in the sun.
• The parrots shriek as if they were on fire, or
  strut
• Like cheap tarts to attract the stroller with the
  nut.
• Fatigued with indolence, tiger and lion
• Lie still as the sun. The boa constrictor's coil
• Is a fossil. Cage after cage seems empty, or
• Stinks of sleepers from the breathing straw.
• It might be painted on a nursery wall.
• But who runs like the rest past these arrives
• At a cage where the crowd stands, stares,
  mesmerized,
• As a child at a dream, at a jaguar hurrying
  enraged
• Through prison darkness after the drills of his
  eyes