iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Captive Breeding

Enlarge picture
USFWS staff with two red wolf pups bred in captivity
Captive breeding is the process of breeding rare or endangered species in human controlled environments with restricted settings, such as wildlife preserves, zoos and other conservation facilities; sometimes the process is construed to include release of individual organisms to the wild, when there is sufficient natural habitat to support new individuals or when the threat to the species in the wild is lessened.

This technique has been used with great success for many species for some time, with probably the oldest known such instances of captive breeding being attributed to menageries of European and Asian rulers, a case in point being the Pere David's Deer. The idea was popularized among modern conservationists independently by Peter Scott and Gerald Durrell in the 1950s and 1960s, founders of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and Jersey Zoo - who demonstrated considerable success with a wide variety of life forms in the 1970s ranging from birds (eg. Pink Pigeon), mammals (eg. Pygmy Hog), reptiles (eg. Round Island Boa) and amphibians (eg. Poison arrow frogs). Their ideas were independently validated by the success of Operation Oryx (under the auspices of the Fauna and Flora Preservation Society), which successfully captive bred the Arabian Oryx in 1962 and reintroduced them back into Arabia.

Such techniques are usually difficult to implement for highly mobile species like some migratory birds (eg. cranes) and fishes (eg. Hilsa).

If the captive breeding population is too small, inbreeding may occur due to reduced gene pool, which may lead to the population lacking immunity to diseases and other problems. Over sufficient number of generations, inbred populations can regain "normal" genetic diversity.

The Przewalski's horse has recently been re-introduced to the wild in Mongolia, its native habitat.

See Also

A rare species is an organism which is very uncommon or scarce. This designation may be applied to either a plant or animal taxon, and may be distinct from the term "endangered" or "threatened species".
..... Click the link for more information.
endangered species is a population of an organism which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in number, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters.
..... Click the link for more information.
A zoological garden, zoological park, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures and displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred.
..... Click the link for more information.
Conservation biology, or conservation ecology, is the science of analyzing and protecting Earth's biological diversity. Conservation biology draws from the biological, physical and social sciences, economics, and the practice of natural-resource management.
..... Click the link for more information.
Plantae
  • Chromalveolata
  • Heterokontophyta
  • Haptophyta
  • Cryptophyta
  • Alveolata

  • ..... Click the link for more information.
    • Habitat (which is Latin for "it inhabits") is the area where a particular species lives. It is essentially the natural environment in which an organism lives—at least the physical environment—that surrounds (influences and is utilized by) a species population.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    species is one of the basic units of biological classification. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Elaphurus

    Species: E. davidianus

    Binomial name
    Elaphurus davidianus
    Milne-Edwards, 1866

    Père David's Deer (
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Bronze 1936 Berlin Monotype class

    Sir Peter Markham Scott, CH, CBE, DSC, FRS, FZS, (September 14, 1909 – August 29, 1989) was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter and sportsman.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Gerald ('Gerry') Malcolm Durrell OBE (January 7, 1925 – January 30, 1995) was a naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, author, and television presenter. He founded what is now called the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo (now renamed Durrell Wildlife)
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    worldwide view.


    2nd millennium
    Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

    1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s
    1950 1951 1952 1953 1954
    1955 1956 1957 1958 1959

    - -
    - The 1950s
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

    1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s
    1960 1961 1962 1963 1964
    1965 1966 1967 1968 1969

    - -
    -

    Their 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust is a wildfowl and wetland conservation charity in the United Kingdom. Its patron is Queen Elizabeth II.

    It was founded in 1946 by the ornithologist and artist Sir Peter Scott, initially as the Severn Wildfowl Trust.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Jersey Zoological Park or Jersey Zoo is a 25-acre (100,000 m²) zoological park established in 1959 on the island of Jersey in the English Channel by naturalist and author Gerald Durrell (1925-1995).
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

    1940s 1950s 1960s - 1970s - 1980s 1990s 2000s
    1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
    1975 1976 1977 1978 1979

    - -
    - The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, also called
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    N. mayeri

    Binomial name
    Columba mayeri
    Prevost, 1843

    Streptopelia mayeri
    Johnson et al, 2001

    Nesoenas mayeri
    Cheke, 2005

    The Pink Pigeon
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    S. salvanius

    Binomial name
    Sus salvanius
    (Hodgson, 1847)

    Pygmy hogs (Sus salvanius
    ..... Click the link for more information.

    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Dendrobatidae
    Cope, 1865

    Distribution of Dendrobatidae (in black)


    Genera

    Proposed Subfamily Colostethinae
    • proposed genus Ameerega
    • Colostethus
    • Epipedobates

    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Fauna and Flora International (formerly the Fauna and Flora Preservation Society), was founded in 1903 as the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire by a group of British naturalists and American statesmen in Africa.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    O. leucoryx

    Binomial name
    Oryx leucoryx
    Pallas, 1766

    The Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    19th century - 20th century - 21st century
    1930s  1940s  1950s  - 1960s -  1970s  1980s  1990s
    1959 1960 1961 - 1962 - 1963 1964 1965

    Year 1962 (MCMLXII
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Arabian Peninsula (in Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية, or جزيرة العرب) is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Gruidae
    Vigors, 1825

    Genera
    • Grus
    • Anthropoides
    • Balearica
    • Bugeranus


    Cranes are large, long-legged and long-necked birds of the order Gruiformes, and family Gruidae.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    T. ilisha

    Binomial name
    Tenualosa ilisha
    (Hamilton, 1822)

    Hilsa (Bengali: ইলিশ Ilish
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Inbreeding is breeding between close relatives, whether plant or animal. If practiced repeatedly, it often leads to a reduction in genetic diversity, and the increased gene expression of recessive traits, resulting in inbreeding depression.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    For the guitarist named Gene Pool, see Greg Flesch.


    In population genetics, a gene pool is the complete set of unique alleles in a species or population.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    E. f. przewalskii

    Trinomial name
    Equus ferus przewalskii
    (Poliakov, 1881)

    Range map


    Przewalski's Horse (Equus ferus przewalskii or Equus caballus przewalskii,
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Anthem
    "Монгол улсын төрийн дуулал"
    National anthem of Mongolia
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Ex-situ conservation means literally, "off-site conservation". It is the process of protecting an endangered species of plant or animal by removing part of the population from a threatened habitat and placing it in a new location, which may be a wild area or within the care of
    ..... Click the link for more information.


    This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
    Herod_Archelaus


    page counter