Lecture 14

Question 1

Define ex situ species conservation

Answer 1

Is the process of protecting an endangered species, variety or breed, of plant or animal outside of its natural habitat. Might take place inside or outside ta indigenous range either way it is implemented in an environment that is modified and controlled for that species
OR:
individuals are maintained in artificial conditions under different selection pressures than those in natural conditions

Question 2

Give two examples of ex situ conservation

Answer 2

. Kew’s Millenium Seed Bank- holds seeds in a dormant, not breeding (no reproduction), stores seed at a sub-zero temperature and this is a reserve should anything happen in the wild
. Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in Malaysian Sabah- aim to creat a more nature environment so they develop natural behaviours. Was set up in 1964 for orphan orangutans

Question 3

Explain how captive breeding programs work and what you need to know for them to work

Answer 3

Breeding is carefully managed to control numbers and to prevent inbreeding and is often carried out in zoos and wildlife reserves. Ensure as much genetic variation as possible is maintained within the captive population. Ex situ conservation aims to go in hand with in situ conservation. Need a lot of information for this pairing to work so, need to know the suitability of the likely source for captive breeding and for translocation and reintroduction, need to know the related individuals, family relationships so you can maintain genetic diversity

Question 4

Give examples of captive breeding programs

Answer 4

. ZSL Amur Leopard European Breeding Program

. ZSL support for Gazelle Conservation Breeding in Saudi Arabia

Question 5

Captive breeding programmes are useful but very expensive so deciding when to implement it need to be taken into care. Give examples of when it is useful to implement an active breeding program

Answer 5

When:
. When in situ approaches in the wild are not enough, or feasible
. A captive aspect could increase effectiveness (money spent vs impact)
. Increase effectiveness of the survival of the species
. If not I’m protected areas may have legal issues

Question 6

Why might in situ approaches are not always enough, or feasible? Give an example

Answer 6

Might be because we don’t understand the drivers of the species decline in the wild and we don’t have time to understand them because the species is likely to go extinct or might be that we know the threats as to why the species is declining, but we are failing/ don’t have the strategies in place to deal with them
E.g. climate change and fungal problems in amphibians- lots of frogs are at risk- there is no point trying to reintroduce them into an area where we haven’t decreased the threats

Question 7

Give examples of species that are extinct in the wild but are currently being kept in captivity

Answer 7

. Père David’s deer in China (hunted to extinction in 1930s. Breeds successfully in captivity)
. Przewalski’s horse in Mongolia
. Arabian Oryx
. The Eastern Sumatra Rhinoceros (subspecies of the Sumatran Rhino): common in 1990s, now only 2 individuals lift in captivity
. The Guam kingfisher (extirpated in 1986 after introduction of brown tree snakes + loss of forest habitats from the Pacific Islands of Guam

Question 8

What are the decision criteria for captive breeding programs?

Answer 8

. In situ population is near minimum viable population
. In situ population decline continuing despite action
. In situ population is only living outside PAs because if they are outside the PAs you don’t necessarily have the legal framework to protect it and it may be that it is in areas where direct conservation strategies are not possible because the landscape is under such intense pressure from humans
. Saving extinct in the wild

Question 9

What would you ideally think to determine what population you need to achieve an MVP?

Answer 9

Ideally would carry out a population viability analysis but this is very data heavy and if you are talking about rare and endangered species then you’ve not necessarily got that detailed data to actually vary out a proper PVA for that species

Question 10

How do you determine what population you would need to achieve a MVP?

Answer 10

Either use a PVA (if you have the data) or use a rule of thumb

Question 11

What is the median MVP? What is wrong with this median?

Answer 11

1377 individuals
. But the distribution was positively skewed (so possibly an underestimate)
. MVP estimates primarily related to environmental variation
(. PVA simulations using long-term data for 1198 species: If N (t + 100 years)= 0 in 10 of 100 of simulated projections: population has 90% change of persisting for 100 years and they determined what population you would need to achieve that)

Question 12

What are the roles of zoos?

Answer 12

(Depends who you ask). Range of species that are critically endangered can be bred and these potential rescues populations and then could possibly be reintroduced into the wild when we have achieved better conservation in the wild

Question 13

How do zoos see themselves?

Answer 13

1. They keep Species that are at risk from extinction alive (e.g. all critically endangered: western gorilla, Sumatran tiger, European mink)
2. They do and fund research and have extensive veterinary knowledge:
   - anatomy, physiology, diet
   - captive breeding e.g. to restock wild populations
   - reproductive management
3. They secure through visitor engagement- give people the change to see animals they would never be able to see and provide them with a lot of conservations information trying to infuse them about the natural environment/ conservation

Question 14

Zoos are selective on what they keep. What do they keep, why? What is the issue with this?

Answer 14

. Difficult decisions about what species to concentrate on: tends to be large, charismatic mammal species (megafauna), which generates most income- what most people want to see
. Argue that we should be selecting species that would benefit most from captive breeding (most likely to be successful- reproduce well in captivity)
. Argue against captive breeding where it is unnecessary is that it can give us a false sense of security under ex situ management and can draw attention away from the threat to wild populations and reducing the threat to species in situ which if we don’t tackle the threat can never be reintroduced. Argue that it detracts funding which could potentially be used in situ

Question 15

Zoos are selective on what they keep. What do they keep, why? What is the issue with this?

Answer 15

. Difficult decisions about what species to concentrate on: tends to be large, charismatic mammal species (megafauna), which generates most income- most people want to see

Question 16

Which species are expensive to keep in captivity?

Answer 16

The bigger the species then the more expensive it is to keep it in captivity (zoos actually end up focusing/ concentrating their resources on species that are expensive and breed poorly in captivity and are then difficult to return to the wild)

Question 17

Zoos argue that the species they select are the ones that the public want to see and generate income which they can then spend on conservation activities. However, what evidence is there against this?

Answer 17

There is some data that suggests that people actually prefer the reptile and amphibian house.
There is some evidence that the species that people see in zoos is dependant of the distance they are from the entrance

Question 18

Give some drawbacks of zoos

Answer 18

. Limited resource availability- the terms of implementing an effective programme
. Problem of husbandry: stress-related behaviours you would never see in the wild)
. You see a lot of institutional behaviour patterns that you see in humans- rocking, plucking of hair, boredom and stress- things you don’t see in the wild because there’s so much going on
. Domestication: genetic drift (due to small populations) & adaptation to captivity (so the more generations you’ve got in captivity you may face increased difficulty in releasing individuals into the wild- they have not had the opportunity to develop behaviours that they would need in the wild
. Disease- enhanced susceptibility to disease because of reduced genetic diversity resulting from small population size

Question 19

What should captive breeding criteria be?

Answer 19

. Body mass, social behaviour, diet (would inform how easy they are to keep them in a good condition in captivity)
. Probability of success for re-introduction in the wild
. Education awareness flagship (may be hard to decide because zoos tend to believe that these are the megafauna)
. Species indigenous in ration of captive program (difficult because most zoos are in temperate regions & most endangered species are in tropic conditions)

Question 20

What are the issues of breeding for conservation?

Answer 20

. Declared aim often to breed for re-introduction, but Species360 (formerly International Species Information System; ISIS) zoos concentrated in temperate regions whereas most threatened species are tropical
. Acclimatisation to a new home is likely to be faster for animals raised in conditions similar to those where they are to be released
. Transporting species- some die en route
. Animals are v. Smart & need to develop behaviours they will need of reintroduced

Question 21

What are the good things about zoos?

Answer 21

1. Research: reproductive knowledge, genetic diversity
2. Veterinary knowledge: anatomy, physiology and diet
3. Education: lots of visitors who would not normally travel to see wildlife
4. Ex situ conservation: conservation projects: & there are good examples of when they have provided individuals for introduction for ex situ conservation projects. Zoos are also major finders for in situ conservation

Question 22

How much do members of world association of zoos and aquariums spend on conservation actions in the wild each year?

Answer 22

$350 million

Question 23

Describe Botanical Gardens (how many individuals/ species they contain, examples, issues)

Answer 23

. Estimated to contain 4 million individuals in 80,000 species (hold 30% of all known plants, so they are effectively safety populations of these species)
. Seed banking & growing threatened species: Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew: 25,000 species & Millennium Seed Bank
. Problem of ‘recalcitrant’ seed species that have no dormancy (so 25% don’t show dormancy in their seeds, mainly tropical). It is extremely difficult or impossible to store species in that way

Question 24

European association of zoos and aquaria: members institutions have established Taxon Advisory Groups for all the different species of animals kept in zoos/ aquariums. They develop Regional Collection Plans that:

Answer 24

. Describe, which species are recommended to be kept, why, and how these species should be managed. They provide advise of how these species should be kept in captivity
. Identify which species need to be managed in European Endangered Species Programmes and European studbooks. These are specific programmes or data management strategies for species that need to be really carefully managed in captivity
. Species that require most intensive management
. Each individual is tracked so can see relations- used to develop management plan. Work out which individuals should be moved zoos