TEST starts here Lecture 8 Population Management Flashcards
Why will there be a plateauing of zoo animals when recovered?
Because some zoos won’t want to take them. (zoos want different animals to each other)
To be useful, zoo populations must be _____ long-term (how long?)
What does this require?
• Viable, for around 200 years.
• Demographical stability
• Healthy, well maintained and capable of self-sustaining
• Distributed among several institutions
Sufficient size to maintain high levels of GD
What is demographical stability?
• The age structure of the population. A bell-shaped population (not pyramid, or urn-shaped). Pyramid gives surplus, urn is aging.
What are the rules of thumb for maintaining viable populations?
- To be viable, ex-situ populations should be of sufficient size to retain 90% gene diversity for 100 years. - caveat: time can change with older animals or younger animals, or gene diversity too depending on the animal
- 50 or more for short-term
- 500-5000 individuals for long term. (quite high though)
IMPORTANT: Why won’t most ex-situ establishments reach the latter goals of population viability? (4)
• Too few founders
• Already depleted genetic diversity
• Not enough participating zoos
Lack of breeding success
What are the strategies for enhancing viable populations in captive facilities?
- Increase breeding spaces
- Change breeding program from regional to international
- Increasing intensity of genetic management (making sure the best ones are breeding) - doesn’t work for animals that decide to mate with specific animals
- Improving husbandry and health practices for reproduction performance
- Importing additional founders from wild or other programs (or extirpation)
- AI?
What are the two main approaches to captive management goals?
• Select individuals that will be well adapted to captive environments
Managed to preserve genetic diversity
