Transcript Zoos and Gardens

CONSERVATON BIOLOGY
Lecture14 – Spring 2015
Althoff
Reference Chapter 14
Zoos and Gardens
Zoos and Gardens
• Typically, they house considerable biodiversity
• Require considerable skilled husbandry to
maintain healthy, viable individuals
• Always have served 3 major functions:
1) ______________
2) ______________
3) ______________
• More recently, become important centers for a
specialized form of biodiversity conservation:
4) _______ conservation
Ex situ conservation
• …is conservation that takes place ________ of a
species’ natural habitat
• Contrasts ______ conservation (conservation
within a species’ natural habitat)
Changing Roles
• Wealthy (King Solomon, Louis XIV, Michael
Jackson, etc.) have collected exotic creatures for
millenia…driven by same basic motivation as
stamp collectors: it is entertaining diversion from
day-to-day life.
• Annually, about ___ million visitors come to zoos
and aquariums (~ 10% of earth’s population)
• Annually, about ___ million visitors come to
botanical gardens.
• Collectively, more combined attendance than all
professional baseball, basketball, hockey, and
football games
Changing Roles…con’t
• Early on, zoo put on “shows” to entertain the
visitors.
• Recently, “shows” are uncommon and more
emphasis is put on __________________
a) display more “natural” in appearance/
design
b) exhibits have more signage with
species info including distribution
maps/info
c) more focus “conserving” these species
Changing Roles…con’t
• Many biologists work at zoos
• Biologists are typically a _______ lot…..
• Result: our understanding of physiology,
diseases, reproductive biology, nutrition, and
genetic disorders have been garnered from
captive populations
• We’ve learned how to ______ these animals
better: use of tranquilizers, testing and
refinement of radio telemetry collars, implants,
etc.
• We’ve learned about the problems associated
with _________ with records keep and evaluated
Noah’s Ark
• Conveys a simple justification: many species
would not exist today if they had not been taken
from the wild and kept in captivity:
examples include
California condor
Black-footed ferret
• Others we’ve “banked” some genetic stock:
ex. black, white, and Indian rhinos
Noah’s Ark…not so lucky
• Several species’ last know individuals ____ in
zoos/captivity….
quagga
dusky seaside sparrow
passenger pigeon
po’ouli
pink-headed duck
thylacine
Studbooks and Pedigrees
• Provide starting point for developing/increasing
captive populations….in some cases with intent
of providing stock to be released back into the
wild when ______________ is available
• Challenge here is maintain genetic diversity but
minimize the “____________” selection
• Attempt to avoid sibling matings
• Currently, 1190 studbooks in use, covering 836
species…with another 300 species in the process
of having studbooks available
• Some development, too, of similar databases for
plants
Breeding…
• Typically, has been accomplished by physically
pairing up animals
• Advances in extraction of sperm have in some
instances eliminated the need for transport of
individuals cross-country….thus, artificial
insemination techniques have become valuable
by saving stress on individuals and transportation
costs
• Embryo transfer techniques are being developed
to also cut costs and maximize breeding
opportunities
Genetic Material
• Storing genetic material possible by freezing
tissue at -70oC and extracting DNA at a later
date…
• or extract and purify now, then storing it a room
temperature in vials of inert gases
• Can we get to the Jurassic Park situation….???
a) not likely for extinct species with small
fragments of DNA
b) more likely for extinct species for which
have/find frozen tissue (like the woolly
mammoth) or recent extinct species
(like the thylacine)
Augmenting wild gene pools…
• This approach has lots of merit with existing wild
populations are down to few individuals.
• Example to consider might be the cheetah
• Could release _____________….
• …or could transfer ______________________
• This requires close monitoring of both the number
of individuals in the wild and their gene pools…
and it is likely to be, on occasion, controversial
to supplement a “wild” gene pool as others
could argue it was “_________________.”
In summary..
• It is important that _______ and _______
conservation programs be carefully integrated with
one another so that ex situ populations can:
1) be _________ against loss of natural populations
2) direct _____________ to conservation of wild
populations through education, research, and
funding
3) be a source for _______________ projects