NY Times article on failures of zoo breeding programs

[DavidBrown]

Interesting article in NY Times on the state of breeding programs in zoos. It says that 83% of AZA breeding programs are not meeting target levels of maintaining genetic diversity

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/s...ing-for-threatened-species.html?smid=pl-share

 

[Jurek7]

On the other hand, zoos don't need to maintain so much genetic diversity as they thought.

Current zoo plans aim for maintaining genetic diversity in 100 or 200 years. Experience shows that species fully extinct in the wild are reintroduced after just few to 40 years, with the one old exception of Pere David's Deer. It seems that realization of a loss brings society in question to want the animal back.

 

[jbnbsn99]

Pere David's Deer is a great example of no genetic diversity. From what reliable sources have told me, the entire population of this species is descended from a single pair in the Berlin Zoo (who's offspring were then sent to Woburn). I'm sure someone has more information on this than I do, but the point is that this species is doing quite well despite diversity.