Next spring, send your toughest question about captive breeding of whooping cranes to Journey North's Ask the Crane Expert. Create presentations about endangered species for which captive breeding programs are underway or have proved successful. The International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin has captive breeding facilities for many crane species. The World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho captive breeds endangered raptors such as the harpy eagle and peregrine falcon.
Interested students may wish to investigate an unfolding captive-breeding success story and report on the status of black-footed ferret today. The quest to save black-footed ferrets Mustela nigripes has been called the environmental detective story of the s. Until a Wyoming ranch dog brought home a dead black-footed ferret in , many experts thought this rare mammal was extinct.
Then, when diseases were wiping out both ferret prey and the ferrets themselves, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the U. Fish and Wildlife Service faced an emergency. Unless they did something fast, ferrets would go extinct. What would YOU do? By February the last known member of the world's only free-ranging ferret colony was captured.
While this may not always be detrimental, changes in behavior that are beneficial in captivity are not beneficial to wild animals. Usually, these goals are compatible, meaning that increasing the population size does not result in the loss of genetic diversity and retaining genetic diversity does not impact population growth rate.
However, in some cases, efforts to retain genetic diversity can also slow down the rate of population size increase because the retention of diversity is often facilitated by equalizing the number of offspring from each set of parents. Managing captive populations in such a way that genetic diversity is not lost and population size is increased, then, becomes important in order to manage these sometimes-conflicting goals.
The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited. For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer.
If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website.
You cannot download interactives. Students discuss endangered and threatened species and learn about captive-breeding programs.
Students complete a case study for one species in a captive-breeding program and evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Ever since humans began living in agricultural communities, farmers have sought to breed crops that produce higher yields, are more resilient, and taste better.
Over the centuries, farmers and scientists have developed a variety of methods to breed better crops. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students. One of the problems with breeding threatened species in such a benign environment is that they may undergo evolutionary changes in ways that compromise their fitness in the wild.
Captive populations may encounter different genetic problems in captivity influenced by their conditions. These can include:. Higher level of inbreeding due to small founder population.
The favouring of harmful mutations through genetic drift. Loss of genetic diversity. Genetic adaptations to captive conditions rather than natural conditions. F or good reason, ca ptive breeding for the purposes of conservation is under continued s crutiny. Wildlife biologists and zoo staff are constantly facing issues with captive breeding.
Some of these are mentioned below. Captive breeding programs are generally not initiated until population numbers in the wild have fallen below sustainable levels. This means that the genetic diversity of captive populations is likely to be low. The species must be able to survive once it is released into its natural habitat. The longer it is in captivity, the less likely it is to survive in the wild.
Learned and innate natural behaviours will influence survival on reintroduction. Some species such as the Golden Lion Tamarin need to be given the opportunity to spend time with older animals to learn skills they will need to survive.
0コメント