Conservation breeding

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Entrance to the De Wildt Cheetah Research Center in South Africa , specializing in the conservation and breeding of cheetahs and African wild dogs

Conservation breeding is the breeding of endangered species and breeds of livestock with the aim of protecting them from extinction . The general term offspring is also rarely used specifically for maintenance breeding. The attempt to “back-breed” the typical wild animal characteristics of extinct species from domestic animals that have emerged from them is not conservation breeding, but is called image breeding .

Conservation breeding of wild animals

The pioneering model for nationally coordinated breeding programs was the conservation breeding of the golden lion tamarin ( Leontopithecus rosalia ) in the 1970s . At that time, its population had declined to a few dozen wild animals because 98 percent of its original habitat, the southeastern Brazilian rainforest , had been destroyed. On an initiative of the National Zoo of the USA , all animals of this species kept in zoological gardens - 46 male and 23 female - were recorded in an international stud book and included in a coordinated breeding program, the coordinator of which decided which animals were to be combined in breeding pairs. Within 15 years, a population of more than 500 animals emerged, so that from 1985 even some golden lion tamarins could be released into the wild in an area that has meanwhile been protected.

The conservation breeding of wild animals is coordinated in zoological institutions through various regional programs:

  • America : Species Survival Plans SSP (American Zoo and Aquarium Association AZA), since 1982
  • Europe and Middle East : European Conservation Breeding Programs EEP ( European Zoo Association EAZA ), since 1985
  • Oceania : Australasian Species Management Program ASMP (Australasian Regional Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria ARAZPA)
  • Africa : African Preservation Program APP (African Association of Zoological Gardens and Aquaria PAAZAB)
  • Japan : Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums JAZA conservation breeding activities
  • South Asia : Conservation breeding programs of the South Asian Zoo Association for Regional Cooperation SAZARC
  • Southeast Asia : Conservation breeding activities of the South East Asian Zoo Association SEAZA

The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums WAZA performs an international umbrella function, to which 22 regional or national zoo and aquarium associations and 213 individual zoos and aquariums in 46 countries belong as institutional members.

Animal species that would have become extinct without conservation breeding programs in zoological gardens are z. For example: bison , Przewalski's horses , Mhorr's gazelles , California condors , Arabian oryx and various species of cichlids of the genus Haplochromis from East African Lake Victoria.

Mainly zoological institutions (public and non-public), but also hobby breeders who breed pure and wild animals, contribute to conservation breeding. There is a corresponding focus in breeding associations.

Conservation breeding of farm animals

Breeding programs for the conservation and improvement of farm animals have existed since the beginning of animal breeding. After the breeding books were disseminated and the different variants ( races ) were delimited , organized breeding basically had a sustaining function. It was only in the last two decades that, as part of the global interest in biodiversity, there were many initiatives to systematically and systematically protect endangered livestock breeds from possible extinction.

The Society for the Preservation of Old and Endangered Domestic Animal Breeds (GEH), which was founded in 1981 and has maintained a red list of endangered farm animal breeds in Germany since 1984, plays a coordinating role for many breeding projects across all animal species .

In practice, most conservation breeding projects for farm animal breeds take the form of a breeding ring .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gunther Nogge : About dealing with animals in the zoo. In: Paul Münch (ed.): Animals and people. History and topicality of a precarious relationship. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 1998, p. 454, ISBN 3-506-75805-5
  2. ↑ Genesis 30: 34-40
  3. ↑ Michael Türkay, What is biodiversity? in: Life is diversity, Kleine Senckenberg series, Volume 41, Schweizerbart Science Publishers, Stuttgart 2001
  4. ↑ Katharina Roscher, Rebirth of the Old Races: How Useful Are Backbreeding and Maintenance Breeding? Diplomica Verlag, Hamburg 2014