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In-situ
Conservation
Captive
Breeding Programmes:
are
established for those species that are of high priority to
conserve in zoos and wildlife parks on a national or international
level. These days most breeding programmes are instigated
by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) and
are known as European Breeding Programmes (EEP). Each EEP
is assigned a co-ordinator who has the responsibility of collecting
data on a given species and formulating studbooks, with recommendations
as to the best pairing of individual animals as to minimise
the risk of in-breeding.
Zoos
who join the EEP then agree to co-operate within the programme
and freely exchange animals for the benefit of the EEP. Managing
captive populations of animals globally is one way modern
zoos are working to conserve rare species for the future,
in the hope that one day, where possible they may be used
to re-populate depleted stocks in the wild.
We
are also part of several European Studbooks (ESB) - similar
to and EEP but the species is only monitored and no breeding
recommendations are made by the studbook keeper. Each Taxon
(or family group of animals) has its own Taxon Advisory Group
(TAG); which oversees all the EEPs and ESBs for those animals.
For example, there is a TAG for all rear carnivores in zoos.
There
are also other studbooks we contribute towards. These range
from national studbooks called Joint Management of Species
Programme (JMSP), to International Studbooks (IS); although
these are less significant than the European programmes today.
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