In today’s twitter-world of briefly simplistic communication, most of us find ourselves trying to reduce complex issues to short summaries. Thus, when the zoo and aquarium community claims that breeding endangered wildlife species promotes conservation, I respond with something like, “Well, no; they know how to breed on their own. Problems they face are not addressed by there being more of them in captivity.”
I’m concerned that people think that a baby tiger or elephant in a zoo means tigers or elephants are “saved.” Here’s an example of the kind of thing I mean: Next to a simple drawing of a baby rhinoceros text, in childish writing, reads: “SPECIES are declining at an alarming rate, that’s why we’re committed to HELPING them MATE.” It’s apparently part of an overall campaign.
Captive animals, for various reasons related to the inherent unnaturalness of confinement, sometimes do need various forms of “help” to mate. The zoo and aquarium industry maintains records to avoid the genetic risks of inbreeding, or mixing various discreet genetic strains in order to maintain the actual species, subspecies, or population, of a species at risk. But, obviously wild animals would not exist if they didn’t know how to mate without human assistance, and would not exist in zoos or aquariums if not for human determination. It has, in and of itself, nothing to do with conservation. Captive breeding and release of endangered animals into safe, viable habitat may well do so, but you don’t need the infrastructure of a zoo to do that. Most such programs are done away from public view. There may be other reasons to keep wild animals impounded, but the idea that endangered species need help with mating isn’t one of them.
Therefore, imagine my surprise at a headline that said Javan rhinos needed help mating! The Javan rhinoceros is about the most critically endangered species of large mammal there is, second only to the vaquita. But, in reading the article, it turned out what was meant was that the tiny population, fewer than 70, of Javan rhino remaining were spread over a huge area, meaning that male and females had trouble finding each other. Worse, habitat fragmentation meant there are tiny pockets of the animals scattered over a wide range, but separated by regions of habitat degradation and human habitation that they simply could not, would not, cross. There is something like 111,594,203 humans for each Javan rhino.
Competition for space and the fragmentation of remaining populations is increasingly the plight of many endangered wildlife species. It’s good, but not enough, to maintain habitat, but one must link it to other habitats where the species can survive and then protect both habitats and the animals therein. It can be very helpful, even necessary, to provide such protection via enclosures within the habitat – what conservationists call in situ captive breeding and release &ndas; but nothing my local zoo does contributes to that.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Barry