Is conservation work in zoos too random?

Beskrivelse

In 2011, the 837 ISIS zoos held a total of 3,955 exotic terrestrial vertebrate species. What that means is that the zoos that participate in the International Species Information System collectively housed 455,317 individual birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians in that year. A number that precise is available because zoos are excellent record-keepers, especially when it comes to the identity and parentage of the animals in their collections. Those are impressive numbers, but how do they speak to zoos’ potential role in wildlife conservation, something so often featured in their marketing and advertising campaigns? This article discusses the finding of the paper published in PLoS One; Conde D.A., Colchero F., Gusset M., Pearce-Kelly P., Byers O., Flesness N., Browne R.K. & Jones O.R. (2013). Zoos through the Lens of the IUCN Red List: A Global Metapopulation Approach to Support Conservation Breeding Programs., PLoS ONE, PMID: 24348999