Emily Yang (10) | STAFF REPORTER
In the past decade, nearly 500 species have been declared extinct, with reports by the United Nations estimating that half of all species are to be extinct by 2050. One of the primary measures to prevent this trajectory are breeding and conservation programs, with the most common being captive breeding. However, there is the question of their effectiveness. Are they truly enough to protect our diminishing biodiversity?
Captive breeding is the practice of breeding wild animals in zoos and wildlife parks, with the earliest efforts launched in the 1960s. In order for this program to be successful, as many ‘founding’ individuals as possible should be gathered, which guarantees its sustainability and outbreeding. Oftentimes, however, vulnerable species brought into captivity are often limited in population, lowering the effectiveness of the program.
The program’s effectiveness is further impacted by several other drawbacks, such as poor reintroduction success, domestication, lack of the animals’ self-sufficiency, and disease outbreaks. Furthermore, the expenses of the program and uncertain success rates have discouraged captive breeding efforts.
This was the case in the California Condor Reintroduction Effort, established by the United States in 1987. Over 35 million dollars have been spent in the program, making it the most costly captive program ever. However, despite the efforts to preserve the species, a significant number of reintroduced California Condors died shortly after release due to lead poisoning and power line accidents.
On the contrary, some captive breeding programs have proven to be successful, such as the reintroduction of the Arabian Oryx led by the Phoenix Zoo in 1962. The experiment began with 9 oryxes, which eventually produced 200 offspring and 1100 wild oryxes after reintroduction. However, one of the most significant disadvantages of the initiative was that the majority of released oryxes were males, leading to the absence of gender variety and raising concerns over the ‘eventual’ extinction of the species.
In conclusion, breeding programs have a certain degree of effectiveness in preventing mass, global extinction, as seen with the Arabian Oryx Experiment. However, the several drawbacks and costly operations result in the program requiring strict and very specific conditions in order to be highly effective, as shown with the unsuccessful case of the California Condor Reintroduction Effort.
