Advancing the science behind animal program sustainability: An overview of the special issue

Abstract

Over the last ten years, zoos and aquariums around the world have been coming to grips with the "sustainability crisis"the realization that most of our collaboratively managed animal populations are not viable for the long-term. Many initiatives have been launched at the regional, zoological association, program, and institutional levels to improve the long-term trajectories of these populations. This Special Issue of Zoo Biology highlights some of the scientific approaches that are aimed at addressing population viability and sustainability challenges. The approaches range from development of new analytical tools, to analysis of large datasets, and re-examination of population management principles and philosophies. While much progress has been made in the last ten years, it is clear that continued work on population viability and sustainability is critical and difficult management decisions must be made. In this paper, we identify some of the actions that the zoological community can take to fortify our animal programs and prevent the outright extinction of species. K E Y W O R D Sbreeding program, population, sustainability, viability

Uncovering challenges to sustainability of AZA Animal Programs by evaluating the outcomes of breeding and transfer recommendations with PMCTrack

“…This includes variables such as the length of time between plans, age of a program, and life expectancy of a species (see Supporting Information, Appendix A, Table SA1). These data are compiled from a variety of sources, including BTPs, TAG Regional Collection Plans (RCPs; Powell, Dorsey, & Faust, ), the IUCN red list (IUCN, ), studbooks, and The Animal Diversity Web (Myers et al, ). This is the first comprehensive collation and analysis of recommendation data across the entire AZA system.…”

“…Zoos and aquariums need to display a diversity of species to fulfill their missions and animal populations form the foundation of that diversity. To ensure that zoos and aquariums had demographically and genetically viable populations in North America, in 1981 the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) developed Species Survival Plan® (SSP) programs (AZA, ; Long, Dorsey, and Boyle, ; Meritt, ; Powell, Dorsey, and Faust, this issue). SSPs pool individual animals within a species across institutions (AZA‐accredited zoos and aquariums as well as other participating institutions) into a single, cooperatively‐managed population.…”

“…SSP Coordinators, who are the primary champion for a species within AZA, regularly work with scientific advisors at or affiliated with the AZA Population Management Center (PMC) to issue recommendations via Breeding and Transfer Plans (BTPs). Recommendations are based upon a variety of factors including demographic needs (e.g., the number of offspring necessary to achieve goals), genetic considerations (e.g., mean kinship pairing, inbreeding avoidance), husbandry requirements (e.g., behavior and social dynamics), and logistical constraints (e.g., institutional space availability) (AZA, ; Ballou et al, ; Powell et al, this issue). In every BTP, each animal is given a recommendation to either breed with a specific mate or mates (“Breed With”) or to not breed (“Do Not Breed”) and to be moved between institutions (“Send To”) or to remain at the same institution (“Hold”).…”

“…In addition to species biology, we predict that fulfillment rates would be more similar between BTPs for the same Animal Program (from different years), and more similar for taxonomically related species. The management of Animal Programs for groups of taxonomically related species (typically at the family or order level) is overseen by Taxon Advisory Groups (TAGs; AZA, ; Powell et al, this issue). Therefore, we examined whether fulfillment rates are more similar between Animal Programs within the same TAG, and between TAGs within the same taxonomic class (e.g., Mammalia or Aves).…”

The importance of permits for effective population management

“…In 2016 in Omaha, Nebraska, the 2nd Joint Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) (see Powell, Dorsey, & Faust, this issue) meeting was held. This meeting included curators, population managers, registrars, and scientists from around the world to discuss the sustainability crisis.…”