| What Are Breeding Programmes? |
| One of the major activities of EAZA is the running of European population management programmes for a large number of animal species. The goal of these managed, conservation, cooperative or captive breeding programmes is to maintain genetically healthy and demographically balanced populations of animals in EAZA zoos for the purposes of exhibition, education, research, and as insurance populations to the wild. In a few cases reintroduction to the wild is possible and has been vital for species such as the black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) and golden lion tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia). (see BIAZA website page on Reintroductions for more information).Breeding programmes were initiated in 1985 (before the founding of EAZA), with 26 zoos from nine European countries participating. |
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| The most intensive level of management is the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP). Each EEP has a Species Co-ordinator responsible for collecting information about that species, and, assisted by a species committee, makes recommendations as to which animals should breed with which other animals and which animals should be exchanged with other zoos. |
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| European Studbooks (ESBs) have a studbook keeper that manages the population to a lesser extent. Studbook keepers are only able to advise participants on where they would send their animals and which ones should breed together. |
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| For more information on European programmes, see the EAZA website. |
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| The History of Studbooks |
| Since animals were first domesticated, differences between individuals of the same species were noted and often used selectively to improve stock, e.g. for improved milk or egg yields. Records of individuals were kept verbally at first but as numbers grew, by writing, and these written records effectively became the first studbooks. The first official studbook was the “General Studbook for Thoroughbred Horses” set up in England in 1791. |
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| The first studbook for a wild animal in captivity was for the European bison. Heinz Heck published this studbook in 1932, when it was realised that this species was destined to become extinct unless captive populations were managed by some co-operative means. |
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| From these origins, the studbook has come to be recognised as the essential tool in the co-ordinated and scientific management of an endangered or vulnerable species. |
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| Modern Studbooks |
| Studbooks are primarily a compilation and source of genealogical data of individual animals which make up a particular population. The last ten years have seen a rapid increase in the amount of studbooks managed. Advances in identification of animals, sex determination and the increased use of computer software to assist record keeping and analysis have aided their development. |
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| Setting up a studbook |
| The purpose of a studbook is to facilitate a well-managed captive population as conservation breeding must go hand-in-hand with field conservation. Data on the species’ status in the wild and in captivity must be included in the proposal for a studbook. |
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| Proposals for new international studbooks must be submitted to IUCN/SSC and the World Association of Zoos and Aquaria (WAZA) and only with their endorsement can a studbook be established and officially accepted. |
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| Other important aspects of the proposals must include the credentials of the petitioner(s), including the professional experience, academic qualifications, and a statement of guarantee that the petitioner has institutional support and the necessary resources, both financial and practical, to maintain and publish the studbook. |
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| The studbook keeper must then obtain information by asking every collection that has ever kept that species for their records. These records will include information on specific events, such as births, deaths, and movements between collections; the information will also include parental information. The result should be a full genealogical history for, at the very least, every animal alive today. |
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| Software for managing zoo animals |
| To enable zoo personnel efficiently to manage populations of threatened species in captivity, a number of software programmes have been developed to assist in genetic and demographic management. The systems currently used by EAZA members were developed by the International Species Information System (ISIS). |
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| The most commonly used systems are ARKS (Animal Record Keeping System) and SPARKS (Single Population Analysis & Records Keeping System). ARKS provides each animal in the collection with a record. Species, sex, parents, birth date, birth location, current location, house name, transponder chip number are all recorded and any other information that may be recorded about that particular animal. Institutional ARKS records are submitted to the global database at ISIS which results effectively in a list of animals present in ISIS collections (see ISIS abstracts ). |
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| At present ISIS has 650 registered member zoos in more than 70 countries in six continents. Two million individual animals representing approximately 10,000 species are recorded. |
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| The ISIS global database is simply a list and does not allow any analysis of the populations. This task is achieved by SPARKS which analyses pedigree information to produce demographic and genetic data of the defined population. This data helps inform the species coordinator which animals to breed, how many to breed and where to move animals within EAZA member zoos. |
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| The next generation of ISIS software is currently under construction and will be available for use by zoological collections around the world by the end of 2007. Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS) will be a web-based global database on animal health and well-being, and will ultimately replace the current ARKS and SPARKS Software. See ZIMS pages on ISIS website for more information. It is a condition of EAZA membership that zoos join ISIS and will be condition of BIAZA’s membership once ZIMS is available to all members. |
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| Maximum genetic diversity |
| The key difference between the original studbooks for domestic stock and the modern studbook used for captive breeding is that the latter aim to maintain maximum genetic diversity and the behavioural characteristics of a species. This is different to the selective breeding in domestic stock, which accentuates certain characteristics some of which may be detrimental to the species if it were to live in the wild again. |
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| In order to present a comprehensive record of a species the studbook must contain details of every individual animal, both living and dead, starting, where possible, with the original wild-caught animals, the founders. |
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| A complete historical listing of all the animals in a studbook should be published every three years and annually there should be an update of which animals have been born, died, moved and which animals resided in which collections at the end of the year. Copies of updates and the studbook are sent to all current holders, co-ordinating bodies and other interested parties. |
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| Computer Dating? |
| The detailed breakdown of each animal’s genetic history and an analysis of the inbreeding coefficient of each animal and those resulting in hypothetical pairings enables the studbook keeper to determine which individuals would be most suitable for breeding and those which would not. The studbook keeper also needs to determine the level of representation (or relatedness) of some animals within the captive population. For example if a good breeding pair are allowed to continue breeding, the genetic diversity of the whole group could be threatened by over representation of too few animals. |
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| Whilst the initial stage of establishing a studbook is still a laborious process, the development of computer software programmes, such as SPARKS (Single Population Analysis and Records Keeping System) and PM2000 (Population Management 2000), have enabled detailed analysis and can determine the manner in which the population can be effectively managed. |
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| Case Study: The Diana Monkey Studbook |
| Perhaps the best way to review the scope of studbook analysis is to look at the studbook for the Diana monkey, (Cercopithecus diana diana). The Diana monkey is categorised as vulnerable in the Red Data Book (IUCN, 1990), and its captive situation is not yet secure. Although the studbook deals primarily with the management of the captive population, information is also given on distribution and status in the wild and on the Tiwai Island Project in Sierra Leone, which has involved studies of wild Diana monkey groups. |
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| “World Herd” |
| This studbook dealt at first only with the British Isles population, but was upgraded to include the world population and was published in early 1993 by the studbook keeper, Dr Miranda Stevenson of Edinburgh Zoo. |
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| The size of the captive population (the so-called “World Herd” size) was, at 31 st December 1991, 224. Animals were maintained in 77 collections in 22 countries, of which 24 collections were breeding the species (31% of the holders). Further analysis showed that the wild-caught founders were slowly dying out, and that therefore the future of the population depends on the breeding of captive bred stock. There have been no imports since the mid-seventies. |
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| Demographic Analysis |
| A demographic analysis has indicated that the age distribution across the population, for breeding purposes, is reasonably healthy: males and females reproductive parameters are similar with the best breeding occurring between 7-18 years of age; and that the carrying capacity of 200 animals would suffice to meet genetic and demographic requirements of the breeding programme . In other words, there are enough animals alive to achieve the goal of a self-sustaining captive population. |
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| In the past, inbreeding and hybridisation have created breeding problems. The Diana monkey studbook omitted all known hybrids from breeding programmes. |
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| An evaluation of captive husbandry has been undertaken and the results are incorporated in the 1993 studbook update. The analysis indicates that the species does not appear to have any special requirements. Once the breeding group or pair has been established they should successfully continue to breed; the most significant problems occur in the initial formation of the group. Dietary information shows that the Diana monkey’s requirements do not appear to be complex and are similar to those of other Old World primates. |
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| Case Study: the Amur tiger EEP |
| There are five subspecies of tigers left in the world; Indian (Bengal), Amur (Siberian), Sumatran, Indochinese and South China tigers. The vast majority of captive tigers, overall, are known hybrids or of unknown origin and so are not useful for conservation breeding purposes. Only tigers whose ancestry can be traced back through written records to animals of a single subspecies originally captured from the wild can be included in conservation breeding programmes. |
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| The validity of the existing taxonomic divisions for tigers is by no means certain, but the point as far as conservationists are concerned is that tigers have evolved a suite of genetic adaptations to conditions across their range, and our conservation actions both in the wild and in zoos should seek to preserve these, thinking in terms of populations rather than subspecies. |
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| Breeding programmes are not just about breeding as many animals as possible. More co-ordination is required if the programme is to be successful. In most breeding programmes the amount of available enclosure space for the animals is the main limiting factor. Good quality tiger enclosures are spacious and relatively expensive to build, and so there is a limited supply of tiger space in zoos. Tigers breed extremely well in captivity and grow up quickly - after two years or less, youngsters and their parents will fight and must be separated. It follows that if the zoo world as a whole wishes to always be able to find good homes for tigers born in its zoos, it must take steps to regulate breeding so that just enough cubs are born each year to replace tigers that die. |
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| This is part of the role of the EEP coordinator, so every year the co-ordinator advises each zoo in the programme whether or not it should breed from its tigers. Even for zoos with purebred tigers participating in the programme, the co-ordinator must carefully choose the most genetically suitable pairings for breeding in order to preserve the maximum amount of genetic diversity, and the number of cubs born must be limited. |
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| Tigers in zoos contribute to conservation in four ways; preserving genetic diversity over time, educating and informing the general public, fundraising, and information gathering. Contributions in all of these areas are exponentially increased if the institution concerned is working in a co-ordinated fashion with other zoos, and the genetic diversity goal cannot in fact be served at all in isolation. For more on how zoo tigers contribute to conservation, read Zoo Tigers and Tiger Conservation by Sarah Christie, ZSL. |
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| The European breeding programme for tigers is called the “EEP” – the acronym is German in origin and means “European breeding programme for endangered species”, and includes all the Russian zoos as well as all of Europe. |
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