Don’t zoos hedge against extinction through captive breeding programs?
For many years, zoos and circuses relied primarily on importation from the wild to sustain their captive population. In recent years, public opinion and the protection of Asian and African elephants under CITES Appendix I and II has made it difficult for zoos and circuses to import elephants from the wild*. As a result they now rely almost entirely on captive breeding. At this stage, captive populations are in decline; far from being able to produce individuals to reintroduce to the wild, zoos are not able to maintain even their own populations. If elephants are allowed adequate space and better conditions overall, we believe that captive breeding programs will be more successful. So in a sense, members of the AZA (US) who are fighting against the movement toward sanctuary-sized elephant exhibits are shooting themselves in the foot – if, that is, hedging against extinction is a genuine reason for keeping elephants in zoos. But, let’s say that zoos were able to breed elephants successfu
