IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Williams, S.E.; Hoffman, E.A. | |
| Minimizing genetic adaptation in captive breeding programs: A review | |
| 2009 Biological Conservation (142): 2388-2400 | |
Captive breeding for species of conservation concern is the act of bringing rare or endangered animals intocaptivity with the hope of rearing sustained captive populations for eventual reintroduction into the wild. Within captivity, genetic changes can occur that may reduce a species' ability to persist once a populationis reintroduced back into its natural habitat. We sought to determine the efficacy of recommendations made to minimize genetic adaptation to captivity by addressing the following questions: (i) Are these recommendations already being carried out in captive programs? (ii) How practical is each recommendation? and (iii) Which recommendations call for future investigation? We performed an extensive search of the published literature for studies of non-domestic, non-model, captive animals in which the investigatorsused and reported a strategy that can minimize genetic adaptation to the captive environment. We found different forms of each recommendation already being executed in captive programs to varying degrees. In all, we reviewed 90 articles covering four broad categories of strategies. We conclude that the best approach to minimize genetic adaptation is to reduce the number of generations that a species spendsin captivity. If this is not possible, then we suggest attempting to minimize generations first by delayingreproduction and then by cryopreservation of germplasm. Other strategies are effective to varying degreesdepending on the species' natural history. A large gap in the current literature is the interactive effects ofmultiple strategies being implemented simultaneously, future research should focus on this issue. |
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