Ex-situ Conservation of Animals

Edexcel AS-level BiologyBiodiversityLesson 17 of 22

Ex situ conservation of animals takes place mainly in zoos, wildlife parks and aquaria. Their main conservation role is captive breeding: building up the numbers of endangered species in safety, ideally so that they can be returned to the wild.

Captive populations are often founded from a small number of animals, so genetic diversity is low and there is a risk of inbreeding (breeding between close relatives). Inbreeding increases the chance that offspring inherit two copies of a harmful recessive allele. To reduce this, zoos:
• keep a studbook, a record of every animal's ancestry, and use it to choose unrelated breeding pairs;

More in Biodiversity

• Ecosystem Services
• Conserving Ecosystems
• Conservation
• Ex-Situ Conservation of Plants
• In-Situ Conservation
• In-situ Conservation Strategies
• National Parks
• Conflicts with Conservation

All 22 lessons in Biodiversity · All Edexcel AS-level Biology topics