Ex situ conservation

Since the 80s and 90s, the world’s major animal parks have been working together to avoid the pitfalls of inbreeding and to decide which species should be bred first.

The parks that are most sensitive to this conservation action have formed associations (EAZA for Europe, AZA for North America, etc.), and each of these associations has organized itself to define the countless actions to be carried out by its members to ensure that the captive wild animal population as a whole can be maintained in the long term, without the need to include new specimens from the wild. To this end, they have appointed a coordinator for each of the species benefiting from the highest level of management: Breeding Programs (EEP) and Studbooks (ESB). This coordinator has all the genealogical information for the species he/she is responsible for, and once a year he/she gives breeding instructions for the coming year to the various members throughout Europe.

This sometimes means having to part with a precious animal because a genetically compatible partner lives several thousand kilometers away. To remain members of the EAZA, animal parks must abide by these recommendations and never give a market value to the animals they dispose of. All this is done in the interest of the species and without any financial compensation.