What is the role of the studbook in zoo and aquarium research?
Abstract In zoos and aquariums globally, studbooks provide a format by which threatened or important species populations can be carefully managed. These documents can be used to answer complex questions about animal population demographics, animal husbandry, breeding success and mortality. Given the time-intensive nature of studbook collation, only a subset of all animal species held […]
Linking management practices with survival to improve outcomes for a red wolf population
Ex situ breeding programs serve as an important conservation tool for threatened and endangered species. Such programs must strike a balance among the immediate welfare needs of individual animals, growing the population, maintaining genetic diversity, and ensuring a successful release. While several carnivores have been successfully reintroduced into the wild from ex situ populations, little […]
Advancing the science behind animal program sustainability: An overview of the special issue
Over the last ten years, zoos and aquariums around the world have been coming to grips with the “sustainability crisis” – the realization that most of our collaboratively managed animal populations are not viable for the long-term. Many initiatives have been launched at the regional, zoological association, program, and institutional levels to improve the long-term […]
Birth of common shovelnose rays (Glaucostegus typus) under captive conditions
The common shovelnose ray (Glaucostegus typus) is a poorly studied species of the Rhinobatidae family that occurs throughout the Indo-West Pacific. Although common in aquariums throughout the United States, there are currently no records of captive birth events. In 2013, a female common shovelnose ray housed at the Downtown Aquarium in Houston, Texas, USA gave […]
Evaluating Conservation Breeding Success for an Extinct-in-the-Wild Antelope
With the number of threatened species increasing globally, conservation breeding is vitally important now more than ever. However, no previous peer-reviewed study has attempted to determine how the varying conditions across zoos have influenced breeding by an extinct-in- the-wild species. We therefore use questionnaires and studbook data to evaluate the influence of husbandry practices and […]