Lecture 6b: Captive Breeding Programs and Species Recovery Flashcards
Extinction Crisis
There is a major extinction crisis
+150,300 species on the Red List
What role do zoos have in saving species?
- animal husbandry and welfare expertise
- research and conservation science
- education and advocacy
- species recovery and stewardship
Species Recovery - partnership
University researcher
Zoo Professional
Government, NGOs Biologists
- takes a city to recover a species
- require efforts at both the academic and applied field
Partnership - resource sharing
- animals
- technical expertise
- facilities/experiment
- project funds
Endangered Species Breeding Program
- Vancouver Island Marmot: one of the most endangered mammals in North America with about 200 remaining
- Black-footed ferret was once thought to be extinct, captive breeding has ensured its survival
How do we achieve recovery?
- collaborating with Recovery Programs/SSP’s, multiple institutions, and organizations involved
- maintain as much genetic diversity as possible
- produce surplus offspring for reintroduction
Why Captive Breeding?
- becomes the only viable option
- habitat loss, climate change, lack of food source issues
Black-footed ferrets extinct?
- thought to be extinct
- put up posters to search if any remain
reason for the decline in black-footed ferrets
- poisoning of prarie dogs
- loss of their primary food source and grassland habitats
- farmers were paid to kill them because they would create these burrows
Black-footed ferret History
- population crash due to destruction of prarie dog habitat and disease
- 1981 - rediscovered thanks to a Farmer’s dog finding a dead one
- went to go look for them and found them
- last remaining 18 animals brought into captivity in 1987
- 7 of them actually reproduced
- the whole population’s genetics is based on those 7 individuals
- 6 institutions are participating in the managing the captive population (the only Canadian one)
- Development of successful breeding and release protocol
- protection of habitat, plague, distemper vaccines developed
Black-footed ferret recovery - organization team
- zoological organizations
- government agencies
- private agencies
- state wildlife agencies
- numerous private stakeholders
takes a lot of organizations to recovery this species
Studbook data
- each individual animal is put into the studbook
- given a studbook number
- keeps record of their genetics
- used to manage genetics and optimize the genetics of this population
Breeding Matrix
- matrix to decide which is the best match
- 1 is the best
- dashes would never pair as it can have detrimental impact on the genetics of the captive population
- season and induced breeders : need the best match or lost that female for that whole year
Breeding Techniques
- hands on breeding protocol developed
- Estrus cycle manipulated through diet and photoperiod
- animals restrained regularly to determine fertility
- females in estrus paired and behaviour videotaped
Cytology
- checked regularly during the breeding session to determine reproductive readiness
- the study of cells using a microscope
What indicates estrus from cytology
Vuval size and cornification of epithelial cells flushed from the vulval wall
Electroejaculation
- procedure used to obtain semen samples from sexually mature male mammals
- characterize semen traits
- sperm cryopreservation
- fertility potential in males
Sperm Morphology
- related to sperm function
- compromised by inbreeding
- bad structure: bent tail, coiled tail, and bent midpiece
- bad ones are taken out of the breeding program for that reason
Assisted Reproduction
- artificial insemination used to improve founder representation and enhance reproductive efficiency in non-breeders
- when you bring old frozen sperms, you are boosting the genetic pool
- improve founder representation
- non-breeders
- boost genetic pool
Shipping Restrictions
- USFWS Endangered Species Act
- CITIES Permits and Enhancement
Paperwork to send the ferrets to the states since we are Canadian institution
Preconditioning Bootcamp
- once they reach 3 months of age in our facility to go to USFWS Carr, Colorado
- prepare them for release
- they have these huge habitats where they would release them - have to be able to survive these natural burrows
Why do we monitor BFF?
- Determine success of reintroduction
- make reintroduction more successful
- learn about wild populations
How are they monitored?
- spotlighting
- live-trapping
Spotlighting
- primary method
- they are nocturnal -> only come out of burrows until night time
- given PIT tags - to ID them
- when spotlighting at night, give off green light eyes
- once you find them, go to the burrows, place the chip reader
- they would pop their head up (they are curious) and then we can monitor them
Live trapping
- post-release 30 days
- fall monitoring where we go in with our hands
- to check their health and protect them from diseases
- cages mimic their burrows to capture them
Sylvatic Plague
- disease
- fatal to prarie dogs and black-footed ferrets
Montana
- this site was having amazing results
- got it from 0 to 383
- monitored the population
- but plague hut and in one year, it went to 8 ferrets
Return of the Black-footed ferret to Canada
- was considered extirpated in Canada
- “Extirpated” in April 1978 by COSEWIC
- would not release them there
- it was thought that up north there wasn’t a big prarie dog population to support reintroduction so they have been releasing them into U.S. and Mexico
- Canadian recovery team was established in 2004
- In June 2004 - workshop took place
- 27 scientists and managers from the US and Canada got together in Grasslands National Park
- scoped the area
- found high density of prarie dogs
- established a recovery team
VORTEX Population Habitat Viability Took Place
- computer stimulation
- provide all their information (birth rate, longetivity)
- it would produce the probability of survival/persistance
Recovery Goal in Canada
Establish a population in Canada that has a less than 20% probability of extinction in 20 years
Canadian Monitoring Efforts
- first monitoring period: 30 days post-release -> determine early survival rates
- surveyed every spring (late March/early April) -> determine winter survival and spatial distribution
- Monitoring surveys and live trappings -> estimate annual population size and litter production
What happened to the released BFF in Canada in 2010?
a prarie dog was infected with plague
Dusting
Parks Canada has been given approval to apply insecticide (DeltaDust) on targeted dog colonies. This is to reduce flea populations, the carriers of the plague.
Drones
Used to distribute peanut butter balls that acted as oral vaccines for prarie dogs to protect them against the plague
Challenges
- 2012 was the last release
- during fall monitoring 2014-2016, no ferrets were found
- new: they are susceptible to coronaviruses
