Evolution of Avian Conservation Breeding With Insights for Addressing the Current Extinction Crisis

Abstract

Birds have been bred in captivity since the dawn of civilization. In the nineteenth century, breeding rare and exotic animals for the menageries of royalty and aristocrats transitioned to the formation of public zoological gardens and natural history museums. With industrialization and human population expansion, some bird species became rare or disappeared entirely. Once the magnitude of the destructive forces of humans became evident, concerted efforts were initiated to restore depleted bird populations by using, among other techniques, captive breeding. In this article, I explore the evolution of avian conservation breeding programs and evaluate how this historical review informs our outlook for addressing the current extinction crisis.

Carry‐over effects of nestling physical condition predict first‐year survival of a critically endangered migratory parrot

“…Many species are facing declining populations and the threat of extinction globally (IPBES, 2019). Breeding animals in captivity for release to the wild is a widespread conservation strategy (D'Elia, 2010; Conde et al ., 2011), but is not without challenges as these programs are extremely resource intensive and captive‐bred animals generally do not survive as well as wild conspecifics (Fischer & Lindenmayer, 2000; Jule, Leaver, & Lea, 2008; Robert, 2009; Imlay et al ., 2010; White et al ., 2012; Carrete & Tella, 2015). Low post‐release survival of captive‐bred animals can be driven by a number of different factors.…”