Role of Brazilian zoos in ex situ bird conservation: from 1981 to 2005

Abstract

Zoos may play an important role in conservation when they maintain and breed large numbers of animals that are threatened with extinction. Bird conservation is in a privileged situation owing to the extensive biological information available about this class. Annual inventories produced by the "Sociedade de Zoológicos do Brasil" in the years 1981, 1990, 2000, and 2005 were analyzed. Variables, such as the number of zoos per geographic region; number of birds held; number of bird species in each IUCN threat category; number of exotic and native bird species; number of potentially breeding bird species; number of bird species in each order; and number of threatened bird species breeding, were analyzed. Brazilian zoos kept more than 350 bird species. The number of bird species and specimens held by the Brazilian Zoos increased from 1981 to 2000, but decreased in 2005. The same pattern was observed for the number of species in each IUCN threat category. Results showed that the potential of the Brazilian zoos in bird conservation needs to be enhanced because they maintain threatened species but do not implement systematic genetic, reproductive, or behavioral management protocols for most species.

Enriquecimento ambiental em zoológicos: em busca do bem-estar animal

“…Ainda, apesar do maior número de estudos ocorrer com espécies com situação pouco preocupante no sentido conservacionista, uma substancial porcentagem de estudos tem ocorrido com espécies com algum grau de ameaça de extinção. Obviamente, o número de espécies ameaçadas de extinção nos plantéis dos zoológicos brasileiros é menor do que o número de espécies não ameaçadas (um padrão que se repete no mundo; Azevedo et al, 2011;Conde et al, 2013), o que pode se .29 refletir nesse resultado. Entretanto, o bem-estar animal deve ser uma premissa dos zoológicos, independente do grau de ameaça da espécie em questão (Draper & Harris, 2011).…”