Conservation

EX-SITU CONSERVATION
 ex-situ conservation of plants
BOTANIC GARDENS
• Botanic gardens are the plant equivalent of zoos
• They use cuttings and seeds collected from the wild to establish a population of the
endangered species in captivity
• They investigate reproduction and growth in different plant species so that they can be
grown in captivity

SEED BANKS
• A seed bank is a facility that conserves plant diversity by drying and storing seeds in a
temperature controlled environment
• Usually, seeds of the same species are collected from different sites to maintain the gene pool
• If the plant species goes extinct then the seeds can be used to grow them again
• Seeds can only be stored for so long. After a certain period of time the stored seeds are
grown into plants and fresh seeds for storage are taken from those plants
• In order to preserve the genetic diversity of these plants successive generations must be
grown or tissue cultures taken

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 ex-situ conservation of animals
ZOOS
• Zoos use various methods to conserve endangered species and their
genetic diversity, some of the methods used include:
• Scientific research such as studying the behaviour of animals, working on
improving breeding success to increase the population size and controlling
and eradicating diseases that have the potential to be lethal to animals
• Captive breeding programmes in which endangered species are carefully
bred to increase genetic diversity and population size
• Reintroduction programmes which aim to release animals bred in captivity
into their natural habitat as well as to restore lost habitats
• Education programmes which aim to educate people about the
importance of maintaining biodiversity, captive breeding programmes, as
well as illegal trade of animal products.

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Problems with captive breeding
and reintroduction programmes
• There is not enough space or sufficient resources in zoos and parks for all the
endangered species.

• It is often difficult to provide the right conditions for breeding.

• Reintroduction to the wild will be unsuccessful.

• Animals that have been bred in captivitiy may have great problems in adjusting to
unsupported life in the wild.

• When the population is small the gene pool is reduced and this can cause serious
problems such as the increasing the frequency of vulnerable alleles– zoos try to
overcome this by swapping sperm samples between zoos to maximise genetic
variation.
Genetic drift may result in the loss of some alleles
(including beneficial ones) and the fixation, or rise to
frequency, of other alleles
What does a stud book do?
Studbooks contain the registration number of each animal of
the particular species kept under human care, its sex and
birthdate, the identity of its parents, where it was born and
where (and when) it was transferred to other institutions.