There are many difficult questions that institutions and organizations must face when considering captive populations. This is very evident in the issues brought forth in Ceballos et al. (2017), Lees and Wilcken (2009), and Lacy (2013). If you want to see the cutting edge side of how this is getting done in a structured and analytical way for many species you can check out Structured Decision Making (Links to an external site.) (SDM). Yet, even in these structured approaches, a lot of it comes down to the values of the team making the decision (in other words, SDM allows the integration of value systems into an analytical framework).
At the highest level, perhaps the most difficult values-based question is what to save. As we have learned in Lees and Wilcken (2009) and Lacy (2013), the world of captive populations is driven by the resources that are available. For this assignment, we are going to pretend you are the director of a new zoo. A mining company has just given you 10,000 acres of a reclaimed strip mine (taken from a real scenario – The Wilds (Links to an external site.)) and your job is to decide and convince your board which strategic direction you should take for your new zoo. You get to choose a lineage of very imperiled species to focus on. Here is a list of groups that would fit this bill. You can also find your own:
Freshwater turtles
Pangolins
Primates
Salamanders
Freshwater mussels
Freshwater snails
Cycads
Bats
Wild canids
Wild felines
Lemurs
Baking yeast
Etc.
Lets assume for the purposes of this exercise that you are well-funded and that while bringing the public in is a goal, you dont need to draw huge crowds.
Strategic Direction 1: Start captive populations for as many species as possible, Including extremely rare species on the brink of extinction (only a few individuals left in the world).
Strategic Direction 2: Start large captive populations for a few select species that are rare but still have at least hundreds of individuals left.
Your assignment:
Write a short persuasive report (1-2 pages) on which strategic direction you think your new zoo should take and why. Compare and contrast the near term and long term consequences of your strategic direction. Make sure to defend your argument using the resources provided and any others you can find.
