Last year at least 45 known animal species got extinct “forever”, and there’s more to come. Thousands of plant and animal species face extinction in the near future. Based on the current numbers combined with limitations in resources, ex-situ breeding will only be able to support a fraction of all species most urgently in need of help. These insights put pressure on the plan to temporarily safeguard species via the creation of sustainable back-up populations, e.g. within zoo’s, and marks the need to re-evaluate our current management practices in a holistic framework.
While resources are a key limiting factor in our conservation efforts, data is on our side. The shared ex-situ records register is immense and, with details information on the whereabouts, medical status, breeding attempts, socials interactions of individuals being added constantly, is growing as we speak. We argue that these records, originally gathered for direct management purposes, hold largely untouched opportunities to evaluate and improve our current conservation efforts. Likewise we argue that genetics forms an ideal instrument to marry in-situ needs with ex-situ opportunities.
We use the cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus) conservation efforts as a case to demonstrate how historic zoo records can improve our understanding on species specific needs and apply acquired insights to improve breeding success. Linked to this we highlight how technological advances and automation will become instrumental to improve conservation breeding practices even more. Combining these ideas with genetic insights being gathered while analysing ongoing translocations programs in France, we furthermore highlight how to more formally combine in-situ and ex-situ conservation efforts.
Altogether we wish to demonstrate the wealth of data available to improve species conservation, and likewise hope to inspire future scientists to think outside the box when searching for information needed to turn the tide and reverse the loss of biodiversity.