Via ZSL London Zoo: When visiting London Zoo you will see lots of animals that are part of conservation breeding programmes. This means they are part of a concerted effort to save their species with a population that could eventually be released back into the wild. For many of the species involved this goal remains out of reach at the moment because their natural habitats are so depleted they can’t sustain populations, and the animals’ wild counterparts are steadily declining or possibly already extinct-in-the-wild. But for others the news is better and London Zoo conservationists have been able to successfully breed and reintroduce animals back to the wild. This includes animals like the partula snail, northern bald ibis, fen raft spider and many others over the years. We are also able to use everything we learn from keeping animals here to advise vets and conservationists in other countries reintroducing animals from protected breeding populations elsewhere. This includes species like griffon vultures, hihi birds and even Amur tigers in Russia.

To make an example, my local zoo is one of many that recently partecipated to an acustic research. The goal is to find to develop a reliable way to distinguish individual roaring cats by their voice. This would make much easier identification in the wild, which at this point mostly relies on direct observation or camera traps.

@@alezot6141 and where, pray tell, is your local zoo and what name is it?

Yep.

Yes... With fewer than 1000 left in the wild, all it would take to entirely lose this species is for a new disease to appear and wipe them out - something we've witnessed in more than a dozen other species less threatened. Animals in captivity make it possible to study their biology in order to help wild animals fight deadly new illnesses.

From what I heard, Prague Zoo is in negotiations to receive some. Fingers crossed!

@@alezot6141 too bad that’s not in the USA