This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: In the largest study of its kind, researchers at Nottingham Trent University analyzed more than 7,200 species across 613 zoos in 72 countries over a 30-year period. The team compared changes in zoo animal holdings with changes in species' conservation status, including extinction risk, international trade protections and involvement in zoo conservation breeding programs.
Zoos and aquariums manage the fate of thousands of species worldwide, from breeding programs that help bring animals back from the brink of extinction to everyday decisions about which species to house and where. The researchers argue the study has revealed the complex and competing factors that go into zoos' decisions on species planning and points to ways the sector could further sharpen its conservation impact. The research, which also involved NTU's Nottingham Business School, is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
Working with data provided by nonprofit organization Species360, the team found that species that became more threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species or had increased trade restrictions were generally not more likely to be held by additional zoos. Similarly, species that became less threatened or had trade restrictions reduced were rarely phased out. Once species were established within a zoo, zoos generally committed to sustaining the species over the long term, the study showed.
Domestic species, pet-trade reptiles and crowd favorites such as chickens, goats, meerkats and sheep were among the species showing the strongest increases in zoo holdings, suggesting visitor engagement, and the funding it generates for conservation work, continued to shape collection decisions alongside formal conservation criteria. The largest predictor of growth in zoo holdings was participation in management or breeding programs, rather than changes in animals' conservation or protection status, despite some species with expanding breeding programs being of relatively low conservation concern. The researchers say this underlines coordinated, community-run breeding programs as one of the zoo sector's most effective conservation tools, building on the sector's track record of high-profile ex situ recovery efforts for species such as the California condor, black-footed ferret and Arabian oryx.
The team argues their findings make the case for more strategic and standardized species planning frameworks to help zoos weigh conservation value alongside these other pressures more explicitly and consistently across the sector. These approaches should strengthen, rather than replace, the judgment calls zoos already make, they say. "We revealed a conservation gap in zoos, finding that most did not consistently increase support for species as their conservation concern increased, nor reduce support when it decreased," said Samantha Ward, professor of zoo animal welfare and legislation in Nottingham Trent University's School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences.
She said, "Instead, species managed through zoo breeding programs, including popular visitor favorites, were more likely to expand. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. d research that matter—daily or weekly. "Challenges for zoos globally could include limited space and expertise.
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