Through strategic breeding, Zoo works to protect threatened species
Welcome to the world’s wildest daycare center where John Ball Zoo’s staff is taking care of a horde of baby animals due to multiple recent births and hatchings.
This year, the Zoo has welcomed multiple new additions — an eastern mountain bongo calf, a snow leopard cub, three lynx kits and three penguin chicks — and there may be more births on the horizon. This is due to the Zoo’s participation in strategic breeding to aid vulnerable species conservation locally and around the world.
“The baby animals our guests know, and love are the result of highly scientific strategies to conserve populations of threatened and endangered species, so they are sustained long into the future,” said Marcus Zevalkink, general curator at the Zoo. “John Ball Zoo is primarily a conservation organization, and we’re proud to be part of helping ensure the long-term sustainability of many species.”
John Ball Zoo participates in more than 40 Species Survival Plan Programs through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), through which the Zoo is accredited with the highest standard of animal care in the world. In these programs, experts recommend breeding pairs based on population goals in order to maintain a genetically diverse, demographically varied and biologically sound population that is sustainable long into the future.
Species Survival Plans also help to ensure animals are not collected from the wild and placed in zoos. In fact, the vast majority of species in human care are not collected from the wild. Those that are, in many cases, would not have been able to survive in the wild. In addition to creating a stable population in human care, there is an opportunity to create an insurance population that is genetically sound. In cases where wild populations are struggling, animals could be released to help the species population grow, potentially saving a species from extinction. In fact, this has been the case for many wild populations. Without this work through the AZA, some species like black-footed ferrets, red wolves, California condors and more would no longer exist in the wild.
In some cases, the process of finding a genetically sound breeding pair could take years. In the case of snow leopards, the Zoo worked for five years to pair an appropriate mate with its male snow leopard, Mylo. In 2023, Yuki, the female snow leopard, was transferred to John Ball Zoo from Canada in hopes the pair would successfully breed. Matching this pair resulted in the birth of a snow leopard cub this year, which is very important to the long-term sustainability of this threatened species.
“The complex process that leads to the birth of new animals brings so much joy to our guests, and that is the secondary benefit of strategically breeding animals,” Zevalkink said. “The number one goal is always the conservation of wildlife and wild places, and through this process we can be more assured that these amazing species will exist for generations to come.”
