What Problems Are There With Captive Breeding Programs?

Many species are maintained as relatively stable populations in captivity, but many other species are represented in captivity in only small numbers. One major problem with this is that the sizes of most breeding programs for threatened species, even many of those that are well managed, can't ensure that the populations will maintain the original genetic diversity through very many more generations. Captive species may become increasingly inbred and lose the variations in their wild ancestors.

Part of the problem is that many breeding programs started with so few animals, often fewer than 10 and now there is little chance of maintaining the population for more than a few generations before it becomes so inbred that it may not survive. Sometimes this happens because animals that were brought into captivity for other reasons (display, research, or confiscations) and were only later used to establish a viable breeding program.

Other times, even when it is recognized that a captive population may be needed to secure the future of a species in the short term, we wait until there are so few animals left in the species.