Captive Management and Breeding
Decades ago, zoos had little success in breeding their captive
animals. When their animals died, they often captured more from the wild to maintain
their collections. More recently, better care and nutrition in zoos has led to
more success in managing and breeding animals in captivity. Today about 90% of
mammals in U.S. zoos are captive-born.
Captive-breeding efforts are focused on saving tigers from extinction. There are several things to consider when breeding captive tigers.
1) What do you think is the best strategy to save the tiger?
- Breed as many tigers as possible to increase their numbers
- Breed selectively to strengthen genetic diversity
2) What do you think is the best way for selecting which tigers to breed?
3) What do you think is the most common method for breeding tigers?
- Naturally, just like in the wild
- Artificial methods such
as artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization
4) How do zookeepers identify tigers?
