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3 - Headstarting as a Conservation Strategy for Threatened and Endangered Species

from Part I - Programs and Initiatives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2018

By
Patrick Thomas ,
Donal M. Boyer ,
David A. Oehler ,
Scott Silver  and
Lou Perrotti
Edited by
Allison B. Kaufman ,
Meredith J. Bashaw  and
Terry L. Maple
Allison B. Kaufman
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
Meredith J. Bashaw
Affiliation:
Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania
Terry L. Maple
Affiliation:
Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens
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Summary

Zoos can play an integral role in headstarting, a conservation strategy involving the rearing of animals in zoos from birth or hatching and throughout the time when they are susceptible to the mortalities young animals experience in nature. Once they pass that critical period, they are returned to nature to help sustain wild populations. WCS’s Bronx and Queens zoos are involved in several such programs. The Bronx Zoo was instrumental in identifying the parameters required to rear maleo chicks, an endangered Indonesian bird. WCS’s field program in Indonesia adopted these protocols and 12,772 chicks have been headstarted since 2001. The Queens and Roger Williams Park Zoos are part of a multiagency team headstarting New England cottontail rabbits (NECTs), a species with a declining population. To date, 191 NECTs have been reintroduced to sites in New England. The Bronx Zoo also works with Eastern hellbenders, the US’s largest amphibian. The zoo hatches hellbender eggs collected from Allegheny watershed streams and rears the young until they reach a size where they are too large for most aquatic predators. The zoo has successfully reared nearly 300 hellbenders for release.
Type
Chapter
Information
Scientific Foundations of Zoos and Aquariums
Their Role in Conservation and Research
 , pp. 91 - 111
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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