INTRODUCTION

Today, most zoos depend upon maintaining their collections of animals by raising their own display animals, or trading, or buying animals from other zoos. Thus, a breeding program is usually a necessity as well as being a factor in promoting natural behavior in the animals themselves. In many cases it is no longer practical to buy wild captured specimens for display as it was a generation ago.

This module presents information about the International Species Inventory System (ISIS). That program was designed to help ensure genetic diversity, especially among rare and endangered species kept in zoos.

Part of the breeding program may involve hand rearing of newborns that for one reason or another are not accepted by a parent. Suggestions for hand rearing are included in this module.

Sometimes zoos need to limit reproduction of certain species and you will learn about some ways to do that.

Pregnant females and those about to give birth require special handling and environment. As a zookeeper, there are several things that you can do in order to improve the survival rate of newborns.