Ex situ conservation

• Ex situ conservation

  Conservation of species outside their natural habitats
• Main examples of ex situ conservation

  • Conservation of animals
  • Botanical gardens
• Role of wildlife parks in modern times

  • Concentration on breeding programs for endangered species
• Advantages of captive breeding programmes

  • Allows for possibility of reintroducing a species to the wild
  • Takes animals from extinction, disease and other threats
  • Provides better living conditions for animals
• Disadvantages of captive breeding programmes

  • Animals not in natural environment
  • Limited success with breeding programs
  • Only small numbers of individuals
  • Problems reintroducing animals raised in captivity to the wild
• Technology in breeding programmes

  Artificial insemination of sperm and IVF
• Role of botanical gardens and arboreta

  • Rescuing plant species
  • Preserving genetic diversity
• Advantages of ex situ plant conservation

  • Dormant stages in life cycle can be preserved
  • Plants are produced in large numbers so can be collected from the wild without much impact
  • Can breed plants rapidly producing large numbers
  • Can be planted in the wild
• Disadvantages of ex situ plant conservation

  • Collecting wild plants can deplete populations
  • Samples may not be representative
  • Plants cannot be bred indefinitely
  • Casually produced plants show no genetic variation
• Seed banks are carefully maintained to preserve seeds that may be grown in the future
• Kew Millennium Seed Bank Project

  A project to collect a representative sample from every known species of plant
• Uses of seed banks other than for storage

  • Reintroducing species to the wild
  • Sources of building materials
  • Plants contain seeds that remain viable for centuries
• Seeds can remain viable for many years in seed banks
• Scientists need to carry out germination tests on seed bank samples to determine seed viability