Question

Some species of animals, such as cheetahs and gorillas, are going extinct in the wild but are conserved through breeding at zoos.

Do you agree with maintaining a species through zoo programs like this?

Do you think species should "run their course" and natural selection should occur?

Answer 1

Captive breeding of animals or keeping them in zoo reduce their chances to have variation in genetic material since, they never interact with wild population.

When animals are kept in zoo in cages they are never around their natural habitat like forest, tree, or other animals like them due to which they fail to develop natural instincts then this kind of captive animals when later mated with wild or introduced in wild their survival ratio reduce so the best way to preserve them in natural habitats and support natural breeding or matting.