Ensuring animal and plant populations are sustainable, both within zoos and in their native ranges, is a key goal of conservation zoos.

Population resilience and reproductive success are crucial for maintaining species' health and stability over time. The establishment of sustainable populations underpins rich biodiversity, ecosystem health and the long-term coexistence of humans with other species.

Our priorities

• Expand the application of wildlife endocrinology and conservation physiology to support conservation breeding programmes and management.

• Promote the use of reproductive management in decision making for ex situ conservation breeding programmes.

• Develop and increase the application of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) to support animal breeding programs.

• Develop cutting-edge techniques in cryopreservation and promote the incorporation of these both in and ex situ in a one-plan approach to conservation.

• Advance the application of bioacoustic monitoring to support population management.

• Promote and encourage the incorporation of genetic information into decision making for threatened populations both in- and ex-situ.

• Develop and improve capacity for temporal and spatial population modelling.

• Design innovative techniques for the survey and monitoring of priority threatened populations in-situ.

• Support the botanic garden community to develop population management tools for endangered plant species.

We employ many different strands of science to support population sustainability. These include both endocrine and behavioural studies, crucial to understanding the reproductive biology of the diverse range of species that depend on conservation breeding programmes.

As well as developing a deeper understanding of species physiology and new reproductive and population resilience-related methodologies, we recognise conservation breeding programmes may need additional support to ensure viable populations in human care. We support many organisations in their conservation breeding work.

Chester Zoo has a long history in reproductive management, co-founding the EAZA Reproductive Management Group and co-managing a global database on the use of contraception in wildlife.

Here, you can find several case studies representing some of our projects in this area.

Discover our work

Scientists and researchers at Chester Zoo are engaged in a host of projects that deepen our understanding of how people, society and zoos intersect with conservation.