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MONDAY, JULY 16, 2012 Copyright © 2012 The New York Times
Zoos Struggle to Breed
Rare Species in Captivity
By LESLIE KAUFMAN
FRONT ROYAL, Virginia — With extinctions
rising and habitats being destroyed,
zoos are trying to breed about
160 endangered species.
But 83 percent of those species in North
American zoos are not meeting the targets
set for maintaining their genetic
diversity, the Association of Zoos and
Aquariums reports.
After two decades, the captive population
of 281 cheetahs in North America
gives birth to only 15 cubs, on average, a
year, half of what is needed to maintain a
healthy replacement level. And they are
not nearly as difficult to breed as pandas,
which last produced a cub in captivity in
America in 2010.
Zoos must learn to mate animals as socalled
insurance populations, before their
situation in the wild becomes untenable,
said Jack Grisham, who coordinates the
association’s cheetah breeding plan. The
disappointing success rate has led many
to say they would prefer to see the money
Captive cheetahs don’t
reproduce quickly enough
to ensure their future.
go to preserving wild habitats and species.
“I’d be happier about captive breeding
if I thought it helped wild cheetahs,” said
Luke Hunter, president of Panthera, a
nonprofit group with offices in New York
and London that works on global conservation
efforts for big cats in the wild, including
cheetahs. “Free of threats, they
breed like rabbits in the wild. They don’t
need supercostly assisted reproduction
— they need a place to roam.”
Each year the Smithsonian’s National
Zoo in Washington spends about $350,000
on breeding cheetahs at its 1,300-hectare
campus here in Front Royal, which houses
18 other species. Similar programs exist
at four other centers run by zoos.
At the turn of the 20th century, roughly
100,000 cheetahs roamed from Africa to
the Mediterranean to India, according
to the Smithsonian. Today, experts estimate
7,000 to 10,000 remain in the wild as
a result of habitat loss, poaching, and conflicts
with farmers and ranchers.
Mr. Grisham said the pressures on
animals in the wild are so great that zoo
The summer vacation season in the
United States is under way and many are
planning to go … nowhere.
LENS
The Travel Channel
tries to inspire
people to get off their
couches, featuring
shows like “Extreme
Water Parks,” which
takes the audience to
the world’s highest and
steepest water slide in
Fortaleza, Brazil, and
“Trip Flip,” where those already on vacation
are upgraded to the swankiest hotels
For comments, write to
nytweekly@nytimes.com.
animals may someday have to serve as a
genetic insurance bank.
In a closed population, as in zoos, the
priority is high levels of genetic diversity
to maintain a species’ adaptability and
prevent inbreeding. The result is a kind
of reverse natural selection, with the animals
with the lowest rate of success vaulting
to the top of the priority list because of
the rareness of their genes.
Many zoos do not have enough genetic
variation to ensure long-term survival
in captivity. “Noah got it all wrong,” said
Sarah Long, director of the Population
Management Center in Chicago. “One or
two or even a dozen of each species is not
enough.”
The association runs nearly 600 cooperative
breeding programs, but so far
has formal breeding plans for only 357
species. About 55 percent of those species
with plans are considered imperiled
in the wild by the International Union for
Conservation of Nature, among them the
western lowland gorilla and the scimitarhorned
oryx.
Still, 40 percent of those 357 managed
populations are dwindling. The number
of Andean bears is shrinking because
zoos scaled back breeding years ago and
the population has become too old to reproduce.
The Nile lechwe, an antelope,
is believed to be suffering in captivity
because zoos are allocating less space to
rare hoofed species.
Researchers lack adequate knowledge
on artificially inseminating many exotic
animals, so for now, most zoo animals
mate the old-fashioned way, which presents
its own logistical puzzles.
An institution may be reluctant to give
up a popular chimp or penguin. Animals
available from overseas can be blocked
by agricultural treaties, diplomatic problems
or quarantines.
And animals, like humans, have their
own ideas about their mates.
African penguins are generally monogamous.
At the New England Aquarium in
Boston, they are paired by keepers with
an appropriate genetic match.
But some 25 percent of the time the penguins
refuse the designated suitor.
Researchers are still trying to master
the dynamics of cheetah mating, said
Adrienne Crosier, director of the National
Zoo’s cheetah breeding program.
For decades, zoos housed and treated
all big cats similarly. But their mating
patterns can be radically different. For
example, clouded leopards, a critically
Con tin ued on Page 4
LUKE SHARRETT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Zoos are trying to mate animals before their situation in the wild becomes
and dine at the best restaurants. But Neil
Genzlinger writes in The Times that producers
of these shows fail to understand
the American sensibility.
“There’s nothing mainstream Americans
like better than listening to, and
hanging out with, people exactly like
themselves,” Mr. Genzlinger wrote. “That
means we don’t want shows about exotic
adventures; what we want is a Staycation
Channel.”
These days many Americans are just
happy to have a job and fear time away
from the office may become permanent if
the boss notices they aren’t really missed.
Even President Obama, whose job security
is an open question, is forgoing his annual
beach getaway to the upscale island
Articles selected for
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IntellIgence: Britain’s weepy Wimbledon moment, Page 2.
Putting Away Work and Learning How to Vacation
of Martha’s Vineyard.
Marketers have noticed, Tanzina Vega
reported in The Times. They are rolling
out commercials that urge “workers to
commit small acts of so-called rebellion —
like taking a vacation, or going on a lunch
break.”
In a television ad for Las Vegas, one
worker climbs on her desk in a busy office
and yells: “I have 47 vacation days. That’s
insane. Let’s take back our summer!” She
holds up a sign that says “Vacation Now.”
“Who’s with me?’ ” she asks. Some applaud.
The rest look away.
Part of the problem may be that many
of us just don’t know how to “take back the
summer.” Times reporter Matt Richtel had
that problem in Hawaii. A seven-day break
in March to enjoy the islands was spent
checking his phone, lamenting the rain
and dealing with his jet-lagged toddlers.
He wrote: “I had hoped to return home at
peace. Instead I was exhausted, defeated
and irritable.”
So for his next trip, Mr. Richtel consulted
with experts, who were kind enough not to
point out that if he needed advice on how to
relax, that might be part of the problem.
¶ Learn to turn off the racing mind on a
daily basis; that way when you do finally
go away, you’ve had some practice at relaxing.
Deep breathing works.
¶ Get away from your daily routine.
Leaving home is not enough; leave your
phone in your pocket as well.
¶ Accept the boredom. It’s O.K. to do
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Mapping the Consumer Genome
nothing. Don’t replace your work obsession
for a vacation schedule full of pilates
classes and kite-sailing lessons.
¶ Don’t try to work when you are off.
Jonathan Schooler, a psychology profes-
They Know
And Sell All
About You
By NATASHA SINGER
IT KNOWS WHO you are. It knows
where you live. It knows what you
do. The odds are that it knows things
like your age, race, sex, weight, height,
marital status, education level, politics,
buying habits, household health worries,
vacation dreams — and on and on.
Few consumers have ever heard of
Acxiom Corporation, which is based in
Little Rock, Arkansas, but has offices
in Australia, New Zealand, France,
Germany, Britain, Poland, Brazil and
China. Analysts say it has amassed the
world’s largest commercial database
on consumers — and that it wants to
know much, much more. It has more
than 23,000 servers processing more
than 50 trillion data “transactions” a
year. Company executives have said its
database contains information about
500 million active consumers worldwide,
with about 1,500 data points per
person.
Such large-scale data mining and analytics
— based on information available
in public records, consumer surveys
and the like — are perfectly legal in the
United States. Acxiom’s customers have
included big banks like Wells Fargo
and HSBC, investment services like
E*Trade, automakers like Toyota and
Ford, department stores like Macy’s —
just about any major company looking
for insight into its customers.
For Acxiom, the setup is lucrative. It
posted a profit of $77.26 million in its
latest fiscal year, on sales of $1.13 billion.
But such profits carry a cost for consumers.
Authorities in the United States
say present laws may not be equipped to
handle the rapid expansion of an industry
that often collects and sells sensitive
financial and health information yet is
untenable. A baby cheetah at the National Zoo in Washington. MINH UONG/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Con tin ued on Page 4
World trends
3
money & BusIness
5
arts & styles
6
Defiant climbers
Harvesting hair in
The expert who
scale Cuban cliffs. Cambodia to sell.
shapes stars’ voices.
MARCO GARCIA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Staying connected while on holiday is
a good way to ruin a nice beach.
sor at the University of California at Santa
Barbara, learned the last lesson the hard
way. During a recent family trip to Norway
he thought he could fit in a little work, he
told Mr. Richtel. He’d take out his laptop,
fiddle, not get much done. But he never
fully relaxed either.
Professor Schooler should know better.
Really. His research has shown that
people are more creative when they let
themselves daydream or do only mildly
engaging mental tasks.
“Part of the problem is that we don’t
really believe in the value of incubation
and the value of mind wandering,” he told
Mr. Richtel, adding with a laugh, “I’m still
ruining vacations by taking work with me,
trying to get stuff done.” TOM BRADY