Breeding programs

Keeping wild native animals began about 10,000 BCE. While the reasons for this remain obscure because of a lack of historical documentation, the physical evidence indicates an effort to keep animals to meet the population’s needs. It was also more convenient to have animals nearby to avoid the dangers and difficulties of hunting. As time passed, these captive animals were bred in a manner that produced traits favorable to the people keeping these animals. This process of controlled breeding became known as domestication. Originally, this was an informal affair with little control by the caretakers. Eventually, individuals keeping animals recognized the benefits derived from captive breeding and began exercising more control over the process.

Certain native species were more compatible with the human environment and more adaptable to domestication. These species had attributes favorable to this kind of controlled situation, such as the ability to adapt to new environments, social gregariousness, a dominance hierarchy that recognized humans as an alpha species, adaptable reproductive behavior, mild temperaments, and a low tendency toward flight behavior (which allowed humans to approach them). However, these attributes were not recognized initially, so there was no conscious decision to keep only certain species. Several ancient societies maintained many species in captivity. Most species, those without the favorable attributes, remained wild, or at best, were only tamed. Very few species were to become domesticated, and all of these were domesticated in the early years of human agricultural development.

Various attempts were made in Europe and the European colonies to domesticate additional species during the early 1800s, but none were successfully domesticated. The primary group of domesticated animals has remained the same throughout history: the dog, cat, goat, sheep, pig, cow, horse, camel, llama, reindeer, and elephant. Those species already domesticated have been bred over many generations to improve characteristics favored by humans, sometimes to the point that the domesticated animal no longer resembles its wild originator.

Breeding Domesticated Animals

To some extent, there were always animal breeding efforts taking place in agricultural animal herds, but for much of history, they were not closely managed. This began to change in the seventeenth century when science evolved into a reliance on observable and reproducible experimentation. That century saw improvements in livestock feeding, housing, and care, and conditions favoring the attainment of an animal’s full genetic potential. Better-educated, wealthy farmers were beginning to take notes and keep track of their animals, an important precursor to the breeding experiments that developed in the following century.

The eighteenth century was a time of increasing interest in agricultural improvement and experimentation. Originally, this involved breeding animals for improved adaptation to a local environment (that is, the local conditions where the farm was located). Eventually, however, this changed to breeding animals for improvements in the breed itself, without regard to its environment. Specific commercial advantages were sought, such as improved meat or milk production, or improved wool production. Eventually, as this effort at improving a breed’s characteristics became widely practiced, it led to an international pedigree system, with studbooks that documented an animal’s lineage.

Breed improvement and experimentation were enhanced through an exchange of information coordinated through the formation of farmers’ clubs and societies. New techniques and successful experiments were publicized, and visits to breeding farms were reported. Journals were published that contained information previously limited to private correspondence. Monies were invested in improved breeding stock, which more widely distributed the improvements of the various breeds.

Originally, these breeding efforts were conducted on the estates of wealthy farmers at their own expense. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the governments of England and France became interested in promoting improved husbandry practices. France established the Comité d’Agriculture in 1775, and England established the Board of Agriculture in 1793. There was also an urgent need in the European colonies to adapt European domestic animals to colonial environments, or to convert colonial species to domestication. Acclimatization societies were formed for this purpose both in Europe and in the European colonies.

These developments increased significantly in the nineteenth century. In addition to practical improvements, theoretical improvements in animal husbandry were offered as the sciences of agricultural chemistry, reproductive biology, and genetics developed. Advances in scientific knowledge aided the animal breeding efforts of farmers, and this information was better distributed once governments and universities developed agricultural departments, extension offices, and experiment stations to benefit the farmers.

Publication of Die Organische Chemie in ihre Anwendung auf Agrikultur und Physiologie (1840; Organic Chemistry in Its Applications to Agriculture and Physiology, 1840) by Justus von Liebig introduced agricultural chemistry to a wide audience and began what became known as scientific agriculture. Charles Darwin’s book on evolution was published in 1859, and Gregor Mendel’s work on genetics was published in 1866. Germany began a system of government-operated experiment stations in the 1870s. These combined laboratory experimentation with farm experimentation. In the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture was established in 1862, as were the land-grant colleges located in each of the states. Several states developed agricultural experiment stations in the late 1800s, and the federal government established a national system of experiment stations in 1887.

Implementation of federal and state programs developed in earnest during the early decades of the twentieth century. Scientific advances and a growing human population encouraged improvements in animal husbandry. Improvements in breeding techniques, improved knowledge about reproductive biology, improved veterinary care, and better housing for the animals also contributed to better animal husbandry. Eventually, genetics and biotechnology began to play a major role in developing specific characteristics in each breed. After mid-century, farms decreased significantly as urban populations grew. Within this shifting demography, breeding programs gained new importance, as fewer farmers grew an ever-increasing number of domestic animals to meet the needs of a growing urban human population.

Breeding Wild Animals

Modern domestic species were once wild but have been changed to suit human needs through the process known as domestication. Few species have been domesticated, even though attempts have been made to domesticate a wide range of species. The London Zoological Garden, the French Jardin Zoologique d’Acclimatation, and several acclimatization societies attempted to domesticate additional species in the late eighteenth century, but none were successful. The acclimatization facilities of these societies eventually closed or evolved into zoos that maintained, exhibited, and bred wild animals without changing them into tame or domestic animals.

Zoos and aquariums have always been concerned with wildlife conservation, although their effectiveness has been dependent on the era’s zoological and animal husbandry knowledge, as well as the society’s perceived importance of conservation. As the importance of conservation increased and the sciences related to wildlife conservation improved, zoo and aquarium conservation efforts improved. These conservation efforts included propagation programs that bred endangered species and species extinct in the wild. These propagation programs involve species studbooks, studying small populations of animals, introducing animals back into the wild, and other modern techniques.

Breeding wild animals over many generations, however, runs the risk of domesticating these animals. Of course, no such intentional domestication program has been successful. The greater risk is that the animals will become tame, will be unable to survive in the wild, and will lose their wildness. Because the breeding of wild animals is based on the animal’s needs rather than human needs, propagation efforts with wild species are quite different from efforts made with domesticated animals. Nevertheless, the methods are similar.

Both wild animal breeding and domestic animal breeding require detailed studbooks to keep track of an animal’s lineage, and the pairing of appropriate individuals is closely controlled. Many sciences provide knowledge important to the propagation programs, such as veterinary medicine, nutrition, reproductive biology, genetics, and biotechnology. Frozen tissues, artificial insemination, bioengineering, and recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology play an increasingly important role in modern breeding programs.

Breeding wild animals is often more difficult than breeding domestic animals since unusual breeding behavior is part of the reason some species are endangered. Improved knowledge about the species’ social behavior and population biology assists in successfully breeding these difficult wild species, as is biotechnology. Frozen zoos have been established to maintain reproductive and other tissues for artificial insemination. Sometimes, this artificial insemination involves the use of related surrogate species. For instance, using domestic cattle to give birth to endangered gaur.

Scientists and conservationists use back breeding, selective breeding, and other recovery programs to attempt to revive extinct species and keep endangered species from becoming extinct. For example, a program in South Africa began breeding Burchell's zebra (Equus quagga burchellii) to re-create the extinct quagga (Equus quagga quagga) in 1987 and continued through the twenty-first century. The California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) became endangered in the 1960s, and by 1982, only twenty-three of them remained in the wild. Breeding these birds in captivity became critical in saving the species. However, California condors only begin reproducing at age seven or eight, and each year, a mature condor usually produces only one egg. Some programs began removing eggs from the condor's nest as they were laid in hopes that the bird would lay more eggs. Those eggs were incubated by caretakers who cared for the young using a puppet-like condor head. By 1992, condors bred in captivity were being successfully released into the wild. Other endangered species successfully bred in captivity include the red wolf, the black-footed ferret, and the golden lion tamarin. As an increasing number of species become endangered and their natural habitat continues to disappear, it is increasingly important to maintain these species through appropriate breeding programs.

Principal Terms

Acclimatization: A process by which animals are adapted to new environmental conditions

Animal Husbandry: Care and welfare of domestic animals

Biotechnology: Methods used to manipulate biological processes (such as reproduction)

Domestication: A process by which animals are adapted biologically and behaviorally to a domestic (human) environment to tame and manipulate them for the benefit of humans

Studbook: A record-keeping system that provides information on an animal’s lineage

Wildness: Characteristics that define the biological and behavioral life of a species in the wild

Bibliography

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