Providing the best possible care for hundreds of species is no easy task, since each animal has its own special needs. On any given day, more than 800,000 animals are being cared for, with many of those among the last representatives of an endangered or threatened species. AZA institutions provide expert veterinary care, balanced diets and appropriate social groups to ensure their wellbeing. Before any animals arrive, detailed planning and evaluation occurs, and the amount of holding and exhibition space needed is carefully assessed. Breeding is also carefully controlled, minimizing the risk that a space becomes too crowded, and animals end up in the hands of individuals unqualified to care for them.
Quality of life is a paramount concern at all AZA-accredited institutions.
While captive breeding for reintroduction into the wild is no final solution for endangered species, it can play a key role for some. Carefully managed breeding programs can sustain endangered species for purposes of education and research. Populations so small or fragmented they can t exist in the wild without human intervention particularly benefit from this work. The highly endangered black-footed ferret, red wolf, Arabian oryx and California condor all would have vanished from the wild but for the work of AZA zoos and their state, federal and university partners. Many more species will soon depend on this kind of effort if they re to survive in a world populated more and more densely by humans.