inbreeding depression—the silent killer of small populations.
Modern zoos and aquariums are no longer menageries for public display. They are . Their primary goal is to maintain healthy, self-sustaining populations of endangered species as a buffer against extinction in the wild.
Every animal in a zoo—albino or normally pigmented, common or rare—carries a story written in its DNA. Responsible genetics is the difference between a zoo that merely exhibits animals and one that saves them.