Sustainable population management of birds: current challenges exemplified

Abstract

The sustainable management of zoological collections is the foundation for the successful implementation of institutional missions, enabling zoological facilities to meet all other programmatic objectives for conservation and public education. Yet the sustainability of many of the populations we manage and of our collections as a whole is in question. Evidence of the avian sustainability crisis is largely anecdotal but this is a growing area of research. Specific challenges to avian collection sustainability include both logistical and biological facets. Passerines are specifically important to our collections and are a taxon of high risk. One Species Survival Plan® (SSP), the Blue‐grey tanager Thraupis episcopus SSP, has proposed a management strategy to address many of the sustainability challenges facing passerines.