Future Challenges and Opportunities for the Viability of Animal Populations in Zoos and Aquariums

Maintaining sustainable animal populations is fundamental to zoo and aquarium missions in education, visitor engagement, entertainment, scientific advancement, public health and wellbeing, advocacy, and conservation impact. Yet, sustaining viable populations remains a persistent challenge. Small populations are inherently vulnerable to demographic and genetic challenges which threaten both individual animal welfare and population-level goals. However, as emerging research advances our understanding of population biology, zoos and aquariums are positioned to transform how we sustain ex situ populations. This commentary highlights pressing questions facing the field today, including how to manage the size and structure of populations, integrate genomic advances and emerging technologies, build on interdisciplinary approaches, and ensure our populations have a conservation impact, as well as how we scale our advances across diverse taxa. We examine both the challenges and opportunities that will shape the future of population management in zoos and aquariums.