Among the chief duties of zoos is the responsibility to species and nature conservation according to the guidelines of the “World Zoo Conservation Strategy.” As institutions that are above all committed to animal husbandry, it is primarily incumbent upon zoos to breed and preserve rare and threatened species. Obtaining a genetically balanced population that will serve as a pool to restock dwindling wild animal populations is the most important goal.
Since 1985, the breeding of threatened and rarely kept wild animal species has been centrally managed within the framework of the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP).
At present about 150 species are supervised. For each of these species, there is a species commission with a species coordinator in charge, selected by the animal owners. This committee oversees and coordinates the building of breeding groups according to aspects of population genetics and furthermore promotes the zoo biology research of the species in question. Employees of the Frankfurt Zoo manage the EEPs for the gorilla, the maned wolf, the bush dog, the rusty-spotted cat, the vicuna, the sun bittern, the Socorro dove, and the rhinoceros iguana.
Zoos that take part in the EEP relinquish their ownership and disposal rights concerning the species in question. Thereafter, they are only keepers of the species belonging to the EEP.
The EEP logo found on the enclosure signboards indicates that species is a highly threatened species and that they are kept and bred according to the protocol for species preservation in the Frankfurt Zoo.
