Zoos Fighting Extinction of Species

As pressures mount due the increasing extinction rate and declining resources, zoos are being forced to choose which species to save–and how to balance entertainment and conservation. In the New York Times, zoologist Robert Merz describes the stakes:

Mr. Merz says the effort was worthwhile because the beetle might play an irreplaceable role in the ecological web. He considers picking species worth saving akin to life-or-death gambling. “It is like looking out the window of an airplane and seeing the rivets in the wing,” he said. “You can probably lose a few, but you don’t know how many, and you really don’t want to find out.”