Another thing I wanted to mention in the giant big cat thing I just posted (but it was off-topic and that monster was long enough) is that there’s an interesting discussion that needs to be had about the intersection of wild felid conservation and non-AZA ownership of cats.
See, the OP mentioned - correctly - that pretty much all the species of wild cats are in trouble. The interesting thing is that, uh, so are their Species Survival Programs (SSPs - the conservation breeding programs) for one very specific reason: lack of space.
I sat through the Felid TAG session at AZA’s annual conference this year (taxon advisory groups are the overarching supervisory bodies for specific groups of SSPs). I can’t think of a single species presented upon in which it didn’t close with a note about how they’re really going to need more zoos to incorporate spaces for that species of cat into their master plans for the SSP program to be successful long-term. This includes both the plans with plenty of genetic diversity already in the program and the ones where they’re aware they’ll need more founder animals to avoid inbreeding down the line.
Here’s the thing - SSPs are run by AZA and as a general rule exclusive to AZA member facilities. Programs with lower long-term sustainability will work with facilities external to AZA, but there’s a ton of politics to it - and generally, as soon as it becomes sustainable enough, those external facilities are dropped. What was made very clear the TAG session was that that strategy isn’t sustainable - there’s just not enough space in AZA zoos for these animals and it’s going to start adversely impacting the success of SSPs.
It means we’re in for some interesting conversations, because there are only three options for increasing the spaces available for cats: build a lot of new zoos / breeding facilities; allow non-AZA facilities to be full partners in SSP programs; or partner with people external to the zoo industry who have the money, dedication, and professional experience to keep and breed felids. There’s some issues with all of these options as things currently stand: building new facilities requires a lot of money and space and takes time; AZA has been on an anti-everyone-else campaign for a couple of years and the recent political alignment with HSUS appears to have elevated that into straight-out attacking non-AZA facilities, and “private ownership” situations are derided in the zoo community and currently stand to disqualify animals in them from participation in SSPs.
I don’t have an answer for what may or should happen, but it’s worth being aware of because the choices that are made on the topic will absolutely impact if we’ll be seeing wild felids conservation programs in another couple decades, or if our kids will ever see them.