Well, if you can’t get that male and female together, bringing Chia-Chia to breed Ling-Ling, you’re screwed. (chuckles) You know, there’s more to it than just saying, okay, put a male with a female and you’re gonna get a baby. So I think maintaining healthy populations in captivity is a focus. I know with, we had Thomson’s gazelles when I started at the National Zoo and when they finally got around to doing plans for hoofstock, most places had neutered all their males. There were no baby Thomson’s gazelle. We had to switch species, ’cause if you don’t have a viable male, you’re not gonna breed females. And then with giraffes they’re trying to, some, especially with large cats, if you don’t breed every few years, you can’t say, well, you’re gonna keep these offspring for five years and then you’re gonna breed your tiger again.
