Although animals in captivity are dispersed at zoos across North America, their population dynamics can be viewed as parallel to those of wild populations. We intensively manage these populations genetically and demographically to ensure long-term population viability through cooperative programs such as Species Survival Plans® (SSPs) (Ballou and Foose 1996). SSP management groups meet regularly to evaluate population dynamics, to assess how many births are needed for the upcoming year based on projected mortalities and available spaces, and to select the best pairs to produce those births. The
standard model for evaluating captive population dynamics, PM2000, runs basic, deterministic projections of demography based on age-classified life table and matrix methods (Caswell 2001, Lacy and Ballou 2002; Pollack et al. 2002).