In-situ conservation

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In-situ conservation means "on-site conservation". It is the process of protecting an endangered plant or animal species in its natural habitat, either by protecting or cleaning up the habitat itself, or by defending the species from predators. The benefit to in-situ conservation is that it maintains recovering populations in the surrounding where they have developed their distinctive properties. As a last resort, ex-situ conservation may be used on some or all of the population, when in-situ conservation is too difficult, or impossible.

Wildlife conservation is mostly based on in situ conservation. This involves the protection of wildlife habitats. Also, sufficiently large reserves are maintained to enable the target species to exist in large numbers. The population size must be sufficient to enable the necessary genetic diversity to survive within the population, so that it has a good chance of continuing to adapt and evolve over time. This reserve size can be calculated for target species by examining the population density in naturally-occurring situations. The reserves must then be protected from intrusion, or destruction by man, and against other catastrophes.

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