Reintroduction| |  Reintroducing captive-bred animals to their natural habitat is one of the primary goals of some zoo and aquarium conservation plans, such as the Species Survival Plan. Several species which were once entirely extinct in the wild, such as the Arabian Oryx, the Przewalski´s Horse, the Black-footed Ferret, the Red Wolf, and the California Condor were saved from extinction by the captive-breeding efforts of Species Survival Plan participants, such as the Detroit Zoo. In 1996, over 100 specimens of the extinct-in-the-wild snail, Partula taeniata, were sent back to their original habitat on Moorea Island in French Polynesia from their temporary home at the Detroit Zoo. The original snails of this species arrived at the Zoo in 1989 from the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust in the British Isles, where they had been captive bred. From this original group, hundreds of young were produced, allowing us to contribute to this important  reintroduction program. Snails from Detroit were individually identified (so the observers would know one from another), and hand carried by staff of the London Zoo "exclosure" areas within the forest, where the introduced predatory snail (which caused their extinction in the wild) was not found. These "exclosures" are constructed of tin, with a salt trench on the outside and an electrical charge, both of which discourage entry by other snails or predators. The animals are checked weekly by a local scientist, to determine if this preliminary reintroduction will work in the long term.
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