Under the auspices of a foundation co-ordinating zoos across the globe, these seek to breedanimals in captivity and reintroduce them (and their much-needed genes) into the wild.
The herders' response was to fall back on small, uneconomic networks of family or friends, to breed ever more animals with less regard to their quality (numbers rose to a record 34m in 1999), and to move closer to towns.