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Paper short abstract

By investigating biobanking practices at a zoo biobank this paper maps out new forms of relationships spanning from freezer to enclosure to in-situ sites and asks if there are alternative stories towards heritable futures coming out of unlikely places and technologies.

Paper long abstract

Keeping genetically viable populations – especially of endangered species – is slowly becoming modern zoos’ overarching argument for their relevance and value, at the very least in conservationist circles. As a result, geneticists are becoming more and more involved in decisions regarding individual animals and their (captive) species, including their mobility, kinship groupings, and, most of all, reproduction. Institutionalizing this shift towards conservation even further, the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) introduced its biobank in 2019, providing means to broaden research relevant to species conservation and potentially holding pathways open for species survival. However, this paper argues, shifting practices also (re)make relationships.

Based on an ethnographic study at one of the biobanks “hubs” at the Antwerp Zoo, I explore how and whether alternative stories for heritable futures emerge from an unlikely site like this. Theorizing the bank not only as a collection of biomaterials but also of relations within and across species boundaries, I take a close look at practices of sampling, storing and releasing (if not animals to the wild, at least samples to scientists). In doing so, I map out how kinship is conceptualized in the practice of ‘doing conservation’ at the zoo, and how these notions are shaped by logics of care and accountability as well as for example (violent) history, opportunity and imagination. These developments entail shifting roles for zoo staff, mobilizing (samplified) animals for their species and potentially extending a sense of belonging beyond the boundaries of the enclosure.