The idea was popularized among modern conservationists independently by Peter Scott and Gerald Durrell in the 1950s and 1960s, founders of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and Jersey Zoo, who demonstrated success with a wide variety of life forms in the 1970s ranging from birds (e.g. Pink Pigeon), mammals (e.g. Pygmy Hog), reptiles (e.g. Round Island Boa) and amphibians (e.g. Poison arrow frogs).
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Breeding this species in captivity is facilitated by housing them in a relatively small enclosure well-decorated with little "caves" such as snail shells in which they can breed.
Coastal cooters are frequently exported for consumption and the pet trade, with about 60% wild caught individuals and 40% captive bred.
A captive-breeding program was established in 1997, and in December 2006, the five adult tortoises were returned to the wild on Silhouette Island, forming the first wild population of this species since the early 19th century.
Many of the Attwater's Prairie Chickens in the refuge are hatched at captive breeding programs at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, Texas A&M University, SeaWorld San Antonio, Abilene Zoo, Caldwell Zoo, Houston Zoo and San Antonio Zoo.
The institute awards diplomas to graduates of the International Training Centre for captive breeding and zoo specialists at the Durrell Wildlife Park, founded by Gerald Durrell.
In 2007, (in cooperation with the Biological Sciences Division at the University of the South Pacific) the park commenced a captive breeding program for the endangered Fiji Ground Frog.
Various captive breeding programmes are in place — notably at the Giraffe Centre in Nairobi, Kenya — which aim to expand the gene pool in the wild population of Rothschild's giraffe.
Souss-Massa also holds captive-breeding programmes for four threatened North African ungulates: Scimitar Oryx, Addax, Dama gazelle and Dorcas gazelle, that are kept in separate enclosures within the park.
In his book Macaw: The Race to Save the World's Rarest Bird he criticized the private holders of birds such as Antonio de Dios's Birds International, arguing that the Spix's Macaws should be returned to their native country, Brazil, for captive breeding and reintroduction to their natural habitat, which is still in decline.