Breeding animals in captivity is vital for conservation; to maintain endangered species and to the prosperity of London and Whipsnade Zoos. Without captive breeding there wouldn’t be any animals in zoos because unlike the old days animals are not selected from the wild and shipped into the zoo. The birth of a baby at the zoo is guaranteed to boost the visitor numbers and in turn increase the revenue to carry out their conservation programmes. In the elephant house eleven year old Karishma, an Asian elephant, is expecting her first baby.