The goal of the Brown Teal captive breeding program is to maintain, manage and develop the Brown Teal captive breeding programme to retain known genetic diversity, annually supply known quality birds for release in the quantities and at the times required by the recovery programme, and to contribute to Brown Teal advocacy.

The program is coordinated by a "Captive Management Coordinator" who manages where each bird is held or transferred to, advises and communicates with each holder, and keeps track of each bird and their progeny in an offical studbook. The Captive Management Coordinator is also a member of the recovery group.

The captive breeding network in New Zealand consists of approximately 18 holders spread from Dargaville to Invercargil, made up of both private aviculturists, and zoological institutions, and done completely on a voluntary basis with no financial support given for the keeping or breeding of young. These dedicated individuals and institutions cannot be thanked enough for their ongoing work and dedication which without their support the reintroduction project would not be possible.

The achievement of the captive management goal will require a high degree of integration between the in situ and ex situ parts of the recovery programme, and an acceptance by those involved with Brown Teal captive management that their contribution to Brown Teal recovery is a means to an end, and not an end in itself.

Captive management has the potential to make a significant net contribution to future Brown Teal recovery, in spite of initial concerns that a captive population would be a net consumer of birds and about the lack of pedigree records. Captive Brown Teal have been shown to have a long productive life, and productivity can also be enhanced by management techniques such as multiple clutching, artificial incubation and brooding, and cross-fostering, all of which have been used successfully.

The goal of the Brown Teal Captive Management Program is to maintain, manage and develop the Brown Teal captive breeding programme to retain known genetic diversity, annually supply known quality birds for release in the quantities and at the times required by the recovery programme, and to contribute to Brown Teal advocacy.

At least 2000 birds have been reared in captivity since 1964. These have originated from just 76 wild birds. Within the first 32 years of Brown Teal captive breeding had resulted in 21.5 birds being released for every wild bird taken into the programme. In terms of numbers of birds
available to be recruited into a wild breeding population, the captive population is more than 300% more efficient at producing these birds than are wild populations

Without doubt, captive management has the potential to make a significant net contribution to future Brown Teal recovery. Captive Brown Teal have been shown to have a long productive life, with one bird surviving for 22 years.