Eli5, how do conservationist deal with inbreeding gene pool when trying to bring back species from being endangered?
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There’s two really good answers already about the 50/500 rule and if that isn’t followed the species can end up as “functionally extinct” which means there’s still individuals left but they’re going to die out and the species will go extinct. Some people call it “circling the drain”
The part of your question that wasn’t answered is “how do they actually do it?” One way is to take females from other populations (either captive or from a different area- if you want an example look up how they reintroduced the Florida panther) and introduce them to the area where animals are endangered. The idea is they introduce new genes to keep the species around. The cost is they will introduce genes to a species that may be from a different subspecies so *technically* they’re hybrids
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