Eli5, how do conservationist deal with inbreeding gene pool when trying to bring back species from being endangered?
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A good question. In biology there is a measure called minimum viable population (MVP). Earlier hypothesis stated that a minimum of 50 individuals was needed to prevent harmful inbreeding, but a minimum of 500 was needed to prevent the transmission of harmful traits like lack of immunity throughout the entire population. However, newer models taking in many variables like gestation, environment, etc. have shown that there are species that can reasonably survive with a smaller minimum viable population.
Now how is that information used for actual conservation. It informs biologists how many individual they need in a local protected population to ensure any offspring will stay strong and healthy. Typically this is done through finding or moving wild individuals onto a preserve where they are interfered with minimaly and protected by law and sometimes force. To increase genetic variability, sometimes individual from one preserve are traded to the other. Eventually once a threshold is reached the species will be reintroduced to previous habitats in numbers to create their own viable population.
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