I’m talking the likely less than 50 individuals critically endangered, I’d imagine in 50-100 groups there’s possibly enough separate family groups to avoid inter-breeding, it’s just a matter of keeping them safe and healthy.
Would breeding with another member of the same family group* potentially end up changing the original species further down the line, or would that not matter as you got more members of the original able to breed with each other? (So you’d have an offspring of original parents, mate with a hybrid offspring, their offspring being closer to original than doner?)
I thought of this again last night seeing the Sumatran rhino, which is pretty distinct from the other rhinos.
Edit: realised I may have worded a part wrongly. *genus is what I meant not biologically related family group. Like a Bengal Tiger with a Siberian Tiger. Genetically very similar but still distinct.
In: Biology
Today it was announced that scientists were able to clone successfully an endangered ferret whose genetic material was preserved from over 30 years ago. This will offer some genetic diversity into the endangered population.
Another method is through crispr Gene manipulation. Although this is quite controversial, and costly. I can only see this being used as a last resort.
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