If you have a low population of an endangered species, how do you get the numbers up without inbreeding or ‘diluting’ the original species?

Question

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

Answer 1

I’m not sure if this is the reason you brought it up, or if it’s just good timing, but there was a similar issue with the black-footed ferret population that was solved with cloning. Yeah, you heard me right, *cloning!*

The black-footed ferret population has been increasing, but every current living black ferret today can trace its ancestry back to about seven ferrets. So what did researchers do? They took frozen eggs from a ferret that existed in the 1500s and cloned a new ferret! Hopefully this new ferret will bring enough genetic diversity that it will ensure the species has no inbreeding problems in the future.