[HN Gopher] New calf brings new hope, and new concerns, for emba...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       New calf brings new hope, and new concerns, for embattled Sumatran
       rhinos
        
       Author : PaulHoule
       Score  : 43 points
       Date   : 2023-12-06 03:34 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (news.mongabay.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (news.mongabay.com)
        
       | carterschonwald wrote:
       | The concern part seems to be the calf's father is the mothers
       | uncle and a limited biodiversity of the breeding stock currently
       | in captivity
        
       | jurassicfoxy wrote:
       | There is no hope, to be honest. I think we should start taking
       | bets on total taxonomic loss for this extinction event. I think
       | we can beat the Triassic at 83 %. Go humans!
        
         | scottLobster wrote:
         | Don't worry, once we get a little better at genetic engineering
         | we'll be able to reintroduce species with the genetic diversity
         | required to prevent inbreeding. Then in a fever pitch of
         | environmentalism we'll start restoring extinct species Jurassic
         | Park style, and end up ironically destroying ecosystems that
         | have adapted to the absence of their former inhabitants, while
         | crooning on about how we're saving the planet and erasing
         | humanity's orignial sin of eating all the DoDos! Because all
         | those hungry sailors were part of colonialism anyway and should
         | have known to starve themselves!
         | 
         | Humanity! Intelligent enough to land on the moon, primitive
         | enough to be wracked with guilt over other animals dying, but
         | only the cute or beneficial ones.
        
           | tetris11 wrote:
           | how does one make up for the sins of the boast though. Sure,
           | there were a few hungry sailors... but a lot of people just
           | liked hunting for sport too.
        
           | anonymouskimmer wrote:
           | > with the genetic diversity required to prevent inbreeding
           | 
           | Inbreeding isn't bad, per se. I don't have the reference now,
           | but it has been shown that small populations _can_ (not
           | guaranteed) facilitate species survival by weeding out
           | deleterious mutations. A sub-population founded from a small
           | population is typically more robust than a sub-population of
           | the same size founded from a large population, as the
           | deleterious mutations have been weeded out.
           | 
           | The diversity that's really important for long-term
           | population survival is immune system diversity.
           | 
           | So basically, for species threatened with extinction, it
           | would be more important to remove deleterious mutations than
           | to increase genetic diversity. And possibly also raise the
           | new generation separate, in case the species act like humans
           | and are less likely to mate with those they've grown up with.
           | 
           | > Because all those hungry sailors were part of colonialism
           | anyway and should have known to starve themselves!
           | 
           | They were in no danger of starvation. They hunted dodos and
           | dodo eggs because it was easy to do so.
           | 
           | > primitive enough to be wracked with guilt over other
           | animals dying, but only the cute or beneficial ones.
           | 
           | It's part of the same impulse that encourages us to take care
           | of children, even those children not related to us. And
           | plenty of people feel it for the non-cute animals as well.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-12-07 23:01 UTC)