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| Long Term Conservation | |
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| Topic Started: May 27 2010, 12:40 PM (1,569 Views) | |
| lamna | May 27 2010, 12:40 PM Post #1 |
 
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I'm not sure if this belongs here but what do you chaps and girl-chaps think about what will happen with conservation if humanity is around for a long time? Let me explain what I'm on about Here in Europe the introduced Ruddy Duck is breeding with native White-headed Ducks and producing fertile hybrids. And some conservationists are worried that eventually there will be no pure White-headed Ducks left. I don't see what the problem with that is, if the hybrids are better at surviving and the white headed genes still continue, what is the problem? I don't see why we are interfering in evolution. Sure Ruddy Ducks aren't supposed to be here, but they are doing no harm at all apart from merging with the White-headed Ducks, and even that is probably a good thing for the White-headed genes, as the Ruddy genes will just help the new duck expand it's range. I see this sort of thing all the time, rare subspecies on the brink and nobody even considering hybridization. This seems more like preservation to me, keeping living museum specimens and not conserving the future of a species. Do you think this might continue into the future, with us trying to keep animals from evolving to preserve the species we have now? |
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Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
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| Holben | May 29 2010, 02:11 AM Post #16 |
Rumbo a la Victoria
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Generally, 'diluting' endangered species isn't seen as a good thing. Species have arisen from hybrids, though, some of which we see every day.
Edited by Holben, May 29 2010, 02:11 AM.
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Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
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| Ook | May 29 2010, 02:16 AM Post #17 |
not a Transhuman
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but amur leopards are unique,because they can survive cold winters...imagine african leopard in -40C cold,that hunts deers.. |
   
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| Holben | May 29 2010, 03:11 AM Post #18 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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Why would we want that though? |
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Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
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| lamna | May 29 2010, 04:09 AM Post #19 |
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Eh they probably could, especially with Amur Genes. I mean big cats from tropical climes do fight in blighty. If they are hybridized so we have enough of them then we can just realease them and let natural selection weed out the weaker ones. |
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Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
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| Holben | May 29 2010, 06:37 AM Post #20 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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I thought we were trying to maintain the british ecosystems as they are? |
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Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
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| Carlos | May 29 2010, 07:00 AM Post #21 |
Adveho in me Lucifero
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Because african leopards aren't as adapted to the cold... Edited by Carlos, May 29 2010, 07:01 AM.
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Lemuria: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/ Terra Alternativa: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/ My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Carliro  | |
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| Ook | May 29 2010, 07:08 AM Post #22 |
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not a Transhuman
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ehh,johnfaa,i write it :giggle: |
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| lamna | May 29 2010, 07:43 AM Post #23 |
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Use Indian leopards then.
You mean with aliens being an important part of the ecology? Britain's impoverished when compared to mainland Europe anyway. |
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Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
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| Cynovolans | May 29 2010, 09:53 AM Post #24 |
Servant to Empress Min
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We already have Amur leopards from zoos being reintroduced into the wild. Why we don't reintroduce Indian leopards or African leopards is because we don't know what would happen to the rest of the ecosystem. The definition of genetic pollution is uncontrolled spread of genes into a population that does not naturally have those genes. Introducing leopards of another subspecies could destroy the ecosystem. What if they overhunt the prey and leave nothing for native Amur leopards? What if they introduce a disease to the population? The reason why we don't intentionally introduce animals or plants of another subspecies into a native population is because we don't know if something good, bad, or insignificant will result of it. Edited by Cynovolans, May 29 2010, 09:54 AM.
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I wish I could give the public a true picture of the queen as she appeared at her best, but this would be impossible, even had she permitted a photograph to be taken, for her charming play of expression while in conversation, the character and intellect which were then revealed, were only half seen when the face was in repose. -Lilias Underwood when speaking of Empress Myeongseong "I was born in the dark. I went out into the light, and your Majesty, it is my displeasure to inform you that I have returned to the dark. I envision a Seoul of towering buildings filled with Western establishments that will place herself back above the Japanese barbarians. Great things lie ahead for the Kingdom, great things. We must take action, your Majesty, without hesitation, to further modernize this still ancient kingdom."-Min Young-ik to Empress Myeongseong | |
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| Ook | May 29 2010, 10:09 AM Post #25 |
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not a Transhuman
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yeah...in Prague zoo(that zoo,whose save mongolian wild horses from extinction and reintroducted it wto wild) is 5 pureblood amur leopards and several other amur leopards is in another four zoos in CZ |
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| lamna | May 29 2010, 11:39 AM Post #26 |
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When I said about using hybrids for endangered species I meant when they are right on the brink, and even if they can recover they will be very inbred. Cats are on the whole very good at coping with inbreeding, but there is still a good chance than the Amur Leopard could become a evolutionary dead end if we keep it pure, and they don't have enough diversity. |
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Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
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| Cynovolans | May 29 2010, 02:14 PM Post #27 |
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Servant to Empress Min
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But we still have control over the Amur leopards, if we introduce a foreign leopard into the population we lose control and could result in its extinction. If the leopards get very inbred we just introduce an Amur leopard that lived in a zoo into the population to add diversity. I could understand if we had no other Amur leopards in zoos, but for now we're not that desperate. |
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I wish I could give the public a true picture of the queen as she appeared at her best, but this would be impossible, even had she permitted a photograph to be taken, for her charming play of expression while in conversation, the character and intellect which were then revealed, were only half seen when the face was in repose. -Lilias Underwood when speaking of Empress Myeongseong "I was born in the dark. I went out into the light, and your Majesty, it is my displeasure to inform you that I have returned to the dark. I envision a Seoul of towering buildings filled with Western establishments that will place herself back above the Japanese barbarians. Great things lie ahead for the Kingdom, great things. We must take action, your Majesty, without hesitation, to further modernize this still ancient kingdom."-Min Young-ik to Empress Myeongseong | |
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| Spinosaurus Rex | May 29 2010, 02:22 PM Post #28 |
Apex
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Yes, it does. We should let Nature take its course, sure. But we should keep the outcompeted alive... somehow. We shouldn't release them back into the wild, but we should keep them, perhaps in a sanctuary somewhere, or something. |
The Dreaded AOL Dial-Up has left me afraid to spend more than 5 minutes posting at risk of losing it all. Arghhh.
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| Ddraig Goch | May 29 2010, 02:26 PM Post #29 |
Ar hyd y nos
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Perhaps if we terraformed Mars, and created one huge sanctuary for endangered species over there? Although, of course, that technology will be unavailable for some time yet, and the lower gravity might have effects on them, causing them to evolve into new species... |
| Save the Blibbering Humdinger from extinction! | |
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| Spinosaurus Rex | May 29 2010, 02:31 PM Post #30 |
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Apex
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In theory, we could terraform Mars with existing technology. Right now. It's just that it would bankrupt every single country on the planet. But we could do it. It'd also take, at the very least, 500 years to get Mars stable enough to breath on, anyway. The lower gravity might affect them, but I'm thinking in the next 500 years our practical knowledge of genetic engineering would have expanded orders of magnitude beyond what it is currently. But then it wouldn't "really" be the same species. Argh, the variables.... |
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The Dreaded AOL Dial-Up has left me afraid to spend more than 5 minutes posting at risk of losing it all. Arghhh.
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