A "warm Fuzzy" for you... - Page 2

crimsonking · 01-24-03, 05:34 PM

In the case of the FL. subspecies, a large threat to them is also OTHER panthers. Many are killed by their own. The base population is so small now ( and obviously inbred) that they must use other ssp. to get ANY population increase. Texas ssp. is one. It's sad. Just not enough space left for these guys. Soon no more "pure" FL. panthers I'm afraid. I think 30 or so left. I didn't mean to get all depressed and all, just to show a cute little panther cub. Hopefully next time I see him he'll be more in the mood to play with me. I'll be sure to take a better camera with me too.

katev17 · 01-24-03, 09:54 PM

I don't know if somebody already replied with this, because I'm too lazy to read (SORRY!) But we can't breed endangered animals unless there's like 1000 of them, or something... I'm not sure of the exact number of them but the reason is because when you don't have enough numbers to breed within, you begin to get into inbreeding, which is not really helping the process in anyway. Although here's something that might be interesting for people:

In New Zealand I think it is, they're trying to create a tiger that has been extinct for a very long time (I really want to say sibertooth tiger but I'm PRETTY REALLY sure it's not...) and they're doing it the way people in the movie Jurassic Park did it. I think it's really neat that they can do that, but unfortunately there's a lot of issues that come to hand... For example, it seems right that humans are trying to replace an animal that has gone extinct because of acts of humans , right? (make sense?) However, the ecosystem has developed to survive with out it, and by reintroducing it , there would be a whole new level of disruption. So are the scientists that are doing this doing good or bad to the ecosystem?? I'd like to hear your guyses thoughts on this! Keep in mind that they do plan to reintroduce the species once they've CLONED the animal... (Which is a whole other topic) ... If it was just to bring it back to life and keep it in captivity, I think my opinion would be different, but they're trying to up things to a greater level. I read this in an article, if I find it I'll be sure to post it!!!

So what do you guys think??

Kate

Rebecca · 01-26-03, 03:20 PM

I think it's great that their trying to bring back some extinct species, but why not work on keeping the ones we have and THEN bring back some of the ones that are already gone. If thier cloning the extinct ones then why not clone the ones already here?? I don't know it's just dumb. I wish I could do more, it makes me mad that I can't do something big, know what I mean?? I can do little stuff but I want to do something big to help, oh well.