Four experts explain what genetic health is and why it matters for our most vulnerable wildlife.
Articles on Inbreeding
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Genetic diversity is being lost across many species – especially birds and mammals. But you can help stop the decline.
But here’s why this seemingly unremarkable bird could save other, less obvious species from devastation.
There are so few wild ocelots in the US that the cats are becoming inbred, with a bad prognosis for their ultimate survival. But researchers are perfecting ways to get new genes into the population.
Reviewing studies of 88 species, researchers found little evidence that animals avoid inbreeding.
Kiwi are often moved between fragmented populations to limit inbreeding, but without sufficient genetic screening, this risks doing more harm than good.
Parthenogenesis, a form of reproduction in which an egg develops into an embryo without being fertilized by sperm, might be more common than you realized.
The slaughtered tigers were not bred in zoos, yet their story should put captive breeding in general into question.
Inbreeding and male infertility could be impeding the recovery of one of New Zealand’s threatened birds - the stitchbird, or hihi. Hihi sperm might hold the answer, and help raise funds for conservation.
Top contributors
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Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
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Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
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PhD student, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University
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Senior Lecturer in Animal Ecology, University of the Sunshine Coast
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Senior Lecturer in Ecology, Evolution & Bioinformatics, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University
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DVM, PhD Candidate in Comparative and Experimental Medicine, University of Tennessee
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Lecturer in Creative Writing, The University of Queensland
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Research fellow in conservation genetics, University of Otago
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Associate Professor in Ecology and Zoology, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University
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Researcher & Computer Scientist, Rheumatology, Lund University
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Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Zoology, Stockholm University
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Research Fellow in Conservation Genomics, University of Canberra
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Associate Professor in Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Bioinformatics, University of Sydney
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PhD Candidate, College of Science & Engineering, James Cook University