Interesting development from the Vienna Zoo - African elephant in the zoo was inseminated with seed from a wild elephant from South Africa. A potential way to prevent inbreeding and/or preserve genetic diversity from imperiled wild populations or an interesting technical accomplishment that won't mean much? Will be interesting to see where this goes (if anywhere). Elephant impregnated with frozen sperm from wild male | MNN - Mother Nature Network
That may be so, but not many of us frequent that part of the forum. Such fantastic news at least deserves a mention on a board with higher traffic.
yes I did think that after I posted, because it is apparently a world-first, and I know it will get buried in the Schonbrunn thread so it is all good that it gets a thread of its own. I wasn't intending any disrespect to David.
Yeah David has thick skin. Despite all the jokes about his crazy threads in the Zoo Cafe, he still keeps posting new ones.
Artificial breeding is widely used in the livestock industry & has been for decades. Why is it not more widely used by the zoo cartels? Is it the same reason the horse racing industry has banned it? Cheers Khakibob
It's not allowed because AI is so easy & straws can be stored & shipped for almost nothing. If you're a member of a cartel with popular sires,you'll loose control of the genetics & the large fees paid for using your studs in live breeding. The ban on AI in the racing industry has nothing to do with animal heath & safety & everything to do with power & money. With AI one can go back to straws which are 30 years old now,to reverse genetic drift & open bottlenecks without re opening a line.Also there is the safety of storing semen & eggs in case valuable animals are lost.With some species I feel if you breed with males which are to young they never reach their full potential,using straws drawn from these saves them the stress & allows them to grow out. So why are zoo cartel's 20 years behind aggriculture in using this ? Cheers Khakibob
