Cloning animals

[Andrea]

What do people here think of the cloning of animals?

[Simon]

In theory I see no problem with it but am not sure why you would want to clone animals

[chrissie]

i dont see the point in it at all really. its totally against nature too, but then most things humans do now are against nature!

Originally Posted by Simon

In theory I see no problem with it but am not sure why you would want to clone animals

Maybe a species could be endangered. That would be a good use of cloning I think.

[tom]

Originally Posted by emz

Maybe a species could be endangered. That would be a good use of cloning I think.

Cloning won't mean a thing if the animal still doesn't have a habitat. There must also be some kind of genetic diversity. A population cannot be replentished with clones because clones are so close genetically.

[debs]

Originally Posted by emz

Maybe a species could be endangered. That would be a good use of cloning I think.

IMHO.....No
Clearly becouse of the fact that endangered species can stop beeing indangered if we....Humans....stop killing them

Also if we cloned endangered specia we would most likely destroy the already fragile eco-system

Furthermore it would freak me out to know some clones are roming in the woods. And in our time why would someone clone some animal, ofcourse for the first test to research the cloning proces, but later people would just stop caring about animals and start cloning humans for most likely military purposes.

But that's just me

[tom]

Originally Posted by debs

IMHO.....No
Clearly becouse of the fact that endangered species can stop beeing indangered if we....Humans....stop killing them

Also if we cloned endangered specia we would most likely destroy the already fragile eco-system

Furthermore it would freak me out to know some clones are roming in the woods. And in our time why would someone clone some animal, ofcourse for the first test to research the cloning proces, but later people would just stop caring about animals and start cloning humans for most likely military purposes.

But that's just me

I'm more worried about genetic diversity. Cloned animals have much less diversity, and it is well known that less diversity in a population makes for a much less stable population. What if a new environmental factor arises that wipes out all the cloned animals...the population is screwed.

[david16]

Originally Posted by tom

I'm more worried about genetic diversity. Cloned animals have much less diversity, and it is well known that less diversity in a population makes for a much less stable population. What if a new environmental factor arises that wipes out all the cloned animals...the population is screwed.

I'm with tom on this; the clones would be almost useless in terms of genetic diversity, which is a huge problem for many endangered species.

For instance, I know that recently a zoo had to destroy an entire clutch of healthy, viable eggs of an endangered crocodile species. Why? Because the pair that produced the eggs is *already* overrepresented in the remaining gene pool, and further representation will be detrimental to the species as a whole.

It's not just numbers, it's genetic diversity. Cloning, by definition, cannot add to this diversity in a cost-effective way (especially compared to simple selective breeding to ensure maximum diversity).

Habitat is also a large piece of the problem, and more pressing than cloning. For instance, the Chinese alligator is nearly extinct in the wild, less than 2 dozen individuals. Captive population: over 20,000, and they breed like reptilian guppies. But we've got nowhere to *put* them; all their habitat has been turned into rice paddies and the farmers hate them because they eat the ducks (also the rats, but people are rarely sensible about such things).

IMHO, cloning endangered species is a waste of time and money, a misplaced effort.

[natterjack]

I can't really see cloning being used for preserving endangered species directly: It'll be used in farming, cloning highly productive individuals; and for "leisure" animals - pets and race-horses (as it already is beginning to be). The cost for these is irrelevant as long as the punters are prepared to pay, and someone will be prepared to pay.

Even if cloning were any use to preserve species (which as has been said, it's not), money would have to be raised from somewhere to do it.

The two may be combined, of course. For a price you too can own a copy of the last wild Javan Rhino!

If some of the profit were ploughed back into preserving the original creatures and their habitat, it may be tempting for some cash starved conservation programmes.