"Animals are more than ever a test of our character, of mankind's capacity for empathy and for decent, honorable conduct and faithful stewardship. We are called to treat them with kindness, not because they have rights or power or some claim to equality, but in a sense, because they don't; because they all stand unequal and powerless before us."(Scully). How many others out in the world believe, that animals are elegant creatures? If humans are to believe this, then why do we take them from their natural habits and stick them between concrete walls to be examined and peered by the eyes of those that don’t? Zoos believe they have answered this question with the purpose of breeding endangered animals and reintroducing them into the wild. Their
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DNA determines how our body functions and what we look like. So what is the reason that could cause our own DNA to be our downfall? Inbreeding, which is the mating of organisms that are relatives. Inbreeding or the breeding or related individuals will cause an issue known as inbreeding depression. This is when the biological fitness in a population is reduced. Zoos take part in the practice of inbreeding because they take the claim that it is for the repopulation of the species close to extinction. But how are they helping the species when they are just lowering the species chance at survival and reproduction? Well, they aren’t because inbreeding also increases the frequency of the deleterious homozygous genotype, and selection against deleterious allele (genes whose effects on the phenotype are likely to result in a reduced fitness) (Boakes). For example, a population of 40 adders (Vipera berus) experienced inbreeding depression when farming activities in Sweden isolated them from other adder populations. Higher proportions of stillborn and deformed offspring were born in the isolated population than in the larger populations. When researchers introduced adders from other populations — an example of outbreeding — the isolated population recovered and produced a higher proportion of viable offspring (Inbreeding). Inbreeding depression incorporates a wide variety of health and physical defects. Some of these include an increased congenital defect such as heart defects, cleft palates, crooked faces, or uneven eye placement and size. Other effects include a lower birth weight, with slower growth weight causing a smaller adult size, and probably one of the most severe is the loss of immune system function. With an immune system function being loss animals will be unable to internally defend themselves against pathogens that they encounter
DNA determines how our body functions and what we look like. So what is the reason that could cause our own DNA to be our downfall? Inbreeding, which is the mating of organisms that are relatives. Inbreeding or the breeding or related individuals will cause an issue known as inbreeding depression. This is when the biological fitness in a population is reduced. Zoos take part in the practice of inbreeding because they take the claim that it is for the repopulation of the species close to extinction. But how are they helping the species when they are just lowering the species chance at survival and reproduction? Well, they aren’t because inbreeding also increases the frequency of the deleterious homozygous genotype, and selection against deleterious allele (genes whose effects on the phenotype are likely to result in a reduced fitness) (Boakes). For example, a population of 40 adders (Vipera berus) experienced inbreeding depression when farming activities in Sweden isolated them from other adder populations. Higher proportions of stillborn and deformed offspring were born in the isolated population than in the larger populations. When researchers introduced adders from other populations — an example of outbreeding — the isolated population recovered and produced a higher proportion of viable offspring (Inbreeding). Inbreeding depression incorporates a wide variety of health and physical defects. Some of these include an increased congenital defect such as heart defects, cleft palates, crooked faces, or uneven eye placement and size. Other effects include a lower birth weight, with slower growth weight causing a smaller adult size, and probably one of the most severe is the loss of immune system function. With an immune system function being loss animals will be unable to internally defend themselves against pathogens that they encounter