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semi-serious question: i think almost every species extinct in recent history can be brought back to live with genetic engineering?
Not really.
First of all, because we would need the DNA of those animals. Sure, you can cobble some shit together, to make an animal that looks like that extinct species, but it would not actually be that extinct species.
Another issue is the biome/niche that species lived in. They either went extinct because of changes to their environment, or, they went extinct, and that caused changes in their environment. So if you want to bring the species back, you also need to make sure they have a suitable environment to survive in.
You also can’t just bring back one. A population needs generic diversity to adapt and survive. So to de-extinct a species, you need to bring back like 25 generically varied examples. Much more work than just creating a single specimen.
Behavior matters for a species as well. If orcas went extinct in the wild, and we bought them back with a breeding program in zoos and aquarium and just released those solitary orcas into the wild, do you think they would act like orcas? Would they hunt with the same techniques? I think the pack mentality would be gone, their “language” would be gone, and I don’t think they would survive.
The reality is, extinction is a permanent thing. We may possibly have the ability to bring a species “back” but there will be permanent, population-altering irreversible effects from going extinct in the first place.
Just to add to your point. But if anyone wants a good example of what a genetic bottleneck can do to a species look no further than the cheetah, poor bastards have nigh universal anxiety. Let alone the fact that they are about as genetically diverse as a rural Icelandic town populated exclusively by scions of the Von Habsburgs, seriously they are all universal donors for each other and donated organ rejections are basically non existent.
As a biologist, can confirm.
In theory, and ignoring a wide variety of yet unsolved problems, sure!
I don’t think this is to scale.
I agree. Bison are much larger than that.
Thank goodness for the Bronx Zoo and the WCS.
Not perfect recovery, but still a powerful reminder that “too late” isn’t always true. Stopping the damage is step one.
Each of the bison shapes in the 60mil example are actually clusters of bison so small you can’t see them with the naked eye.
Jokes on you, I wear glasses and still can’t see them
Jokes on you, I have no eyes and I can’t even read what you said.
The jokes on you, the post you couldn’t read contains the winning lottery numbers.
Jokes on you, those winning lottery numbers were for the hunger games. Here’s your bow and arrow
Joke’s on you, my eyes are the only part of me that isn’t naked right now.
Each bison image is worth 75 bison according to the middle section.
The decision to stop was required, but a ton of work was done to help the population rebound. What kind of misguided message is this trying to send?
It’s trying to tell people who think it’s too much work to bother that it’s not. I do it all the time, like when I have to wash the dishes and I tell myself “I’ll just wash one dish” because I know if I do that I’ll be a lot more motivated to continue, but if I keep looking at the whole problem before I start, I’ll be too overwhelmed to do anything at all.
That’s about how I read it. Sometimes you don’t have a solution to fix a problem, but ceasing to make it worse is a valuable course of action in itself. The bison aren’t back the way they were, but they’re not extinct either.
Sure, the bison population is 0.05% of what it once was. And now that we’re not actively attempting to extinct them, everything is hunky dory and no more work is needed.
I don’t know how else to interpret this. It sounds like the Bison Society would rather be a society dedicated to literal anything else. The Kick the Can Down the Road Society, perhaps.
It does the job
Wait. I need to know more about the Aperture Science dinosaur in 1889.
So I’m not bothered by the inconsistent scale… but why is there a dinosaur peeking through the bottom of the 1889 column?!
They were closing in on extinction?
So thats why charles in rdr2 was so mad about some foreigners killing bisons. Never knew they were endangered (also im not an american)
They weren’t naturally, the US state nearly exterminated the species as a tool of genocide against multiple Native American nations.
“They were god damn monsters” (said in arthur morgan’s voice)
I’m not American either, but have heard of the near bison extinction. They made literal mountains of nothing but bison skulls.
They skinned them and left their meat and bones to rot all over the prairie.
It’s hard to imagine it if you haven’t seen the pictures. Even then, it’s impossible.
It’s crazy to think about. Especially because it’s such a cool and unique animal. I’m just happy that bison still exist. I hope their population keeps growing even though they will never be as many as they were.
Settlers killed buffalo to force indigenous people into the reservation system. It was a big part of the genocide here, worth looking into if you get the chance.
This is a buffalo:
They are not the same animal as American bison, which are also not European bison for that matter.
Isn’t that a water buffalo? Not the same animal as the American Bison COMMONLY KNOWN AS THE AMERICAN BUFFALO.
Isn’t that a water buffalo?
or as you woul call it a water bison…
Also the city was not on land, which had American bison, so no it is not named after the animal.
All the icons are American Buffalo though.
No but the American Buffalo is also called a buffalo which is also a correct term.
Log scale?
graph designer “i don’t like math” scale
Each buffalo in the first picture represents 242,914 buffalo. Which means the last picture would be about 1/10th of a bison, and the middle one would be just the tip of a horn.
Each buffalo in the second picture represents 75 bison. By that metric, the first picture almost comes close to representing the third number. But the third picture just doesn’t fit here, and the first number is so huge you’d need at least 2000 times picture one to represent it.
Because they finally caged the velociraptor in the middle image?
It turns out that we were the velociraptors all along.
Look at the gunbarrel around it. That’s the velociraptor equivalent of James Bond. You can’t put it in a cage.
It’s the veliciraptor you’re aiming at, while the clever girl is watching you.
What is the genetic diversity of the bison? Are they are going to be very inbred soon and die out?
No.
