Okay, but seriously....

[Sinisterair]

Why can't we just clone all the endangered animals? That might sound naive or something, considering I know nothing about genetics. But we've cloned animals before and it seems like a reasonable solution to endangered species, either that or saving their DNA samples so we can clone them later (like the seed vault in the netherlands).

-Cloning as far as i know is an expensive process
-Controversial
-Those cloned couldn't breed due to the fact that that's basically having sex with yourself....inbreeding = bad! Or is it masturbation?

 

[ajemas]

Why can't we just clone all the endangered animals? That might sound naive or something, considering I know nothing about genetics. But we've cloned animals before and it seems like a reasonable solution to endangered species, either that or saving their DNA samples so we can clone them later (like the seed vault in the netherlands).

Have you heard of the American Cheetah? It is almost extinct. Problem is, it's dying, even in captivity? Do you want to know why? Because it's not genetically diverse at all.
You know about natural selection, right? How a large variance in traits allow for advantageous attributes to become prominent? Well, let's say that there is a specific disease that is running rampant. One portion of the population is going to have a natural immunity to it if there is a lot of diversity. However, if everyone has the same immunities, they are all going to die. That's what's happening with the Cheetah: each one of them is basically the same as the next, so they aren't able to adapt to diseases.
This is exactly what would happen if we restored an extinct species. If any disease came about, or if they were released into the wild, they wouldn't be able to recover at all. Once again, I point to the Cheetah. Even with the world's best scientists, we are barely keeping it afloat. Sorry, but it's impossible.
(Relevant link: http://www.spfdbus.com/JessZoo/Cheetahbabies/info/genetic.htm )

snip

I'm sorry, I love Carlin and all, but he has no idea what he's talking about.

 

[Blue_vision]

Oh and you forgot that cloning is extrememly expensive in your explanation.

I'd really consider that a trivial detail to the preservation of a species.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

You're telling me there's a force out there more powerful than an adorable tiger? LIES

Use the quote function.

Yes. It's called a gun. Guns are more powerful than tigers.

But what about tigers with guns? When will this terrible game of brinkmanship come to an end?

 

[delet]

You're telling me there's a force out there more powerful than an adorable tiger? LIES

Use the quote function.

Yes. It's called a gun. Guns are more powerful than tigers.

But what about tigers with guns? When will this terrible game of brinkmanship come to an end?

Parasitic hamster army?

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

Why can't we just clone all the endangered animals? That might sound naive or something, considering I know nothing about genetics. But we've cloned animals before and it seems like a reasonable solution to endangered species, either that or saving their DNA samples so we can clone them later (like the seed vault in the netherlands).

There are many issues with that. The primary one is that cloning will make the cloned species genetically homogeneous, i.e- the gene pool will be limited as opposed to the random genes assorted during random mating. This means that any disease that harnesses a weakness in the gene code would be lethal for the cloned species as all of them would then be susceptible to that disease.

It may be possible to mix and match different chromosomes from a given endangered population to make a stock diverse gene pool but doing so will inevitably lower the chances of success as existing chances of success are low enough as it is.

Additionally, the age of the cloned animal will depend on the age of the animal who produced the source material. So for eg; if you took genetic material from a 20 year old animal, the resulting cloned infant would be (on a cellular level) 20 years old despite being conceived only 10 seconds ago. This means that the lifespan of the cloned species is also severely diminished.

That's the major hurdle I believe. I mean there are other issues but this, combined with the low rate of success, all the drawbacks, costs and relative ethical issues..it's just not worth it.

 

[Omikron009]

Cloning is incredibly expensive, time consuming, and risky. For all the work put in, there's a good chance that the animal will either not survive or the cloning process won't work at all.

 

[Spoonius]

Cloned animals contribute nothing to the diversity of a species' gene pool.

 

[Ashcrexl]

what everyone else said. we would rather spend money on making enough weapons to destroy the world 60 times over than on going into outer space or genetic research. also, i nominate your thread title as the vaguest title on the escapist.

 

[Knusper]

If a species was to die out, would you not need loads more (like hundreds) to get it going again because you need a big gene pool to survive any real change in the environment that this new hypothetical clone species is living in.

^^ That's basically all I've learnt from Biology over the past 12 years of it. ^^

 

[Fridge]

Why can't we just clone all the endangered animals? That might sound naive or something, considering I know nothing about genetics. But we've cloned animals before and it seems like a reasonable solution to endangered species, either that or saving their DNA samples so we can clone them later (like the seed vault in the netherlands).

Because at the moment we have no idea of its long term implications, thats going to take a fair bit of study. And as someone else has mentioned previously there are monitary and moral implications. And there no telling how the religious community would take it.

Just think of all the fuss thats been made over GM foods for a great example.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Cloning can be difficult and y'know can create inbreeding and less reproductive ability and shiz

Also the CLONING R EVILZ crowd would be all over it in seconds

 

[Jonluw]

Cloning is pretty damn hard though.
That's why people made such a big fuzz about Dolly.

Conserving their genes might be a good idea though.