When Shep the farm dog discovered a population of wild black-footed ferrets near

Question

When Shep the farm dog discovered a population of wild black-footed ferrets near Meeteetse WY, the responsibility for monitoring and protection of the population fell to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. The population grew to a high of 129 individuals in 1984, but by the following year, only 38 individuals were observed and there were no young that had been produced from the previous year. It was believed that the population was dying out from sylvatic plague. This dramatic population decline alarmed the Game and Fish biologists who began trapping all remaining individuals to try and save the species. Over the course of two years, only 18 animals were rescued and brought into captivity. Of these 18 individuals, only seven successfully reproduced. These individuals were the start of the captive breeding program that stll exists today. In fact, all existing black-footed ferrets are descendants of these seven ndividuals Instructions: Answer the following questions 1. Identify some problems or concerns about a captive breeding program for black-footed ferrets. Think about the possible threats to maintaining a sustainable, reproductively healthy population of black-footed ferrets 2. For each threat identified in the previous question, what are some strategies that could be used to mitigate their negative effects? 3. In the wild, ferrets are not restricted in their movements and will move across both state and national boundaries creating a number of transboundary issues. What are some of the issues that the Black-footed ferret recovery implementation team (RIT) will need to address considering the fact that ferrets cross state lines and also into Canada

Explanation / Answer

1. Captive-breeding of black-footed ferrets might prove to be a threat to the ecosystem, The captive animals may bring deleterious genes into the mix which may cause mutations in the population. Their gene pool may also be small and may result in inbreeding depression.

Age is also a concern. If the newly captive members are too young, they may not be able to defend themselves and the trait will pass on to next generations.

Too old introduced members may not be able to reproduce successively.

The animals don’t breed as well in captivity. We may be unable to breed the animals at a rate that is insufficient for population recovery.

2. There are various factors at play while meddling with the dynamics of a biological community and until the process of captive introduction has considered the greater part of this, any means ought to be taken with caution.

Biological communities and the connections inside these communities must be carefully considered while introducing new members of a species.

Sometimes, captive breeding could be the only solution to the diminishing size of the population where no other measure appears to be conceivable.

If done for research under entirely controlled conditions, captive breeding can offer precious logical bits of knowledge into animal growth and behaviour as a whole.

The critical thing to remember is that reproducing animals in captivity should just be drilled with an eye toward not harming the species as a whole. As we have seen, the outcomes of hostage reproducing can be natural or monetary, can be promptly evident or very astonishing and could threaten both the captive-bred species and those individuals remaining in the wild. For whatever reason it’s done, captive breeding ought to be viewed as just a piece of a more intricate interrelationship amongst people and creatures and the planet overall.

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