Conservation of endangered species
Organisations like WWF have a variety of initiatives to prevent endangered species going instinct, from saving their habitat to having captive breeding programmes (WWF, 2018).
A problem with captive breeding programmes is that often inbreeding has to be used to conserve species which causes health problems for the offspring and slows the process that the collection is able to be released in the wild because impaired genes cannot be mixed with the general population of the species as it would cause more endangerment (Willoughby et al., 2017).
Some people would argue that extinction is a natural process that humans should not involve themselves in, so why are endangered species protected? One reason would be to keep ecosystems in order to protect the environment, but most other reasons are for human benefit such as ecotourism and to dissolve the guilt humans feel for being the main cause of species going extinct due to hunting, climate change and habitat destruction (Mazzotti, 1990).
To summarise, there are various aspects and approaches to wildlife conservation with some methods having more success, but as humans are at the forefront of making species endangered it only makes sense for us to try to conserve as many species as we can.
Resources:
Willoughby, J. R., Ivy, J. A., Lacy, R.C, Doyle, J. M., Dewoody, J. A., 2017. Inbreeding and selection shape genomic diversity in captive populations: Implications for the conservation of endangered species.. PLoS ONE, [Online]. Volume 12 (Issue 4), p1-17. Available at: http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=da8fe0c0-ca5a-4d72-b593-2b05889d9bc6%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=afh&AN=122569452 [Accessed 17 January 2018].
WWF. 2018. Protecting species. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.worldwildlife.org/initiatives/protecting-species. [Accessed 17 January 2018].
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