How hybrids could help save endangered species
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How hybrids could help save endangered species
Lilith Zecherle, Liverpool John Moores University; Hazel Nichols, Swansea University, and Richard Brown, Liverpool John Moores University
What do you get when you cross two distinct lineages of an endangered species? For scientists hoping to revive an extinct population in Israel, the answer was a lucky accident – one that could upend longstanding ideas about how best to preserve biodiversity.
The Asiatic wild ass is a relative of the donkey that, as the name suggests, was never domesticated. This truly wild animal lives in the steppes and deserts of western and central Asia, from the Mediterranean to Mongolia. Because they vary slightly in size and colour (ranging from a pale sand colour to a dark ochre), Asiatic wild asses have been classified into five distinct subspecies: Mongolian, Indian, Iranian, Turkmen, and Syrian. The latter once roamed the Middle East, but overhunting drove it to extinction in the 1920s.
Hoping to return thi...
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