Chester Zoo Baby giraffe after margaret
- Thread starter Andiii
- Start date
More like one between Massai and Rothschildt's. It is well documented ....
Perhaps that is what I am thinking about.
I agree the whole giraffe genetics' issue is far from in the clear. Even the latest research that made it to the BBC Worldservice website did not impress me beyond any credible doubt.
It has been known for years that giraffe species do show up hybridisation zones or rather inter-gradation zones (hybrid is too strong a word). The classical taxonomists have always looked at morphology, habitat type and other variant factors. The current norm is just genetics ..... and I am not entirely convinced you can make assumptions on that basis alone if you do not have any giraffe taxonomists or natural historians on your team.
I do however approve of the current policy of EAZA to have integrally pure populations of the various - yet - recognised subspecies on the basis of sound record keeping. So, to separate out questionable or known hybrids from your pure source populations seems a sensible approach to me.
However, it can get rather superficial ... and I have the impression - though probably our SSP correspondents can better value this assessment - that within the SSP the approach has been more rigorous where f.i. most reticulated giraffe populations have now been designated hybrids. Safe to say, I do not know on which basis, but it seems rather tentative to me.
Suffice: I would not make forgone conclusions on genetics research alone; not yesteryear, not today, not in the future .... It will have to be a fully integrated research programme and still that is likely to not shut up all the sceptics!
Hence, let it be so!