Hope for 'generic' tigers

[gentle lemur]

Research shows that genetic testing may be able to identify some captive tigers, which do not have complete studbook records, as pure-bred members of a subspecies. Obviously this would have considerable benefits to captive gene pools if all tigers of indeterminate pedigree could be tested reliably.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Captive tigers 'may save species'

Alan

 

[NZ Jeremy]

Thats great news, the Sumatran program in Australasia could use more blood in time...

 

[patrick]

i reckon they might find a few purebred bengals in there....

 

[Ara]

Yep, I agree patrick; much more likely to find pure Bengals rather than Sumatrans.

 

[Pertinax]

That's a very useful discovery but I wonder how many 'generic' tigers will actually receive the test. How will it work in practise- would a zoo have to apply to have its tigers tested and provide the funding too? And if a pure tiger is identified somewhere, it might need to be removed elsewhere for breeding purposes, so the owning zoo could lose out... (Just highlighting a couple of problems....)

 

[James27]

Are there not many pure bred Sumatran tigers in captivity?

 

[NZ Jeremy]

Are there not many pure bred Sumatran tigers in captivity?

Its more the number of founding animals...