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Condor Chick Born In Wild
hank writes "Great news (Yahoo! News link) today on the endangered species front! A condor chick born in the wild is alive and well. Originally, biologists planned on interfering and giving "life support" to the egg; however, biologists were surprisingly pleased to see the father aggressively protecting his young. Wisely, they decided to let nature take control. The chick in Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara County is the first conceived, hatched and raised in the wild to survive more than a day. It was 4 days old on Monday. What does this mean for genetic cloning and incubation research? Can nature really repair itself? What do you all think?"
When I think of condors and chicks, I think of The Condor in SF - Former home of Carol Doda
This point of view is a lame excuse for not willing to see that the environment gets wasted, or for not wanting to act to to it. There is nothing to worry about if species die out, but species die out with a rate which is several orders of magnitude higher than what is "natural", and that is something to worry about.
As for the condor one could ask whether it is a real important species in the ecosystem. Apparently it isn't. However, there are some other reasons which justify the protection of this bird; it is the largest flying bird on earth, and a very special bird.
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Funny By Nature
It has to do with cloning because it suggests that animals raised in captivity can still exhibit instinctive behaviors...like successful rearing of young.
So if we use cloning to bring back species that are currently extinct, this suggests we may also be successful in re-introducing the cloned individuals to the wild. Otherwise they could only ever be zoo curiosities.