Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Game Time: Genetics at the Zoo!

Zoos and Aquariums bring together a large gradient of species  to areas that they otherwise would not inhabit. This creates a unique problem as these same species are expected to breed to prolong the establishments population as well as propagate the valuable genetic material they contain. It has been documented that, because of their isolated populations and inability to find an outside source to form mating pairs, inbreeding has had detrimental effects  on certain species captive in zoos (Ralls et al, 1988).  Captive breeding, although useful, isn't always as easy as it seems. Try your hand at breeding the ideal an Tiger population in this fun game from the folks at the Minnisota Zoo!

Zoo Matchmaker:

http://www.mnzoo.org/education/games/matchmaker/index.html

Easy- Genetic Diversity mode
Hard- Disease Resistance mode

The greater the resistance and lower the inbreeding the better!
POST YOUR (HARD) HIGH SCORE IN THE COMMENTS!!
Mine is 100% Resistance/ 21% Inbreeding

Sources:

Ralls, Katherine, Jonathan D. Ballou, and Alan Templeton. "Estimates of lethal equivalents and the cost of inbreeding in mammals." Conservation biology 2.2 (1988): 185-193.

4 comments:

  1. I can't get the game to work on my computer. (I'm using a Mac -- not sure if that makes a difference.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I tried to play it but I couldn't get it full screen on my computer to see it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am also using a Mac so it should work, you might have to try to update or install flash

    ReplyDelete
  4. It worked better for me with Firefox instead of Safari for some reason

    ReplyDelete