Years ago, Sir David Attenborough highlighted the plight of the African wild dog. It is now critically endangered. It is believed sperm banks might be the key to saving the species.
Conservationists are freezing sperm and researching artificial insemination. They are also looking at breeding wild dogs. The number of adult wild dogs has plunged to 6600. The cause? Conflict with humans and the loss of 93% of their hunting grounds. This is by human encroachment. Comment: loss of habitat is the single greatest threat to all the world’s species in general due to human encroachment.
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Young dogs who have become independent cannot move away to establish new packs. They are stuck with their families in isolated areas. This leads to a reduction in genetic diversity. This leads them to be vulnerable to disease. It creates inbreeding depression, a term used by selective breeders of purebred animals.
It’s impossible for a new dog to be introduced into an existing pack because of complex hierarchies.
Some success has been found in building new packs by moving young dogs into new areas.
The gene pool can be improved by artificial insemination of a relocating female when they have been sedated and monitored.
Dr. Damien Paris of James Cook University in Queensland, Australia said: “If during the process the female is carrying an additional genetic load, that’s a way of getting more bang for your buck in terms of genetic diversity.”
He added that, “You can also transfer genes using sperm more easily than transferring animals.”
There have been challenges in freezing wild dog sperm in liquid nitrogen tanks and thawing it out successfully.
Dr. Paris and his team have been busy trying to resolve this problem for a decade.
Dr. Paris added that it wasn’t possible to freeze and thaw the sperm until now because African wild dog sperm only lived for 30 minutes after it was thawed. The sperm has to survive for at least four hours to successfully inseminate a female dog.
He said that they’ve improved the technique. Wild dogs sperm can now swim and survive for eight hours after being thawed.
They now plan to obtain sperm samples from dogs that are members of packs where there is greater resistance to disease. The University of Pretoria South Africa will receive the sperm in liquid nitrogen tanks where they will be taken into the field in portable tanks. The females will then be monitored to work out the best time for insemination, Dr. Paris said.
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