..like bringing in a potentially invasive species that would try to fill some space presently held by other animal(s). Even if the cloned animals were contained in special parks, there could still be a risk of spreading.Is this some 22 year old hack writers idea of a "balanced" story? I mean, there is an elephant park in Tennessee. Mammoths, like elephants, take decades to breed, unlike invasive species such as insects and weeds and fish and snails and clams which breed by the millions in short periods of times. If a journalist wants to add tension by spinning up reasons why the Mammoth would be dangerous, they should look elsewhere, Mammoths taking over is not high on the list of possibilities.
What are the risks of cloning?As Dr. Malcolm warned, "Life will find a way." but it may be a dead end.
Reproductive cloning is expensive and highly inefficient. More than 90% of cloning attempts fail to produce viable offspring. More than 100 nuclear transfer procedures could be required to produce one viable clone. In addition to low success rates, cloned animals tend to have more compromised immune function and higher rates of infection, tumor growth, and other disorders. Japanese studies have shown that cloned mice live in poor health and die early. About a third of the cloned calves born alive have died young, and many of them were abnormally large. Many cloned animals have not lived long enough to generate good data about how clones age. Appearing healthy at a young age unfortunately is not a good indicator of long-term survival. Clones have been known to die mysteriously. For example, Australia's first cloned sheep appeared healthy and energetic on the day she died, and the results from her autopsy failed to determine a cause of death.
It would seem to me to be the ultimate cruelty to create an animal that could barely survive in our modern world just to say you could.
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posted by fetamelter at 8:19 AM on December 6, 2011 [10 favorites]