{"id":7524,"date":"2022-08-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/23-08-2022\/tasmanian-tiger\/"},"modified":"2022-08-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T00:00:00","slug":"tasmanian-tiger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/23-08-2022\/tasmanian-tiger","title":{"rendered":"Tasmanian Tiger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Recently, the <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>Texas-based biotechnology company Colossal<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> announced their plans to use genetic engineering to recreate the <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>Tasmanian Tiger<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> and return it to the A<\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>rctic tundra<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">, its original natural habitat.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong> <\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><strong>Tasmanian Tiger<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">History:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">The animal went extinct in the 1930s and was native to the island of Tasmania, where it had lived for around 2 million years.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Other names:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Thylacine, A dingo with a pouch&#8221; or &#8220;a dog with a pouch&#8221;.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Its DNA also has a lot in common with the kangaroo.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Major threats and challenges:\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Humans have been blamed for the animal&#8217;s extinction, especially after a bounty program was instituted in Tasmania to protect sheep and other animals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">The population today would be very susceptible to diseases, and would not be very healthy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Conservationists point out those resources could be better spent conserving species currently alive at a time when more than 1 million species are at risk of going extinct.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Significance:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>Rebuild biodiversity<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">: Scientists hope that establishing populations of animals like the Tasmanian tiger and woolly mammoth can help rebuild biodiversity.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>Human guilt<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">: It\u2019s hard to ignore that de-extinction projects are driven in part by human guilt for having caused many of these species to die out in the first place.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>Technology<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">: One of the benefits of de-extinction is that technologies for bringing back animals that died out are also being used in conservation projects to boost the numbers of critically endangered animals.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Other targeted species:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Target species include the Aurochs, the ox-like animal depicted in the Lascaux cave paintings.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/Hya0r_tsj7JYPIiV3ldFAzGM9PRES2BtmFLeTTyexWnfSTDml69St9Mw9dXCcnZpXjnnrqhcznrveOv9WMeJhRre2meokV-c2llB-rcSeOki39hUNz0d9HReg5O3WAXzWJOxGBd5JD02ZCUSw0o3eR8\" style=\"height:174.0; width:290.0\" \/><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-left:25px\">\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"border-collapse:collapse; border:none; width:584px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"background-color:#fac090; border-bottom:1px solid #000000; border-left:1px solid #000000; border-right:1px solid #000000; border-top:1px solid #000000; vertical-align:top; width:584px\">\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><strong>Do you know?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">In 2020, the first clone of <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>Przewalski&#8217;s horse was born at San Diego Zoo<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>The species is extinct in the wild<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> and the 2,000 remaining individuals in zoos and reserves descend from only 12 wild ancestors.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>Such restricted breeding means<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> the species is at risk of low genetic diversity, harming the chances of survival if rewilded.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><strong>How would the animals be created?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">The scientists will work with <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>stem cells <\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">taken from the closest related living species, <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>the fat-tailed dunnart<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">, which they plan to convert to those of a Tasmanian tiger by using gene-editing technologies.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Colossal plans to essentially create a hybrid animal with many of the characteristics of a Tasmanian tiger.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">If the conversion works, the stem cells can then be made into an embryo, which can either be grown in a lab or transferred to a surrogate dunnart mother.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><strong>Source: <\/strong><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/technology\/science\/tasmanian-tiger-mammoth-dodo-de-extinction-8104282\/\" style=\"text-decoration-line:none\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"color:#1155cc\"><strong>IE<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News Recently, the Texas-based biotechnology company Colossal announced their plans to use genetic engineering to recreate the Tasmanian Tiger and return it to the Arctic tundra, its original natural habitat.\u00a0 About Tasmanian Tiger History: The animal went extinct in the 1930s and was native to the island of Tasmania, where it had lived for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-7524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-gs-3"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/2931473Screenshot_20220822-210619_Chrome.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}