CUTTING EDGE 1-05 絶滅危惧種の選定
Have you ever heard of the "quagga"? Perhaps not, but you may
have seen a zebra before. (1)The zebra is a horse-like animal with
形M
distinctive black and white stripes covering its body. The quagga was
a member of the zebra family, brownish in colour with white stripes
FOS
around the neck and the front part of the body. (2)It is often said that
quagga looked like "zebra which had forgotten to put on their pajama
trousers." Quaggas lived in Southern Africa, but they died out in the
19th century due to overhunting. We can now only see their wild
beauty as 3stuffed specimens.
Some researchers, however, have tried to "revive" the quagga.
Because of its attractive stripe pattern, the quagga has gathered
much attention from those interested in animal conservation. Those
who would like to see the animals walk around the savannas again have
conducted the Quagga Project for over thirty years in South Africa.
Fas
模様のない
(3)It turns out that the quagga is genetically close to the plains zebra.
In this project, researchers have attempted to selectively breed
plains zebras: they chose plains zebras which have fewer stripes and
look slightly like quaggas. Baby zebras born to a slightly quagga-
like mother and father may look more like the quagga, with a 13
significantly reduced number of stripes. (4)This project has achieved a
certain level of success, producing several lovely baby zebras which have
striking similarities [to ] the quagga.
.
However, should we be happy about this? (5)While this new
generation of zebras is visually impressive, it only resembles [X]
