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Asked by anon-371652 to Rebecca on 7 Nov 2023. This question was also asked by anon-371653.
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Rebecca Shaw answered on 7 Nov 2023: last edited 7 Nov 2023 10:00 am
One that I am currently studying in my PhD – the Black-footed ferret! They are currently endangered and I am working on trying to understand their genetics and how their close call with extinction has impacted their fitness. They’ve had such a crazy history – there were only 14 Black-footed ferrets left in the wild until scientists found them and tried to save them. So they were almost extinct! Now, there are over 300 in the wild and methods like genetically cloning a Black-footed ferret are being used to try and save them.
If I wasn’t studying these, I would love to study marine animals (like basking sharks or orca), they have such different life histories it would be cool to look at their genetics!
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Comments
Nikoleta commented on :
I am not studying any animals at the moment. Except if we count humans as animals 🙂
Femi commented on :
Any primate and mouse.
Martin commented on :
The mighty chicken! (Or more precisely: laying hen.) This is because I appreciate chickens, and because they have an interesting genome.
Roberta commented on :
Mouse! it is surprisingly similar to us and also very nice to work with:)