>>ALL the cute "Gold Hamster" origin from an gravid female, that was colected in 1930. She and her 7 babys were the beginning of billions of pets.


You are exactly right. Inbreeding CAN produce wonderful results, but it requires scientific culling AND some species can handle it more than others. Species that inbreed commonly in the wild (due to their dispersal rates) - like rodents that often colonize new islands with a SMALL number of founders - due better than those that don't.

BTW, I believe that number on the hamsters is correct, but all 7 didn't make it into the breeding pool. It was actually LESS than that in the US - especially when you consider that only a subset of their great-grandchildren made it here:

From Laboratory Animal Medicine, 2nd edition:
"Practically all Syrian hamsters now in use as laboratory animals originated from
one litter captured in Syria in 1930. Only 3 littermates, 1 male and 2 females, were
retained in captivity, and it is the progeny of these 3 animals that were first
imported to the United States in 1938."

"All Mongolian gerbils available for research were derived from 20 pairs trapped in
eastern Mongolia in 1935. ... imported 11 pairs to the United States from the Tokyo
subcolony in 1954."
-----
KJUN Snakehaven
Pituophis.net
KJUN.us
Snakemorphs.us

[ Show Entire Thread ]