>>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

[ Hide Replies ]

• Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - DDedrick, Mon Feb 23 21:23:59 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - RedDevil, Mon Feb 23 22:26:07 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - DDedrick, Mon Feb 23 22:34:01 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - John Q, Tue Feb 24 10:14:28 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - charleshanklin, Tue Feb 24 12:00:39 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - FastDad, Tue Feb 24 13:16:41 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - Don Shores, Tue Feb 24 20:10:56 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - JustinMitcham, Tue Feb 24 12:52:21 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - RedDevil, Tue Feb 24 13:12:32 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - KJUN, Tue Feb 24 16:43:06 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - JustinMitcham, Tue Feb 24 20:18:05 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - KJUN, Tue Feb 24 21:15:17 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - Rextiles, Tue Feb 24 21:16:23 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - MOTORHEAD, Wed Feb 25 06:09:12 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - FastDad, Wed Feb 25 06:15:02 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - Rextiles, Wed Feb 25 06:29:42 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - FastDad, Wed Feb 25 13:12:18 2009
• More on rodents..... - KJUN, Wed Feb 25 13:56:35 2009
• RE: More on rodents..... - FastDad, Wed Feb 25 14:26:08 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snakes - jayfischerherps, Tue Feb 24 16:35:41 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snakes - scaledverts, Tue Feb 24 18:12:42 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snakes - Bolitochrome, Wed Feb 25 10:31:45 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snakes - scaledverts, Wed Feb 25 11:20:05 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snakes - FastDad, Wed Feb 25 12:37:44 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snakes - scaledverts, Wed Feb 25 14:37:11 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snakes - FastDad, Wed Feb 25 15:27:10 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snakes - Bolitochrome, Wed Feb 25 20:12:00 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snakes - FastDad, Thu Feb 26 02:49:30 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - MOTORHEAD, Fri Feb 27 16:37:05 2009
• Personally.... - RedDevil, Fri Feb 27 17:36:40 2009
• RE: Inbreeding snake (Common Misconceptions) - MOTORHEAD, Fri Feb 27 20:04:46 2009