Wooly Felonies and Back-Breeding

The Return of the Auroch

Author

The Déjà Digest
March 14, 2024

Background: You’ve heard of Tiger King, get ready for Montana Mountain King.

Arthur "Jack" Schubarth, an 80-year-old Montana rancher who owns a 215-acre ranch in Montana has pled guilty to two felony wildlife crimes for illegally creating giant hybrid sheep through cloning and insemination for the purpose of selling them to game ranches.

Schubarth obtained genetic material from Marco Polo argali sheep, a protected species from Kyrgyzstan, brought it into the U.S. without declaring it, and later forged veterinary inspection certificates. He then used this genetic material to create the Montana Mountain King, a hybrid sheep. Schubarth also sold semen from the Montana Mountain King to other breeders.

In pursuit of profit, Schubarth and his accomplices skirted international protections and the Lacey Act, designed to safeguard native species and ecosystems. Schubarth faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each felony count plus a $250,000 fine.

One man meddling with animal genetics for profit: definitely bad.

Lots of people “back-breeding” animals for conservation purposes: good?

Deja Vu: The Tauros Programme aims to turn back the evolutionary clock to the days of the aurochs, a key species in European ecosystems that was hunted to extinction by 1627.

The goal is to produce a modern version of the aurochs through "back-breeding," which involves selecting cattle breeds with specific traits to create animals that look, act, and genetically resemble the ancient auroch.

Today, certain European cattle breeds share genetics with the aurochs. The programme uses both natural breeding and artificial insemination to speed up the process and achieve precise genetic matches.

The project ultimately wants these animals to reclaim their ecological roles within modern ecosystems. In the face of rapid biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, the project posits that rewilding with aurochs-like grazers could restore the natural balance and promote biodiversity.

It's a bit like Jurassic Park, minus the carnivorous dinosaurs and Jeff Goldblum's warnings about the folly of playing God.

While this effort is supported by a wide range of experts, including geneticists, ecologists, biologists, archaeologists, historians, and cattle breeding organizations, there are some critiques of it, too, as we’ll see it today’s List.

Quote:

“If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh... well, there it is”

- Dr. Ian Malcom, Jurassic Park

Fact:

An auroch horn, which was turned into a drinking vessel, resides in Stockholm’s Royal Armoury.

Number: 95%

The Holstein, which we best know as a dairy cow, shares about 95 percent of its DNA with an auroch.

Word: Keystone species

A keystone species is one that plays a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of various other species in a community.

Examples of keystone species include sea otters, which help maintain kelp forest ecosystems by preying on sea urchins that would otherwise overgraze the kelp, and wolves in Yellowstone National Park, whose reintroduction has led to a series of ecological changes known as a trophic cascade, benefiting many other species and the physical environment.

List: What If It Goes Wrong?

Could any of these be a “Jurassic” mistake?

  • Diseases: Risk of selecting for and breeding unknown diseases and potential lack of resistance to new pathogens in de-extinct species.

  • Social Feasibility and Human Concerns: Policy and legislation issues; Community support and impact on local culture, economy, and health; Concerns about predatory attacks vs. opportunities for nature-based tourism.

  • Ecological Risk: Goal is ecological enrichment, but must avoid harming existing ecosystems.

  • Bio-objectification: Ethical debate on treating resurrected organisms as objects for human use; Some argue against de-extinction on principle, preferring focus on new species creation.

Recommended Reading: The International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Guidelines on Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations

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