DNA TO BETTER THE SPECIES.

Society for the Conservation of the Western Lowland Gorilla.

After the previous research of the Western Lowland Gorilla, I concluded that poaching and deforestation was the main cause of this species endangerment. The destruction of their habitat leaves these animals vulnerable mainly because they can not adapt quick enough to the new environment. Poaching is a very serious issue and is responsible for the deaths of many gorillas every year. I think that involving DNA with the research of these animals will be very beneficial. A researcher named Yael Wyner, used DNA to map certain lemurs that were taking from American zoos that were released into the wild to mate with native lemurs. This DNA fingerprinting helped researchers keep track of the “Zoo” lemurs and how they were adapting to the new environment. I think this would be helpful with the Gorilla. Gorillas are very intelligent and can be easily trained. I think that training Gorillas in zoos to be better adapted to environments that resemble a pressured environment from deforestation would benefit the species. We could also subject the “Zoo” Gorillas to certain stimuli that resemble the tracking of poachers and see which ones are better adapted at evading the hunters. The Gorillas that pass this test could then be shipped to areas of endangered gorillas so that they can mate and inhabit the area. Using the same technique as Wyner, we can track the “Zoo” Gorillas and see just how successful they are in the wild. Since it seems quite clear that we as humans are not going to stop causing the problem anytime soon, we must begin to try to alter the behavior of the victim in order to help it survive.

Society for the Genetic Modification of the Western Lowland Gorilla.

Modifying the DNA of the Western Lowland Gorilla enough to change the characteristics of the Gorilla would be difficult. After discovering what factors cause the endangerment of this species, it would be beneficial to alter the ability for evading hunters. The ability to see through dense forest and detect sudden movement would be very helpful. The ability to react very quickly to gunshots or sudden noises would also benefit the Gorilla. A gene that could improve the eyesight of the gorilla as well as strengthen the reflex and fast twitch muscles of the gorilla would help in its escape from danger. It is well known that an owl has a very keen sense of sight. This is two to the mass number of rods inside their eyes. If we could transplant the gene that is responsible for so many rods into the DNA of a gorilla we could increase the Gorillas ability to detect movement from very far away, even at night. Once the Gorilla detects danger, its ability to react and escapes need to be improved. I think that using the reflex and burst speed of a deer would be very beneficial for the Gorilla. The sympathetic nervous system in a whitetail deer has very quick signal response. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for the “flight” behavior of any animal. Taking the certain genes that strengthen the signal in the sympathetic nervous system of a deer and putting it into the Gorilla would allow it to react very quickly to whatever it has detected with its new super vision.

Impact that this might have on the environment would be very small. Gorillas would still behave as they normally do only now they would not fall victims to poaching nearly as much. If this gene were to be passed to other species it would only benefit that species as well. I don’t see any negative impacts that the alteration of these genes would produce. This ability could be used for hunting as well as evading. If this series of genes were some how passed to animal predators, then a lot of other animals could become endangered merely because their usual predators are so much more successful in their own hunts.

http://www.worlddeer.org/deerbiology.html

http://www.owls.org/Information/eyesight.htm

http://ology.amnh.org/genetics/aroundtheworld/pages/lemur.html