alex.m.thompson
  • Home
  • Biography
  • Publications
  • Photos
  • Research
  • Collaborators
  • Blog

my thoughts on science

Why i hate pugs

10/7/2014

1 Comment

 
I really have a problem with pugs, to me they are the most disfigured and inbred looking dogs around. My brother has recently decided to get one, and I'm still not sure if it's a joke or not. However, when trying to rationalise my dislike for this particularly ugly breed of dog I realised that it was probably because of inbreeding. This realisation has led me to the idea of writing about inbreeding, and the problems that this causes in domesticated species and wild species close to extinction. But first, just to prove my point about how horrid pugs are, here is a picture of a pug skull and a wolf skull (the ancestor of all domestic dogs).  
Picture
Domesticated animal species are the result of artificial selection, a process by which humans selectively breed together individuals who possess desired traits. Strangely, when domesticating a wild species this process often selects for similar traits: floppy ears, changes in reproductive cycle and curly hair. This was famously demonstrated in a long-term study on the domestication of the silver fox by Dimitry Belyaev LINK. Relatively few animal species have been domesticated, and Jared Diamond has hypothesized that this is due to animals needing to posses a pre-existing set of characteristics to allow them to be domesticated, espoused in his famous Nature paper LINK. 
  • right diet
  • fast growth rate
  • friendly disposition
  • easy breeding system
  • social hierarchy
  • won't panic
Good blog to read about domestication: http://animals.howstuffworks.com/animal-facts/animal-domestication.htm 

However, the problem with domestication (bringing this back to the pug) is that the gene pool for the population is artificially reduced and this can lead to inbreeding. This shrinking of the gene pool can be significant, for example in the pug: the British population of 10,000 pugs have a gene pool that is equivalent to just 50 individuals LINK. But why is this bad? A reduced number of breeding individuals can lead to a rise in the prevalence of 'bad gene', and this genetic bottleneck can lead to these being spread to a higher proportion of the descendants of this population. These 'bad genes' or deleterious alleles can lead to inbreeding depression and lower a populations viability. High levels of inbreeding, resulting from the increased mating of closely related individuals results in lower fitness for the offspring because of the increased prevalence of deleterious alleles and this can directly cause:
  • reduced fertility
  • increased genetic disorders
  • fluctuating facial asymmetry
  • lower birth rate
  • higher mortality
  • depression of growth
  • smaller adult size
  • loss of immune system function
In wild population inbred individuals can often be less attractive to the opposite sex, due to reduced song variation or plumage colouration. There are a few wild populations were inbreeding is seen as a potentially major problem, such as the cheetah, having implications for conservation.

Hopefully I have shown why inbreeding is bad, but in domesticated population there is less of a driver to get rid of highly inbred individuals as they may possess desired traits that more outbred individuals do not. Human selection has thus led to the breeding of some hideous animal species, such as the disfigured pug, and the fish species pictured below. You may still like pugs, and other 'pedigree' breeds of dogs, but at least now you might have some more of an idea about how they came about and the reasons behind the problems they have. My advice is to get a 'side-walk special' from an animal rescue centre, as not only are you giving a home to a dog that needs one but it is also likely to be less inbred and so reduce your vet bills! 
Picture
Picture
1 Comment
Hugo
10/27/2020 03:58:19 pm

Thank you, finally someone who explains it well

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I am a behavioural ecologist, my main interests revolve around familial conflicts and their resolutions. However, my scientific interests are fairly broad.

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012

    Categories

    All
    90
    99 Percent Invisible
    99pi
    Africa
    Alien Species
    Allee Effect
    Altruism
    Amazon
    Andreas Wagner
    Anthropocene
    Apostle Bird
    Arabian Babbler
    Attenborough
    Babbler
    Badger Cull
    Badgers
    Banded Mongoose
    BBC
    Bee
    Big Bang Fair
    Bighorn Sheep
    Biodiversity
    Biological Control
    Biology
    Biology Letters
    Bird For Britain
    Birds
    Birthday
    Black Sparrowhawk
    Blogs
    Book
    Book Review
    Breeding
    Brood Parasitism
    Brown Tree Snake
    Burying Beetles
    Butterflies
    Butyric Acid
    Camel
    Cane Toad
    Chemicals
    Chernobyl
    Chimp
    Chronotype
    CITES
    Climate Change
    Cod
    Collaborations
    Color
    Colour
    Colour Vision
    Common Misunderstandings
    Communication
    Competition
    Conference
    Conflict
    Conservation
    Conservatism
    Conservative
    Cool Papers
    Cool Research
    Cooperation
    Crime
    Crows
    Cuckoo
    Dad Media
    Dailymail
    Dalai Lama
    Darting
    Darwin
    Darwin's Finches
    Deception
    Deception Africa
    Decision Making
    Deer
    DES
    Dieter Lukas
    Disney
    Diving
    Documentary
    Dominance
    Drongo
    Eavesdropping
    Economics
    Education
    Elephants
    Epigenetics
    EU
    Evil
    Evolution
    Evolutionary Approach
    Extracurricular
    Fear
    Fennec Fox
    Filming
    Fish
    Fittness
    Fitz
    Football
    Foraging
    Fork Tailed Drongo
    Fork-tailed Drongo
    Free Radicals
    Future
    Gastranaut
    Good Genes
    Ground Squirrel
    Group Living
    Grouse
    Guardian
    Hands
    Hedgehog
    Hero
    Home Advantage
    Honeyguide
    Hornbill
    Hot Birds
    Human
    Human Impact
    Human-wildlife Conflict
    Hummingbirds
    Inbreeding
    Intelligent Bird
    Interesting Research
    Intrasexual
    Invasive Species
    Isbe 2014
    Ivory
    Kalahari
    Kardashian
    Kenya
    Kids
    K-index
    Koala
    Language
    Larks
    Learning
    Long-term
    Male-male Competition
    Male Tenure
    Mantis
    Mating
    Meerkat
    Meta-analysis
    Mice
    Misconceptions
    Miya Warrington
    Mongoose
    Moths
    Mysogyny
    Natural Selection
    Nepotism
    Nestling Growth
    New Papers
    New Research
    Niche
    NO2
    Nuclear
    Old Boys Club
    Olfaction
    Ornithology
    Overfishing
    Owls
    Oxidative Stress
    Parental Care
    Peer Review
    Percy FitzPatrick Institute
    Pest Control
    Pesticides
    Phd
    Phd Comics
    Phenotypic Plasticity
    Pheromones
    Pied Babbler
    Pied Babblers
    Pied Crows
    PLoS One
    Poaching
    Podcasts
    Politcians
    Political Views
    Polymorphism
    Poor Reporting
    Population Change
    Population Decline
    Population Dynamics
    Precautionary Principle
    Public Understanding
    Raccoon
    Radiolab
    Raihani
    Random
    Raptors
    Reciprocity
    Red Deer
    Referendum
    Regulation
    Research
    Resource Dispersion Hypothesis
    Robin
    Rum
    Running
    Schools
    Science
    Science Education
    Science In The News
    Scientific Method
    Scimitarbill
    Scotland
    Seagull
    Sexism
    Sexual Conflict
    Sexual Selection
    Shrikes
    Signalling
    Singing
    Smell
    Sociality
    South Africa
    Speach
    Spring
    Stealing
    STEM
    STEMtech
    Stuff You Missed In History Class
    Stuff You Should Know
    Suppression
    Syntax
    SYSK
    Tamarisk
    TBT
    Teaching
    Temperature
    Theft
    Theory Of Mind
    The Telegraph
    The Times
    Tigers
    Tim Peake
    Top 10
    Tories
    Trees
    Uganda
    UK
    Urban
    Urban Animals
    Urbanisation
    Weaver
    Wheel
    Wild
    Winning
    Wood Wide Web
    World Cup
    World's Sneakiest Animals
    Wrinkle
    Youtube Channels
    Zebra Mussel

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.