Hi
,
You'll love this one!...
There are some scientists who are hoping to create a hybrid elephant by crossing an Asian elephant with genes from a woolly mammoth. But, the apparent goal is to save the planet! Well, maybe not save the planet, which would be quite a stretch, but supposedly help to do so. This is a screenshot of an article that was recently
sent to me. It's actually quite hilarious, though I'm sure the people behind the story had no such intentions!
Here's their basic goal. They want to make a cold-resistant elephant, but they're hoping it will be "functionally equivalent" to the mammoth". Which means what?
They want this hybrid to be able to "enjoy temperatures of -40C", and to "do all the things that elephants and mammoths do, in particular - knocking down trees"! This project received about $15,000,000 in initial funding, and those people involved hope that -- wait for it -- that this elephant-mammoth
hybrid will help "slow climate change by stomping out low-oxygen trees and exposing healthy, carbon-trapping grasses to restore the Arctic tundra".
This is totally ludicrous! Its basic assumptions are that woolly mammoths enjoy temperatures of -40C, and that they lived on the frozen tundra with snow all around them. This is what virtually all paintings of mammoths depict. It's because they have long hair, and many dead ones are found frozen in far north, cold
areas today.
Here are the facts, though:
1. They never lived in cold, snowy areas. The horrific issues related to the flood moved land masses around and put them where they're found today.
2. Elephants are browsers, which means they basically eat plants, branches, and leaves. Furthermore, they need about 300 lbs. of food per day. They are NOT going to find that in the cold, snowy, barren, tundra where they are most-often depicted.
3. Scientists know that, even though they have long hair, they certainly were not cold-resistant. Their fur is not an insulating fir at all. Nor is their skin.
4. Show me ANY environmentalist who thinks it's a good idea for any animal, or any creature, to knock down trees!
So, go ahead and make the hybrid. It will be cool to see! But, put it in the frozen tundra, and you'll just produce a lot of frozen elephant meat!
