The debate on the purity of the kouprey (Bos sauveli) being a good natural species went on for several years and recently a bold statement was made that based on analysis on the microsat cytrochrome b sequence - that the kouprey is a hybrid between the banteng (B. javanicus) and the local zebu (B. indicus), and that the kouprey is not worth conserving. Pls note that the number of kouprey is so low that it is difficult to see them in the wild and the forest of Cambodia is not that large either.
However, read Nature 449:124 (based on Hassanin & Ropiquet's 2007 work: see Proc. R. Soc. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.0830) - that the kouprey is a distinct species. How easy can we go wrong between conserving and not conserving a species?
I explained in my lecture just now that the Borenan banteng might be the only population that can stand proud of being a purebreed when many other populations in the species range has had contacts with domestic cattle.
Problem is, there may be people who are planning hunting one tonight!
Picture is taken from Hassanin & Ropiquet (2007).
Hamid.
No comments:
Post a Comment