LAUSR

In his opus on the pheasants of the world, published in the early s, the zoologist William Beebe wrote that his observations on wild red jungle fowl, the progenitor of domestic chickens, in the jungles of Asia, suggested ‘an infusion of the blood of native village birds’ into the genome of these wild relatives (Beebe, –, in Lawler, ). Roll forward almost a century and in , Lawler reported in his wonderful book on the history of chickens that most if not all red jungle fowl have incorporated genes from domestic chickens (Lawler, ). Yet the IUCNRed List categorizes the red jungle fowl, Gallus gallus as being of Least Concern because of its large range and sizeable population (IUCN, ). All domesticated animals originated fromwild ancestors. Many of these wild ancestors—such as thewild ass, the ancestor of the donkey—are in danger of extinction. Some are already extinct, as with the wild relative of the dromedaries, gone , years ago. Others are in danger of being hollowed out genetically, as with chickens. The danger of extinction through genetic swamping from domestic breeds is poorly documented but appears to be occurring with wild yaks, Bactrian camels, jungle fowl, and perhaps other species. This should not be a surprise as modern genomic studies have concluded that the domestication process involved thousands of years of interbreeding between domestic stock and their wild relatives—partially to avoid the need for herders to maintain males, partially because of poor husbandry, and partially to continue tomaintain desirable traits common in the wild species (Almathen et al., ). The global community has long recognized the importance of conserving the wild relatives of domesticated plants. International organizations conserve crop germplasm, programmes work with traditional crop breeders to conserve landraces and traditional cropping practices, protected areas have been established to conserve crop wild relatives, and international treaties and agreements help achieve all of these activities, particularly under the auspices of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the UN. So if there are compelling reasons for saving the wild relatives of domestic plants, what about the wild relatives of domestic animals? Unlike the case for crops, here the attention has focused almost exclusively on domestic breeds: Florida Cracker cattle, Ossabaw Island pigs, Black Welsh Mountain sheep, La Fleche chickens, and many others. Committees report, NGOs fundraise, herders are studied and incentivized, and global treaties create enabling conditions. All for breeds of already domesticated animals, which are in real danger of disappearing, but not for the wild relatives themselves. The global community appears to be largely blind to the plight of vitally important species such as banteng, guar, wild yak, guanaco, wild ass, Mexican subspecies of wild turkeys, wild pigs and wild Bactrian camels. Furthermore, species vital in laboratory experiments are also disappearing, such as the axolotl (Vance, ), categorized by IUCN as Critically Endangered in the wild. To our knowledge there has been no systematic investigation of the distribution and status of wild relatives of domesticated animals. A short  article suggested that the conservation status of these species was considerably worse than that of most other mammals and birds (McGowan, ), but this assessment was based on the IUCN Red List, which does not consider the genetic integrity of a species. As this may be a major threat for some livestock relatives their conservation status may be even worse than hitherto assumed. In  FAO’s Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture issued a report on the state of the world’s animal genetic resources (Scherf & Pilling, ). Wild relatives receive next to no attention but the report’s logic for domestic breeds is equally compelling for wild relatives: ‘Livestock production systems face many challenges. The precise demands that will be placed on the livestock of the future are difficult to predict. However, coping with climate change, new disease challenges, restrictions on the availability of natural resources and changing market demands will require a diverse range of AnGR [animal genetic resources for food and agriculture]’. In  the Committee onWorld Food Security endorsed (ILRI, ) recommendations on roles for livestock in sustainable agricultural development for food security and nutrition (HLPE, ). Yet the focus was on domestic breeds. The international community is starting to take notice, however. There is reference made to wild relatives in Aichi Biodiversity Target  of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, ): ‘By , the genetic diversity of cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and of KENT H. REDFORD Archipelago Consulting, 198 Danforth Street, Portland, Maine 04102, USA, Department of Environmental Studies, University of New England, Biddeford, Maine, USA, and Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. E-mail [email protected]