Do Cloned Wild Animals Have Instincts?

By Bjorn Carey Posted 08.20.2010 at 1:58 pm 8 Comments

Snuppy, the cloned Afghan Hound Seoul National University

Let’s ask Betsy Dresser, the senior vice president of research at the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species in New Orleans, who has raised several litters of small African wildcat clones. “Oh yes, the clones are very much wild animals with wild instincts,” she says. “They bite and scratch. You can’t handle them without gloves and nets.”

Dresser uses domestic cats as surrogate mothers for African wildcat embryos, and although a tabby mother can calm the kittens, her influence doesn’t last. “They aren’t as hissy, and they don’t fight as much,” she says. “But once you get them away from domestic cats, especially once puberty sets in, their aggressive survival behavior emerges.”

Clones aren’t blank slates, Dresser explains. They’re exact genetic copies of another creature. The behaviors that make African wildcats successful hunters in the savannah are, fundamentally, made possible by the activation of just the right gene at just the right time. The first African wildcat whose DNA told its brain, “Hey, eat that field mouse” stood a better chance of surviving and reproducing, and when it did, its offspring inherited that trait and automatically expressed the same survival behavior. “Those genes pass on when you clone an animal, too,” Dresser says. “I think our clones’ behavior makes a strong case that instincts are at least partly genetic.”

So if scientists ever clone a saber-toothed tiger, it won’t end up in a Las Vegas magic act—it would probably rip your arm off. And sadly, a resurrected dodo wouldn’t know how to avoid repeating history. It would stand around like they all did, waiting to be clubbed back into extinction.

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8 Comments

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GersonD

08/20/10 at 3:36 pm

This discussion could lead towards a controversial question, would homosexuality be testable in a similar fashion? Create a clone, then if the clone was homosexual, then would it prove homosexuality was genetic?

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chendrix89

08/20/10 at 4:54 pm

They've been attempting to answer that controversial question for many years now through twin studies.

I'm a gay man, and while it makes our cases harder in the sphere of public opinion, most of us recognize the fluidity of sexuality, and that human sexuality is still only partly genetic, partly behavioral/social.

Twin studies have revealed this to be the case as well, with a positive correlation between twin sexualities (indicating genetic predisposition). But since not 100% of identical twins share the same sexuality, it has to be said that it's partly behavioral/social/environmental as well.

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HelmutMusberger

08/20/10 at 5:16 pm

So if scientists ever clone a saber-toothed tiger, it won’t end up in a Las Vegas magic act—it would probably rip your arm off.

Aren't the tigers used in Las Vegas magic acts just as wild, genetically speaking, as a saber-toothed tiger? And didn't the most famous act come to an end after a tiger attacked a magician?

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TXSam

08/20/10 at 5:42 pm

Really? Why would anyone expect a cloned animal would act any differently than a non cloned animal? The only differences we would expect would be similar to those found between identical twins; (IE epigenetic only).

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cholin3947

08/21/10 at 6:31 pm

TXSam,

Because some people's impression of cloning is still based on bad SciFi movie where the villain create a "clone" of the hero, and then "programs" the clone to do his evil bidding.

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sethumme

08/22/10 at 1:26 am

Genetics obviously plays the main role in instinctual behavior, as well as many other attributes. But there's still another factor in determining life-long characteristics apart from nature (genetics) and nurture (social conditioning). Some key development processes during the embryonic and prepubescent phases can be affected due to the physical/chemical environment. In other words, genes can sometimes respond differently when they are flooded with hormones or other chemical signals, which can have a permanent impact on the growth of the individual. Consider medical hormone treatments. It's possible that the embryonic or nursing environments the mother domestic cat provides could in some minor ways alter the behavior of the young wildcats.

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