Hey Casey: The population size varies pretty widely (depending on parts of a particular species life history, like how many offspring they produce in a given term and how much parental investment, etc) But in general it's between 150 individuals and 1500 individuals. In some cases (think cheetahs and condors) the population can dip lower but there is a 'luck' factor involved in reestablishing diversity. If you look at the cheetah for instance, if you test any 2 cheetahs alive today they are 99.9% match in their allozymes (which are proteins that code for allele diversity) They are nearly clones. You can do skin grafts and organ transplants between any of them with virtually no problems. However, should a virus or bacteria come along with the ability to infect and kill one cheetah, it then means that ALL cheetahs will die if exposed. Thus, the population is not really considered sustainable yet even though their numbers have rebounded from the bottleneck. It's going to take more time and luck for the group to regain diversity.


But I digress. I agree that money fuels the import trade, and there will continue to be the search for the next big thing, but there again, I think to myself (RDR Phantom). How many 'normals' are floating around that probably hold similar diverse gene expressions. I see people post pics of normals all the time and I find myself going 'I have a normal girl that looks exactly like that'. I personally think we have developed enough as an industry that if the big breeders chose to back off, say 25-50% from the WC, and focused on what was already in their collections, it would potentially make the BP market MORE sustainable in the long run. I think in the end it comes down to personal morality and your base ethic. Where imports necessary to kick off the bp market? Absolutely. I'm not arguing that at all. Are they still necessary (in the current numbers) to sustain the market? Personally, I'm not so sure about that.

Cheers,
Kat