Say I wanted to start my own unique land. We’ll pretend that money isn’t an object, and that I’ve purchased the entire state of Tennessee. I’ve renamed it Meat Beastia.
I want my province to be unique, with its own animal species. I will introduce Zorse (zebra/horse) and Liger (lion/tiger) into the wild by the hundreds. I will crossbreed Pomeranians and Rottweilers, and they shall be the only canines of the land. I shall do the same with Persian cats and Lynxs. Beefalo will run wild on the great plains of what was once Nashville. Our main cashcrops will be Broccoflour and, um…Tomacco!
Seriously, if someone had the money and a level of insanity to try to do something like this, would it be possible on any level within any period of time?
Certainly would be possible over many years. Bill Gates could easily buy an island, and have bologists create strange plants and animals. Are Zorse and Ligers fertile? However, as you would only want hundreds presumably you could do so with buying the original species, and crossbreeding them. Biggest problem might be the population of Meat Beastia. It’s gonna cost BIG if the population is very large. However, if the population is just in the hundreds, doable.
BTW, you WILL have to do this on an island, or some small area. Even if all the people of Tennesse would agree to sell all their land a move elsewhere, Bill Gates couldn’t afford it.
Also, there’s bound to be some stubborn cusses in TN that just won’t sell, if only to annoy you and disrupt your plans. In fact, I know a couple of likely candidates.
OK, fine. Due to the fact that I don’t wish my Ligers to become obese from chewing on stubborn Tennesseeans who won’t come off their property, we’ll move the project to an island. Everything else remains the same.
Hybridized plants and animals tend to be weaker & less competitive, so you’ll have problems with that. That’s assuming your hybrids can even naturally reproduce, or reproduce successfully enough to not promptly go extinct. Given enough time, your plants and animals may adapt, but what you end up with may look surprisingly like the original, non-hybridized forms.
My guess is unless you carefully control the breeding yourself, your experiment is going to fail within a few generations.
Well, heterosis is what you’d like, but I don’t see it with the crosses mentioned. Hybrid vigor is usually lost after the first generation crosses, since hybrids often don’t reproduce true to form.
Of course! I’ll hire a mad scientist whom shall be quarantined to only the lab and his sleeping chambers. He shall be under constant camera surveillance. Should he have a change of heart and decide that man should not play Og, I will immediately feed him to the Ligers and hire another one.
It should be noted, however, that all of my mad scientists will be given ample salary, excellent health care, access to hookers and TiVo. This should be enough to prevent above stated change of heart.
