Fertility control in wildlife: review of current status, including novel and future technologies

Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.

Vasectomy is a surgical form of male sterilization that involves severing and sealing the vasa deferentia, preventing sperm from mixing with semen during ejaculation. Because a vasectomy does not impact the testes' ability to produce testosterone, hormone levels, libido, and sexual function generally remain unchanged. While vasectomy is highly effective in preventing pregnancy, with a success rate near 99.85%, rare cases of recanalization (spontaneous reconnection) can occur. Although...

Overview

Crop cultivation has a long history in human civilization, with records showing the cultivation of cereal plants beginning at around 8000 BC. This early plant breeding was developed primarily to provide a steady supply of food.

Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less...