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The Pros And Cons Of Cross-Breeding

1185 Words5 Pages

Cross-breeding two different species together has resulted in many new animals over the years, such as mules (a horse and a donkey) and ligers (a lion and a tiger). However, no cross-bred species has created as many problems as the Africanized Honey Bee; a breed between African Honeybees and European bees in an effort to produce more honey. After escaping from a quarantined lab, these bees have become an invasive species in Central and North America, migrating further north each year. Here they have caused problems. This raises the question; should their populations be controlled? Some say that we should attempt to control their spread, whilst others say to leave them to it, as they cause no real harm. Cross-breeding is a phenomena rarely …show more content…

It is always an ethical concern when humans come to harm. As well as this, Africanized Honeybees are outcompeting and breeding with the European Honeybees used to produce honey for beekeepers (Tarpy, 2012). This can be seen as a problem, as European Honeybees are already in sharp decline due to Colony Collapse Disorder. When they are outcompeted, their numbers fall and when they are bred with, the genetic superiority of the Killer Bees ensures that the offspring retain the features of the Africanized Bee (Ojar, 2002). However, there are also many points that suggest leaving the Africanized bees alone, or rather utilizing them to suit our needs. As previously mentioned, the Africanized Honeybee produces even more honey than the European honeybee; being less picky about flowers, travelling further from the hive, foraging for longer each day and in harsher conditions and consuming less of the honey they collect than the European bees (Sears, …show more content…

Their increased production, reliability, immunity to Colony Collapse, genetic dominance, and resistance to environmental change has allowed them to replace the European bees. It has also been observed that, in the areas in which Killer Bees are primarily used for honey production, the bees become more docile (Vance, 2013). This is likely due to the keepers selectively breeding the individuals which are more relaxed, more or less making the aggression problem void. It is believed that these gentler Africanized bees have typically possess more genetic material from their European counterparts rather than the African bees (Smithsonian Museum,

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