%0 Journal Article
%T A Review on Animal Hybridization¡¯s Role in Evolution and Conservation: Canis rufus (Audubon and Bachman) 1851¡ªA Case Study
%A Rodrigo Vargas P¨ºgas
%J ISRN Zoology
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/760349
%X Canis rufus is an example of animal whose conservational needs have been questioned because of its possible hybrid status. Control of hybridization has been defended and done in the wild to theoretically save the species. However, control of hybridization may not be the solution. Hybridization may be a phenomenon misconceived by many modern evolutionary biologists, and conservation guidelines over control on anthropogenic impacts may need revisions in order to respect the new perspectives on hybridization¡¯s role in evolution. The term ¡°cladogamy¡± is being proposed to substitute ¡°hybridization¡± and to refer to the crossing between two any given clades, due to difficulties from scientists and eventual arbitrary means of separating species from lower taxa. 1. Introduction Animal hybridization is a theme often viewed as harmful to conservation [1] and to ecological/evolutionary processes [2] or at least bizarre/uncommon [3]. Mayr and the biological species concept seem to have given hybridization an unnatural image. Though botanists share a consensus on the importance of plant hybridization for their evolution, zoologists have tended to regard hybridization as an unnatural process [4]. Mayr proposed that ¡°hybridization between species was an unusual ¡°breakdown of isolating mechanisms¡±, that it was caused mainly by human-induced environmental changes, and had little importance for the understanding of species and speciation, thus adding to the impression that there was no middle ground between species and varieties¡±, as discussed by Mallet [5]. In fact, Mallet [4] admitted that the influence of Mayr has led to an almost eugenic view on hybridization among zoologists, in contrast with botanists. Hewitt has considered hybrid zones to be important for evolutionary studies [6] and Mallet has defended that they are natural phenomena that require protection disregarding taxonomic status [7]. As to conservation, a notorious evidence of the strength of this almost eugenic view on hybridization is that the US Endangered Species Act of 1973 declares that hybrids are not worthy of conservation, in contrast to pure species [8]. Allendorf et al., 2001 [1], in turn, recognize that hybridization among animals may not be less natural than that in plants; still, they treat the subject as a high danger to biodiversity¡ªespecially in, but not restricted to, cases where hybridization is of anthropogenic causes. This work intends to review the effects of hybridization amongst animal populations and infer the importance this particular phenomenon has regarding evolution and
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.zoology/2013/760349/