Animals IRL inbreed when it is all they can do. However, it makes sense that they should avoid it somewhat (as in not mating with their sister IF there is a unrelated female). I'm not saying that they shouldn't at all, but it seems dumb when they have the option to not.
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Animals need to avoid inbreeding (to a point)
- Thread starter Indoraptor27
- Start date
Some animals don't make the distinction IRL, and mate even if there is an unrelated female there. We don't as humans because of the genetic weaknesses it causes, which in turn led to the social stigma against it across most human cultures.
Sometimes there are evolutionary adaptations that reduce the effect genetic inbreeding has on a population.
In fact, there's a species of Ant (Black Crazy Ants, if I remember correctly) that is actually immune to genetic weakness from inbreeding, which is the primary reason they spread to every continent. A queen can mate with her siblings or children to make more colonies; thus, a single queen is all it takes for them to become endemic.
Sometimes there are evolutionary adaptations that reduce the effect genetic inbreeding has on a population.
In fact, there's a species of Ant (Black Crazy Ants, if I remember correctly) that is actually immune to genetic weakness from inbreeding, which is the primary reason they spread to every continent. A queen can mate with her siblings or children to make more colonies; thus, a single queen is all it takes for them to become endemic.
True, and it would be neat to see this represented...however, remember that generally, you're not going to have multiple packs in one zoo, especially not in one enclosure. Wolf packs also are often very hostile to other packs or even non-pack individuals, so bringing in individual new wolves is actually much harder IRL than it is in game; the likelihood of the newcomer just getting killed by the pack is very high.
Actually, packs taking in strangers on occasion is something that has been recorded in the wild- it's not common, but it does happen, though rarely. I do think there can be some slight changes to natural animal behavior ingame to make it easier on the players, i.e. small things like, "male lions don't kill other males' cubs" or "wolves won't always turn aggressive against a newly introduced wolf intended as the mate for their successor in the breeding pair". In general I'd just like inbreeding to be a species-specific thing and species that naturally avoid it should not inbreed.
It would make sense for some species to avoid inbreeding - elephants and great apes should know who their family is, for example. Some species I expect to inbreed without careful management and in some species inbreeding feels out of place. Zoo Tycoon 2 gave you an alert if an animal wanted to breed but couldn't find a compatible mate and impacted the animal's social welfare rather than allowing rampant inbreeding at the drop of a hat, which generally felt better. Animals had to get desperate first.