Inbreeding

[Snufkin]

I see a lot of people on the forums talking about avoiding inbreeding. Some of my animals (ostriches, peafowl) have had generations of daughters mating with the same male (so essentially their own father/grandfather/etc), mostly just because they breed so prodigiously and live so long that it just happens, and they seem fine. I'm still getting plenty of genetically good animals. I have tried to keep other populations more genetically diverse by bringing in breeding partners from outside but those populations don't seem to have any real advantages over the inbred ones.

So my question is mostly about why people are trying to avoid it. Is it because they think it's icky (totally fair enough, although in reality some strategic inbreeding is usually a part of line breeding animals), or is there actually a game mechanic that makes inbreeding bad in some way which I'm not seeing?

 

[Whats0There]

Inbreeding does influence the gene quality of offspring, even in the beta. My lion Simba is a little too fond of his daughters, and regularly produces infertile or sickly (but still awfully cute) cubs. You can also see this in the 'Compare Mates' window. Between incestuous pairs the possible range of outcomes in fertility is quite different from genetically diverse ones.

 

[Snufkin]

I see! I do sometimes see infertile animals now that you mention it, I hadn't noticed that they were more frequent in the inbred populations but it makes sense. I will look out for that. And maybe put a stop to Daddy Peafowl's campaign of indiscriminate impregnation.

 

[DTV Enternainment]

the marked is ful,l with Inbreeds of Tigers and Lions had the Experience, that I got 2 sterile Tigers at the same move until I got a Female where offspring where to 45% Possible

 

[Aero-Bubbles]

On top of being infertile, inbred animals will be more prone to illness and disease when the full game is launched, and their life span is reduced (I think that can already be seen)

 

[PixelFlorist]

In addition to what has been said here, in the full game, inbreeding will still potentially need to happen. Despite it's negatives, it can also be important to keep lines more closely bred or inbred if you desperately need to keep a certain trait strong until the market widens. It's a really cool system, and I'm excited for family trees to be implemented in full release. I can't see family trees in my game (not sure if it's not there or my game is bugged) so keeping big family groups from inbreeding is difficult unless it's an alpha only situation. I can keep my wolves from inbreeding because I bring in an unrelated mate when a new alpha is chosen, and sell all the offspring. Contraceptives are handy too- Only allowing one or two pairs in a big exhibit to breed at a time is handy, as long as you can keep who's offspring is who's in check.

 

[Zakimals]

I see a lot of people on the forums talking about avoiding inbreeding. Some of my animals (ostriches, peafowl) have had generations of daughters mating with the same male (so essentially their own father/grandfather/etc), mostly just because they breed so prodigiously and live so long that it just happens, and they seem fine. I'm still getting plenty of genetically good animals. I have tried to keep other populations more genetically diverse by bringing in breeding partners from outside but those populations don't seem to have any real advantages over the inbred ones.

So my question is mostly about why people are trying to avoid it. Is it because they think it's icky (totally fair enough, although in reality some strategic inbreeding is usually a part of line breeding animals), or is there actually a game mechanic that makes inbreeding bad in some way which I'm not seeing?

the genetics wasn't working in the beta