Inbreeding

Inbreeding increases the risk of many genetic diseases.

The findings are a warning to conservationists that keeping a small pool of endangered animals could result in inbreeding and genomic meltdown.

These models, or "population viability analyses," assess the risk of extinction over time based on computational iterations that play out how a herd may expand and contract (with births and deaths) and genetically evolve given the interplay of the number, age and sex of animals in the herd; reproductive traits; influx of new genetics vs. inbreeding; management actions (culling/hunting); and potential effects of random events such as disease, drought and fire.

Inbreeding can result in handicapped children.