Rudolph & global warming

[Thomas G. Lammers]

At 06:55 AM 12-22-98 PST, you wrote:

> More fog
>will be advantageous for his descendants, although the
>possibility of inbreeding may render this new "deme" of
>reindeer vulnerable to the problems of inbreeding
>similar to that encountered in the cheetah.  At least
>that would be my first impression of Rudolph's future.
>Of course there are other factors that could complicate
>the picture, but for the foreseeable future, I see happy
>times for Rudolph and kin.

What about increased susceptibility to predation?  I would think such
mutants would be much more obvious to large carnivores, and suffer higher
mortality rates.


Thomas G. Lammers

Classification, Nomenclature, Phylogeny and Biogeography
of the Campanulaceae, s. lat.

Department of Botany
Field Museum of Natural History
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60605-2496 USA

e-mail:    tlammers at fmnh.org
office:          312-922-9410 ext. 317 (voice-mail)
fax:                312-427-2530
http:    www.fmnh.org/candr/academic_affairs/collection_report/cv_lammers.htm
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