--- On Wed, 2/24/10, Onno Meyer <[email protected]> wrote:
> > The transport/breeding ship > could have a modual of shuttles or various > > drop pods for transport of critters back and forth... > though really for most > > things you'd want to seed the critters young (or for > plant's at the seed > > stage) otherwise they will have problems adapting to > the sublties of the > > environment they are supposed to live in and will > sicken and die more quickly. > > But would juveniles without adults be able to survive? > Imagine a > pride of lion cubs trying to stalk a herd of zebra foals > ... > > Of course tube-grown animals would have to learn their > behaviour > patterns somewhere, too, but a sufficiently advanced > technology > should be able to cope. > Well lions and zebras and other animals with a fairly strict social hierarchy - no. But you can plant seedlings for trees - there are already ways to replant forests by dropping 1-2 year old spruce treed from a low flying plane. And they don't need their parents... nor do fish, nor do rats, most lizards, snakes. Whales that are not full grown but which have been weened are fully capable of caring for themselves, ditto with most other herbivores and carnivores.... you need to get them into their "teen years" so that they can hunt on their own just fine but are still more adaptable to their surroundings. Different animals will have different abilities to make good invasive species... you'd have to choose carefully. Look for animals that have a short maturation time and a high fecundity (have lots of litters and lots of sex). You can probably figure out which ones based on reports of survival when a parent is killed. Besides to start off with you need to seed things in order - so when you put the plants down generally nothing will prey on them until you put either the fungus, insects or herbivores down. When you put the herbivores down then they won't have enemies for the first bit (which is what makes invasive species so problematic in today's world). It also has a lot to do with the ecology of the world you are starting with - is it bare rock or is it a planet with it's own ecosystem? _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
