• Login
    View Item 
    •   DSpace Home
    • SUNY Brockport
    • Events/Conferences
    • 2015 SUNY Undergraduate Research Conference
    • View Item
    •   DSpace Home
    • SUNY Brockport
    • Events/Conferences
    • 2015 SUNY Undergraduate Research Conference
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of DSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsDepartmentThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsDepartment

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    The Touch of Nature Has Made the Whole World Kin: Interspecies Kin Selection in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    surc/2015/schedule/141/fulltext (1).pdf (1.041Mb)
    Date
    2015-04-10
    Author
    Jenkins, Laura E.
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Subject
    Kin Selection
    Interspecies
    Convention On International Trade In Endangered Species Of Wild Fauna And Flora
    Ecocentric
    Anthropocentric
    Abstract
    The unequal distribution of legal protections on equally endangered species has been attributed to the “charisma” and “cuteness” of protected species. However, the theory of kin selection, which predicts that the genetic relationship between organisms is proportional to the amount of cooperation between them, offers an evolutionary explanation for this phenomenon. In this thesis, it was hypothesized that if the unequal distribution of legal protections on endangered species is a result of kin selection, then the genetic similarity between a species and humanity is proportional to the legal protections on that species. This hypothesis was tested by analyzing the taxonomic classifications of species protected in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The results of this analysis support this hypothesis for organisms with greater genetic similarity to humanity (i.e. in the kingdom Animalia, in the phylum Chordata, in the class Mammalia, in the order Primates, and in the family Hominidae) were afforded more legal protections in CITES than organisms with less genetic similarity to humanity. These results indicate that wildlife conservation laws are not “ecocentric” laws that recognize the “intrinsic worth” of non-human species, but anthropocentric laws that recognize the genetic worth that non-human species have in increasing the indirect fitness of humanity. Also, these results suggest that kin selection can operate between species as opposed to just within species, which indicates the existence of interspecies kin selection. Finally, the existence of interspecies kin selection suggests that kin selection could play a role in interspecies cooperation.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1951/72969
    Collections
    • 2015 SUNY Undergraduate Research Conference [409]

    SUNY Digital Repository Support
    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2023  DuraSpace
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    DSpace Express is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV
     

     


    SUNY Digital Repository Support
    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2023  DuraSpace
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    DSpace Express is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV