Cloning Means She'll Never Be Lonely
We’ve all had times when we’ve felt downtrodden, in need of a man to bring some company into our lives, give us the opportunity to settle down and start a family and bring us out from under the stone of loneliness.
Unfortunately, there isn’t always a man that fits the long list of checkpoints that us women have waiting right around the corner. Fortunately, we are not the only ones suffering, as the female whiptail lizard is having the same problem.
For her, finding a mate is nearly impossible as the male population is so small and the landscape on which they live is so vast. However, she does not stop her search and you wonder how she does it? Constantly looking for a companion with little chance of ever finding a mate, let alone her sole mate.
It’s when you take a minute to the think, that you realise that we are not so different. We spend most of our time looking for ‘the one’, constantly getting rejected or being unable to find someone who fits our needs and then being left feeling inadequate and, most of the time, incredibly lonely.
Reassuringly, most of us find someone who can turn that around and enable us to feel loved, create and family and never be lonely again, but the female whiptail faces a dilemma. With little to no chance finding a mate, how does she combat the loneliness that she faces for possibly the rest of her life? Cloning.
Yes, the female whiptail has evolved so that her body enables her to produce clones of herself, using parthenogenesis, build a nest and hatch her clones two to three months later. The females have been doing this for so long that it has nearly wiped out the male population of the species.
If only we humans could do the same, there would be no hassle in finding a partner (and putting up with their annoyances), and although it may be considered extremely self-involved, you cannot deny that it would be pretty exciting to have a miniature exact replica of yourself running around.
The downside has to be that the Johnny Depp’s and the Chris Hemsworth’s of the world would no longer exist, and that has to be enough to put this idea to bed.
However, this does provide a vital lesson, instead of rushing out desperately trying to find someone to take care of and have them return the favour, maybe it is about time we realised that caring for ourselves should come first.
Cara Mason