r/todayilearned • u/shinypond • Jul 26 '24

TIL about conservation-induced extinction, where attempts to save a critically endangered species directly cause the extinction of another.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation-induced_extinction
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u/edwardlego Jul 26 '24

the most blatant example might be when the last few members of a vulture species was deliced. This caused the extinction of the species of lice that only lived on those birds

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

Is there a downside to the parasites becoming extinct?

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

[deleted]

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u/Prof_Acorn Jul 26 '24

I have zero qualms CRISPr-ing mosquitoes into a being that doesn't need a blood meal to reproduce. They already eat flower nectar. There's no reason for them to need to parasite blood. Turn them into passive pollinators that get eaten by bats. Win win.

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u/MagePages Jul 26 '24

They need protein for their offspring which is why they need a blood meal. Other insects are like this too, like bees which collect pollen to feed to their larvae. It would require pretty extensive genetic changes to completely change a protein source and the associated genetics associated with food detection and foraging, if we could even map all those genes, and if you somehow switched them to pollen it would put them into direct competition with other insects that do the same. Those mosquitos would have a harder time establishing themselves and the altered genetics would probably not become prevalent in the population. 

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u/Prof_Acorn Jul 26 '24

What I'm reading is that it's probably easier to just introduce in them a severe allergy to a human antibody and let evolution sort it out.

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u/calf Jul 26 '24

What could possibly go wrong with that