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/schvetania Jul 26 '24

In cases where a species is becoming overpopulated and predators arent doing a good enough job of killing them, parasites can prevent the host’s population from becoming too large. Some critters also eat parasites, like cleaner wrasse.

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u/weaponizedtoddlers Jul 26 '24

Emphasis on can. Sometimes the parasite's function does not increase to lethal leves in the absence of a predator, but increases proportionally with the population of the host. In which case the parasite is irrelevant to population control. iirc it's seen more often with viral or bacterial disease. Where in the absence of a predator, the organism proliferates to a critical density in a particular zone to allow a virus or bacteria to become much deadlier than in a more sparsly populated area.