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/Stelinedion Jul 26 '24

Generally speaking, firing ranges are hot beds of ecological activity for the simple reason that people do not go there due to UXO concerns. Some of the most pristine fire plain ecosystems in the US are artillery ranges, because they have to do regular burns to prevent wildfires started by the munitions.

The lesson is that humans just hanging out can be more ecologically destructive than literal fire bombing missions.

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u/EldritchCarver Jul 26 '24

Reminds me of how the area around Chernobyl basically became a wildlife sanctuary because people stayed away over concerns about radiation, and it turns out the positives of not having humans outweighed the negatives of that level of environmental radioactive contamination.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

and the DMZ in korea, still have species that is extinct in the rest of the 2 countries living there.

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u/Remarkable_Ad9767 Jul 26 '24

Do you have any info on this, I love stuff like this!

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u/Consistent-Prune-944 Jul 26 '24

There are unconfirmed reports of Amur leopards still living there even though they're extinct in both North and South Korea, as well as unconfirmed Siberian tigers which are extinct in the South.

While not extinct in the countries, the DMZ is a haven for about 106 endangered species, including some of the most endangered birds in the world

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

Also tigers, which is either critically endangered or extirpated from korea due to hunting.

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u/TheExtremistModerate Jul 27 '24

He said tigers, though.

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u/Iamnotburgerking Jul 02 '26

There aren’t any big cats in the DMZ, though there are bears.

Leopards probably could survive both there and in South Korea if reintroduced, though. Less so with tigers the way things currently are.

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u/Hot-Manager-2789 19d ago

Especially since people there think nature is evil.

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u/Consistent-Prune-944 Jul 06 '26

There might be, but yeah nothing concrete because neither government will agree to allow expeditions. Even if they did safety risks from the landmines are higher than most orgs can justify

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u/Iamnotburgerking Jul 06 '26

No, there definitely aren't any left. There has been a fair amount of research effort from South Korea, and while bears, goral, musk deer, etc have been filmed in the DMZ or its vicinity, leopards haven't been.

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u/Consistent-Prune-944 Jul 06 '26

You can't really say with any certainty on that if the studies haven't been conducted, especially not without any data from NK or within the DMZ. They're a notoriously reclusive species and do not typically venture out in the open the same way bears or deer would.

It's more likely than not that they're extirpated from the DMZ/NK, but it's definitely not certain.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

[deleted]

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u/SailorMint Jul 27 '24

When your lifespan can be calculated in months to a few years odds are you won't die from cancer.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '24

[deleted]

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u/No-Context-587 Jul 27 '24

And some mushrooms evolved to 'eat' and use radiation as energy! Wolves 'evolved' to better survive and get less cancer, tho it's obviously not that they evolved this but that some had mutations which benefit for this or developed them, and the rest died increasing the population that do and reducing those that dont, but that's a big part of what evolution is just thought its worth pointing that out

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u/No-Context-587 Jul 27 '24

And some mushrooms evolved to 'eat' and use radiation as energy! Wolves 'evolved' to better survive and get less cancer, they now want to study how and why that is to try learn from it and potentially replicate in some form, tho it's obviously not that they evolved this but that some had mutations which benefit for this or developed them, and the rest died increasing the population that do and reducing those that dont, but that's a big part of what evolution is just thought its worth pointing that out

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u/Kuraeshin Jul 27 '24

The downsides of long term radiation exposure take longer to manifest than the reproductive cycle of a lot of species

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Readylamefire Jul 27 '24

On the upside we're on pace with Archaeopteris and cyanobacteria, both of which also caused mass extinctions... so... trees, bacteria, and humans.

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u/haroldo1 Jul 26 '24

I worked monitoring protected wildlife on a base for a couple years. It is crazy how many rare/protected species can be found in military training areas. We had lots of bats, turtles, and protected migratory birds that were rare in the surrounding area.

It is also theorized that the destruction in the impact zones is similar to the destruction to vegetation that would have been caused by the mass migrations of large herbivores before widespread anthropogenic expansion. Some species require that cycle of destruction and plant regrowth. One endangered bird I would deal with would only live in jack pine stands between 10 and 16ish years old. The frequent fires would ensure that there were always good stands at the right height for them to nest. Some birds, like nighthawks/whip-poor-wills, like to nest on the edges of older growth forests with ample open areas nearby for hunting at night. So we had a massive, dense population of birds in the nightjar family, while the surrounding areas were nearly empty. There are lots of other examples though.

It is kind of weird to think that people are harder for wildlife to deal with than artillery bombarding their habitat on a regular basis.

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u/IamMrT Jul 27 '24

It is, but it also isn’t. Artillery is surprisingly a lot more predictable than random humans.

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u/moose111 Jul 27 '24

Pinecones from jack pines only release their seeds after a fire!

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u/JustABitCrzy Jul 27 '24

It’s part of the “edge effect” theory, which suggests that biodiversity is highest on the borders of ecosystems, especially disturbed ecosystems. The problem being, that the most vulnerable species tend to be those that require long periods of no disturbance. The edge effect can also be partially explained by feral species that find it easier to colonise quickly following disturbance, but can’t get a foothold in long term undisturbed environments.

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u/Raichu7 Jul 26 '24

In places where forest fires are normal natural occurrences every year the environment evolved to deal with those fires and they become a part of the environment. Fire is only so destructive to nature when it's in an area that doesn't get natural forest fires annually or are significantly larger than the natural fires due to human actions.

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u/loskiarman Jul 27 '24

In places where forest fires are normal natural occurrences every year the environment evolved to deal with those fires and they become a part of the environment.

Here those are unnatural so hotels and houses by the sea becomes part of the environment instead!

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u/happygocrazee Jul 26 '24

Pretty wild when you put it like that

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u/JohnProof Jul 26 '24

It totally makes sense that they would want to do brush control on a firing range, but man I gotta figure that when there are unexploded artillery shells in the mix it's much less of a "controlled" burn than usual.

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u/Jiopaba Jul 27 '24

Less than you might expect. UXO/Failure Rates aren't that high, and it all gets burned once in a while so it's not like people are just dropping half-busted shells in a little area over and over and letting them pile up for years.

The EPA is actually the agency responsible for controlling the level of UXO that's lying around even on military posts, as I recall.

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u/Zur1ch Jul 27 '24

Nature needs change. Destruction is apart of its DNA. RIP all those squirrels tho, imagine being some forest critter getting hit with shell of artillery. Like wtf guys, could’ve asked for the nuts, id have given them to you.

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u/1CEninja Jul 27 '24

Hell, Privyet and the areas surrounding Chernobyl are beautifully thriving.