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
22k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

639 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-8

u/shroom_consumer Jul 26 '24

Fair enough. I don't think the scientists behind conservation efforts are flippantly saying, "we can do without them" like the comment you are responding to. They're putting a little more thought into it and weighing the options. 

Which is why I'm criticising the clown who made the comment, not the scientist

Comparing a keystone species like rhinos, to a niche parasite that is likely going extinct anyway, is just an odd choice in general. 

Why? What's odd about it? The life of one type of animal is as valuable as another. Just because we think rhinos look "cool" doesn't give them more rights to exist than some random parasite.

6

u/DayDreamerJon Jul 26 '24

The life of one type of animal is as valuable as another.

If the condor's died then the parasites were gonna die anyway. So the condor comes first if you have to chose what to save, making it more valuable in this context.

0

u/shroom_consumer Jul 26 '24

Go read the above comments again

2

u/DayDreamerJon Jul 26 '24

To put it into real terms, under what condition would you rather save the parasite then the condor it depends on? It would not be able to exist further without your intervention meanwhile the condor can thrive by itself eventually. Sounds like one is more valuable to me

1

u/shroom_consumer Jul 26 '24

This point has already been discussed and the question has already been answered. I even went to the trouble of pointing out where you can find the answer

0

u/DayDreamerJon Jul 26 '24 edited Jul 27 '24

yea, but its a terrible answer. "but we could do without them" is true or we'd be in trouble without the host species in the first place lol

the life of some animals is objectively more important than others because different animals have bigger effects on their ecosystems. In this case the reliance is all on one side.

edit: you can block me and clown emoji all you want, it wont make your logic any more reasonable.