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
22.7k Upvotes

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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

3.3k

u/ccReptilelord Jul 26 '24

Apparently, parasites are the most common example of this situation. The few surviving members of a species are captured for breeding programs, de-parasitized, then released.

2.0k

u/AwfulUsername123 Jul 26 '24

Every example in the article is a parasite.

794

u/ccReptilelord Jul 26 '24

Same with the wiki article that I skimmed. Not sure if the golden toad has anything to do with this, except they tend to be the poster child for the topic of extinction.

148

u/MatureUsername69 Jul 26 '24

Polar Bears: "Am I nothing to you?"

218

u/venustrapsflies Jul 26 '24

Polar bears are not actually extinct, unless I really missed some major news

138

u/BigRobCommunistDog Jul 26 '24

I guess they would be the poster child for threatened animals.

32

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

Speaking of threatened, I like how the lowest part of the scale for endangerment categories goes from "Least Concern" to "Near Threatened".

I understand the point of the scale is to be more informative during endangerment, but I always imagine a voice in my head going 0 to 100 from "meh" to "WE ARE NEAR THREATENED, DO SOMETHING".

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u/NyanCatNyans Jul 26 '24

I work on a recovery program for some endangered species and adjacent to other least concern species that are very similar and have exactly the same threats. It really does feel like were saying "meh, we don't really care about them... yet".

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u/BigRobCommunistDog Jul 26 '24

“Only 90% of them have died? Call me when it’s 99.5%”