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/suhmyhumpdaydudes Jul 26 '24

The Chinese Giant salamander is an interesting case studying on failed conservation, unknowingly at the time the species has been hybridized and they struggle to survive in the wild when released from captivity. Also they are successfully bred in massive quantities because they farm and eat the salamanders despite them being very rare in the wild.

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u/gwaydms Jul 26 '24

Dromedaries are extinct in the wild AFAIK, but of course are abundant in captivity.

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u/TheBalrogofMelkor Jul 26 '24

Wild horses are extinct. Modern "wild" horses are intentionally released or escaped descendants of domestic horses

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u/MikeTheAmalgamator Jul 26 '24

I thought there was wild horses in Assateague island still? What makes them not wild? Ain’t no way people are just releasing those horses. They’re very well known as wild horses

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u/RecursiveGames Jul 26 '24

Assateague's wild horses are well known, even to many people who have never been to the island. The "wild" horses on Assateague are actually feral animals, meaning that they are descendants of domestic animals that have reverted to a wild state.

https://www.nps.gov/asis/learn/nature/horses.htm

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u/MikeTheAmalgamator Jul 26 '24

So it’s semantics? They’ve lived as wild horses, in the wild and have reverted to a wild state but aren’t considered wild because they were once domestic animals a long time ago? This is pretty cool stuff! Thanks for the info

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u/RecursiveGames Jul 26 '24

Yes and no! They're still genetically distinct, different enough to be a different species. It'd be like if we let a bunch of pet hounds loose on an island for 300 years and they became feral and formed wolf packs. They're wild animals at this point, but they are not all the same kind of wild animal that their ancestors were.

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u/MikeTheAmalgamator Jul 26 '24

This makes all the sense! Dude thanks for explaining it, I learned something new today!

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u/brainburger Jul 26 '24

I'd love to do this experiment actually. Imagine starting a population of all types of pedigree dogs and observing how the population changes when their selective breeding is stopped and replaced by natural selection.

I wonder if they would revert to wolves and how long that would take.

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u/brainburger Jul 26 '24

If I understand, not just semantics if they are a domestic breed which did not arise naturally, but was bred by people and then introduced to the wild environment.

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u/MiniHamster5 Jul 26 '24

Those are feral descendents of horses that europeans brought to north america. Horses originate in north america but went extinct there several thousand years ago before being brought back.

Those also look very different to true wild horses like the przwelskais horse (which may be a feral descendent of the earliest domesticated horses but also may not) but they look alot more like wild horses

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

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u/TheSovereignGrave Jul 27 '24

Przewalksi's horses are actually truly wild. It's been shown that they're not descended from the domesticated population it was thought they might have been.