Evolution or not?

There's always lots talked about endangered species, do you think it's a good idea for us to chose not to let a species become extinct?
If a certain animal would not survive because it could not cope with it's habitat changing, caused by man or not, would it be "kinder" to let it go? Are we selfish?
Are we saving it for when things get better, for future generations to be able to see it or what?
If we could have saved the dinosaurs or the dodo would we have?
Are we halting natural selection or evolution by trying to save things, would other creatures evolve to take their place?
Just pondering on the way back from the supermarket!
(By the way, this is not my "opinion") I'd go for the fluffy every time!

Re: Evolution or not?

It is not a question we can answer for a couple of reasons firstly the dinosaurs were largely extinct 65 millions years before man appeared and it was their extinction that allowed the tiny mammals to emerge from the undergrowth and become the dominant creatures on the planet.

I say largely extinct because birds are the descendants of the dinosaurs so they couldn't have all died out.

As for the Dodo unfortunately one of the flaws(?) of evolution is that it cannot regress (ie every change has to be an improvement otherwise it doesn't survive) so the Dodo reached the end because it was just no longer suited to the environment in which it found itself.

Saving endangered species really has nothing to do with evolution because the evolution of species takes place on a much longer time frame than a few centuries. There may well be new species evolving now but the changes are so small we won't be aware of it.

Re: Evolution or not?

I meant would we have saved the dinosaur if we'd been there and had the knowledge, silly billy!
Dodo, prime example of what I'm talking about, should we allow other creatures to do the same?
But, the climate change etc. is speeding up isn't it?

Re: Evolution or not?

We couldn't have been there though could we? That's the point. As I understand it the Dodo became extinct because it was flightless, easy prey for hungry sailors and its habitat was very small being limited to one island however who is to say that it wasn't already on the verge of extinction when first discovered? As I said it is one of those unanswerable questions.

Is the changing climate speeding up? there have been rapid changes of climate within human history (a mini warming followed by a mini ice age for example in medieval times). There are indications now that the real ice ages happened relatively quickly. While the current changing climate might be man induced it is the range rather than the speed that is the problem isn't it?

Re: Evolution or not?

I'm torn on this, on one hand I would try and save all the fluffy species to protect them for generations to come and on the other I cannot see why we should do that for bugs etc. But we either have to do it for all or none really.

There is usually a reason animals die out and protecting them or worse still reintroducing them into places rarely works well for them or anyone else.

Re: Evolution or not?

It's a tricky one ...

Or you could say if any species has been driven to extinction because of mankind the obligation is on us to protect them.

Except .. we've often taken the land needed for their habitat so unless we are talking captivity and zoos we've just gone full circle.

Re: Evolution or not?

Imagine this: You're an intrepid, eco, conservationist type. You get the chance to go in a time machine, back to the jurassic times. Off you go (take lunch) you come across a cute little (probably not fluffy though) teddisaurus, you think, "he's a bit tasty, could evolve into something useful, I'll save him and some of his friends". You build them a suitable habitat, well protected. look after them for a few years. Then, off you go back to 2013. When you arrived you find lots of familiar species are gone, your teddisaurus has evolved into a monster that has taken over most of the planet! You think "oh, s!!!. Wish I'd gone to Mars now!"

Re: Evolution or not?

It doesnt pay to interfere with mother nature.

I can't remember the exact circumstances, but a while back 2 different groups were build ing up numbers of ,firstly pink footed pigeons which had dwindled down to 5 birds.
THe second group was saving a type of hawk & were successful.

BOth groups of birds were duly released and the pigeons were all eaten by the hawks, which went on to decimate local rodents and rare birds.

oops!

Re: Evolution or not?

Seeeeeeeeee!

Re: Evolution or not?

I tend to agree with that - species die out for a reason and they make way for others to take that slot.

However! I do feel differently about the red squirrel - if the grey hadn't made it to our shores on boats we provided (in a manner of speaking), I don't believe the red squirrel would be endangered so, imo, we do have a responsibility to protect it and reduce the numbers of grey squirrel.