Saving Endangered Species

[science_spot]

 

Watching a species go extinct brings a range of emotions.  Anger, Fear, Sadness, sometimes even complete disinterest.  In the grand scheme of things does it really matter?  Millions of species have gone extinct over the course of time.  It's part of "survival of the fittest".

Sometimes the extinction is directly due to the actions of humans, through environment destruction.  Occasionally we notice the effect our destruction has and try to correct the problem before it is too late; sometimes we succeed and sometimes we don't.  I would like to highlight a few examples of extinction, and the different causes.  If anyone more familiar with environmental biology or ecology has anything to add, please do!

The Tazmanian Devil is facing extinction due to a transmissible cancer that causes facial tumors that affects its eyesight and ability to eat.  I wrote about this in detail in a previous post.  We are trying to save this unique species in two main ways.  First, by isolating a few unaffected individuals that will hopefully be able to repopulate the island of Tasmania if the species cannot beat this disease itself.  Second, researchers are working on a vaccine or treatment method to help save affected animals.  If a species is about to succumb to a natural disease, should we really be trying to stop it?  What benefit is there to us?  If we let the disease run it's natural course, the species may go extinct, but this could open up a place for a completely new species to take its place, or maybe a hardier species of devils.

Picture from the University of Bristol

 

Panda Bears also face possible extiction.  These beautiful creatures live in very narrow conditions (cold, damp forests of a specific elevation), and eat a narrow diet (leaves and stems of bamboo plants).  Currently they are mostly limited to a series of nature preserves set up by the government of China.  It is estimated that far below 1,000 pandas remain in world, about 200 of which live in zoos in China.  Their narrow choice of habitat is shrinking due to expanding human populations that are moving into their territory.  In addition, pandas reproduce slowly and the rate of infant mortality is very high.  These three factors - habitat, diet, and reproduction, make it very hard for the panda to adapt to a changing environment, and maintain or increase its population.  The Chinese government has been working to protect them in the wild and increase reporduction through zoo matings, but it is still not clear that this species will be saved.  In this case, humans have been taking part in their decline due to habitat destruction, but we are not entirely to blame for the fact they cannot adapt and have slow reproduction.

Picture from WideAwakeInWonderland

 

The Island Fox is made of a few subspecies of fox that live on the Channel Islands off the coast of California.  Some have suffered a recent decline and four subspecies are currently critically endangered.  Theirs is an interesting story, as they fall victim to a series of events, of which humans were at the beginning.  In the 1950's human use of DDT forced the Bald Eagle population into decline, which allowed the Golden Eagle population to increase.  Golden Eagles were feeding on the feral pigs on the islands, until the National Park Service exterminated the feral pig population.  The Golden Eagles then started preying on the Island Foxes, which is driving the species toward extinction, as theyare not able to adapt to predation.  Aggrevating the situation is a variety of introduced species on the island which are competition for food.  Currently, the National Park Service is working on programs to help protect the Island Fox from extinction, including physically moving the feral pigs and Golden Eagles from all the islands back to the mainland, to decrease conpetition and predation. They are also working to re-introduce the Bald Eagles to the Channel Islands, which will help force out the Golden Eagles.  these projects are very expensive and complicated and it is not clear if they will be successful, or if other factors will then affect the foxes.  Should we be trying this hard to correct an error we made decades ago?  Would our environment be better served by not repeating the same mistakes, rather than trying to correct old ones?

Picture from the Website of Everything

 

I encourage you to read more about endangered species.  A few very valuable websites you could use are endangeredspecie.com, World Wildlife Federation (WWF), and the USA's Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).  I found it particularly interesting to look at this list of endangered species by state.  In my state (New York), I found 25 threatened and endangered species, some of which are marine species such as the sea turtle and humpback whale because we have coastline.  How many in your state?  Have you ever heard of any of them?  Does this concern you, or do you feel it is a natural event in the history of life on Earth?

 

Tonya

AKA sunmoonstars

The Science Spot

(Noote - this should be the last re-post for some time.....)

[DivingDiva]

Jan. 8, 2010 at 9:16 PM

I'm on the fence on a lot of these issues.  In the case of the Channel Islands I would wholeheartedly support removal of the feral pigs because we put them there and they tend to decimate the whole ecology of an area, not just adversely effect one species.  Now that bald eagle populations are on the rise due to the banning of DDT reintroducing them to the islands should not be very hard nor expensive. 

I also support the preservation of habitat, including panda habitat - not just because of endangered species but on account of all the other plant and animal species that also thrive in those habitats. 

I'm not sure about a vaccine for the Tasmanian devils.  That seems like a huge expense with limited chance of actually saving the species.