Um...we are destroying their habitat is why they are endangered

Interesting to note that we are killing off LOADS of species every year. We are single handedly responsible for the next mass extinction, which we are actually living through.

To kind of agree with Zachhart...

Yes there is definitely more of a drive to save the "cute" endangered species, but that doesn't mean there is *no* effort to save a species regardless of how cutesy it is.

There are plenty of species that die out all the time because they no longer fit into their normal ecosystem. But as Zach said, many (and supposedly most of the ones we're striving to save) are endangered because we're destroying their habitats. Many times this is not merely the sake of saving a species because it simply exists, but rather that their role in the local or grander ecosystem can't easily be taken up or shifted to another species. In many cases, it's feared that the loss of a certain species, especially if it is low on the food chain, could trigger a domino effect of consequences which may or may not include other species going extinct further up the chain due to a sudden collapse in resources at the bottom of the chain.

It's complicated and I don't claim to fully understand it, but what you see in the news (this triggered by the news article about the baby panda, was it not?), but what we see in the news is the PR side of things. The core of the programs are directed by scientists whom I'm sure have a much more logical reason to save an animal rather than "OMG it's so freaking CUTE!!!"

To give another example of a domino effect that twilight was mentioning, and this is a top-down instead of a bottom-up effect, but if you look at the wolves in yellowstone park then you see that by removing the wolves the beaver and the aspen tree populations shrank due to the larger number of elk. The domino effect goes both ways, get rid of a predator on the top and something down below will also start to struggle.

So it really depends on if its a natural dying out or if its humans coming in a deciding to fuck everything up because we don't like something.


Keep in mind... I know wolves are not endangered in many places, especially outside the US. Just was the first example I could think of off the top of my head.

Keystone! THAT was the word I couldn't remember haha! But yeah this sums up what I wanted to say a lot better.

Thank you, that's what I meant. Preserve the the species that contribute significantly, especially where the ecosystem would be devastated without them, let the ones like Pandas see how they fare on their own.

pandas are stupid thats a reason they are dying out

A panda gives birth to twins 45% of the time but in wild can only look after one baby so the other one will always die

When a panda first gives birth it often doesn’t recognise the screaming infant and tries to kill it

Panda’s only eat bamboo, but can’t actually digest it at all so has to eat a stupid amount to gain any nutrition

A panda eats for 9 hours a day, then just sleeps, often getting too overweight

It is unlikely that a panda will find a mate that it likes making breeding not very common

They can’t protect themselves, only using their black and white fun as a deterrence. Basically they are too fat to run away.

man they realy are stupid :P


but we are shoving allot(even more) money into bees, and btw, its the zoos money let em do what they want it

Oh God, I just saw a bunch of emo pandas in my mind.

Bees at least make honey so they're fine.

wel many enviromental experts think that if the bees go extinct, a big part of the food chain will collapse

Yea, I heard of that. It'd be bad for the trees - less insects to pollinate the flowers. Bees are worth protecting; they're useful and wild ones don't nest on houses most of the times, unlike hornets. The world would use some less mosquitoes and flies though.

well mosquitoes lay their egs in the water wich feeds the fish n stuff, and flies eat stuff thats rotting and dead stuff, but we could use some stronger anti mosq stuff

Natural selection is one thing, but things we have done (building dams, tearing down forests, building cities, overhunting) is causing many species to die out not because of natural selection.

I agree. What we're doing to the earth is too much for the planet to repair on its own.

It can handle global warming and maybe something else, but we're throwing it a lot of challenges at once that are overwhelming the balance of things.

I actually heard tat the Three Gorges Dam backs up so much water that it causes earthquakes and puts a dent in the earths surface.

Honestly, I feel that a lot of species were either on the way out or destined to go that way eventually. I hear a lot about this 'eighteen species go extinct every hour' and I can't help but think 'this is true, but eighteen species emerge every hour too'. There's a lot of spin and marketing in environmentalisim; sorting the actual, serious issues from the gold farming is a bit of a minefield.

I can see that people might want to preserve species that are endangerd through over-exploitation or habitat destruction, but it is an exercise in futility to fire money at them when the people exploiting said species, and destroying said habitat are allowed to continue pissing all over the planet. Captive breeding programs too are NOT enough to sustain a species healthily; the genepools are too small, and natural selection ceases to be a factor when humans take over meaning that the longer they are captive, the less able to return to the wild the species will be. To be effective it has to be combined with meaningful habitat preservation, which at present is rarely practical given the remoteness and oftentimes need for resources from the habitats that are in danger.

You have a point, many spiecies go extinct each year and we hear nothing about it but once one of the spiecies that money is somehow saving >.> goes extinct a big deal is made on it.

You should do a freebie special and draw characters' whose species are endangered. (Like mine.. or part of mine.. the Ethiopian Wolf side)

It's what we call charismatic animals. Humans would always be happy to save the more charming mammals and so on. No one would care for bugs for example.

Going on a one animal campaign isn't really helping conservation much, but it's better than nothing.
Regarding the ecosystem, without us trying to counter the shit we're doing, it's going to hell. It isn't going to re-balanced itself naturally.