05 Oct 2015, 2:28 pm
Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) has a 100% fatality rate. 
It has killed 90% of the species since 1996.
They have captured 500 breeding pairs to be kept in Zoos to prevent total extinction, but extinction in the wild is all but guaranteed.
Brought to you by the always annoying Destin of S.E.D.
Fancy that, an extinction not caused by humans...go figure 
05 Oct 2015, 3:38 pm
slave wrote:
Fancy that, an extinction not caused by humans...go figure
Why this anthropocentric blabla ?
05 Oct 2015, 3:47 pm
traven wrote:
slave wrote:
Fancy that, an extinction not caused by humans...go figure
Why this anthropocentric blabla ?
Well, the vast majority of extinctions over the last 500 years have human attributed causes, a non human cause is rare.
lostonearth35
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Location: Lost on Earth, waddya think?
05 Oct 2015, 3:59 pm
This is really sad. For years I've worried that at least one animal that one of my favorite cartoon characters is based on would go extinct in my lifetime (not one that already has been extinct for years like dinosaurs or even the Dodo Bird), but I always thought it would be pandas or even elephants. Back in the 90's I was always hearing about elephants being horribly killed for their tusks. 
05 Oct 2015, 5:13 pm
05 Oct 2015, 5:17 pm
Aristophanes wrote:
traven wrote:
slave wrote:
Fancy that, an extinction not caused by humans...go figure
Why this anthropocentric blabla ?
Well, the vast majority of extinctions over the last 500 years have human attributed causes, a non human cause is rare.
It seems to me that a lot of the blaming of extinctions on humans is due to the fact that there is evidence that people were in the area at about that time. I would say you could argue that humans were a contributing factor, but I think people need to be pickier about the 'facts' they throw around.
05 Oct 2015, 5:22 pm
glebel wrote:
Aristophanes wrote:
traven wrote:
slave wrote:
Fancy that, an extinction not caused by humans...go figure
Why this anthropocentric blabla ?
Well, the vast majority of extinctions over the last 500 years have human attributed causes, a non human cause is rare.
It seems to me that a lot of the blaming of extinctions on humans is due to the fact that there is evidence that people were in the area at about that time. I would say you could argue that humans were a contributing factor, but I think people need to be pickier about the 'facts' they throw around.
Or use common sense, such as: humans entered the area, everything died right when they got there, obviously they did something that f****d up the ecology of the place.
05 Oct 2015, 5:33 pm
05 Oct 2015, 5:35 pm
Aristophanes wrote:
glebel wrote:
Aristophanes wrote:
traven wrote:
slave wrote:
Fancy that, an extinction not caused by humans...go figure
Why this anthropocentric blabla ?
Well, the vast majority of extinctions over the last 500 years have human attributed causes, a non human cause is rare.
It seems to me that a lot of the blaming of extinctions on humans is due to the fact that there is evidence that people were in the area at about that time. I would say you could argue that humans were a contributing factor, but I think people need to be pickier about the 'facts' they throw around.
Or use common sense, such as: humans entered the area, everything died right when they got there, obviously they did something that f****d up the ecology of the place.
Or that particular population was on the crux and one little additional element pushed them over the edge. I work with living things, I undoubtedly know more about life processes and applied biology then most people. What I said is that we can't always know the actual causes of such events, and we shouldn't jump to conclusions. If you want to stop something from dying, you need to stand back and view the situation with a clear eye, not have a knee-jerk reaction.
05 Oct 2015, 5:41 pm
05 Oct 2015, 6:13 pm
glebel wrote:
Or that particular population was on the crux and one little additional element pushed them over the edge. I work with living things, I undoubtedly know more about life processes and applied biology then most people. What I said is that we can't always know the actual causes of such events, and we shouldn't jump to conclusions. If you want to stop something from dying, you need to stand back and view the situation with a clear eye, not have a knee-jerk reaction.
Therein lies the problem, most ecosystems are a delicate balance, any introduction of foreign species will alter an ecosystem, if said foreign species can survive the environment they will change it. Let's be honest most human caused extinctions aren't generally caused by humans going in and killing every member of a species, they're caused by humans introducing other species that unbalance the ecosystem. You can call that "indirect" if you want, or any other terminology you want to diffuse liability, but the fact remains in most cases that had humans not been involved a majority of the species going extinct in the current mass extinction event wouldn't have happened. Our callous disregard for nature and constant denial of our ability to change our environment is the core cause.
05 Oct 2015, 8:29 pm
05 Oct 2015, 8:33 pm
05 Oct 2015, 8:36 pm
05 Oct 2015, 9:05 pm
05 Oct 2015, 9:10 pm
