This is another eco-myth; letââ,¬â,,¢s look at a few ââ,¬Å"endangeredââ,¬Â� animals:
Species: Panama Frog (mixed)
Usefulness: They eat bugsââ,¬Â¦ so what.
Pie-availability: None in the supermarket - probably theyre poisonous.
Are they nice to us? They donââ,¬â,,¢t even speak.
Cuteness: 5/10
Problem: 67 species have conked it in the past few years.
Solution: Who cares? In ten years time weââ,¬â,,¢ll be able to GE 100s of new frogs, ones that arenââ,¬â,,¢t stupid enough to go extinct, hopefully.
Bengal Tiger
Usefulness: Dunno.
Pie-availability: None in the supermarket
Are they nice to us? No. They eat us.
Cuteness: 8/10, although the stripy fur look is a bit dated and doesnt go down too well with PETA.
Problem: Weââ,¬â,,¢re killing them.
Solution: But theyââ,¬â,,¢re killing us. Letââ,¬â,,¢s keep a few in the zoo but forget about the rest.
Polar Bear
Usefulness: They eat seals and look cool.
Pie-availability: None in the supermarket, but theyre edible afaik.
Are they nice to us? No, they eat us.
Cuteness: 10/10 for cool
Problem: Theyââ,¬â,,¢re too stupid to realise they should move to warmer climates, get a haircut, and start eating cats or chickens.
Solution: Get em to a barberââ,¬â,,¢s shop ASAP. Short round the sides, a little off the top and a dollop of gel. Airdrop holiday brochures for the Caribbean.
Leatherback Turtles.
Usefulness: 0.
Pie-availability: 0.
Are they nice to us? No.
Cuteness: 0.
Problem: Theyââ,¬â,,¢re still alive, taking over our wildlife programmes.
Solution: Shoot em all.
Red Panda
Usefulness: 0
Pie-availability: 0
Are they nice to us? Dunno
Cuteness: 4/10
Problem: They refuse to eat anything else except bamboo.
Solution: Get Jamie Oliver out there now!
Kakapo Parrot
Usefulness: 0
Pie-availability: 0
Are they nice to us? dunno
Cuteness: 2/10
Problem: The dinny things cant even fly, and we all know what happened to the Dodo.
Solution: Let nature take its course. How long have they had to learn flying?
Supposed to be funny I think?
I found it amusing :-)
I was having this argument with a mate the other night, needless to say I lost.
edit: To elaborate a little, their habitats are getting raped and I think its too late to do owt to help many of them unless we relocate them.Except then youve gotta look at the value of the animal; itd be sad to see most of them go but we could quite happily live without them.
Polar bears score 10/10 in all areas. Better than pirates or ninjas, and do a heck of an acting job in Lost.
A splash of Dior Homme, some shades, and a pack of ciggies and theyd out-cool David Hasselhoff.
As cool as a smoking bear is, does it really out rank a masturbating bear (http://www.pointedstick.net/colter/journal/images/masturbating-bear.gif)?
I have the one on the left :mrgreen:
If I had the one on the right, would there be a penis between us?
Overall answer, take the idiot who wrote that twaddle and feed him/her to the cute Bengal tigers, feet first. He will quickly find they arent as cute as he believes.
Bloody dangerous is more like it. He should realise that the Kakapo Parrots cuteness is more like 8/10 cause it isnt going to eat you...
great, leaving our great wilderness of earth is being taken lightheartidyly, by americans who cannot see past their own nose.
great way to pass a working planet onto our kids imo.
(http://www.thejump.net/humor/gods-creatures.jpg)
If all the Yaks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yak) die out, you can blame it on me...I was practicing with my MIND BULLETS! :P
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6844303.ece
Hahaha, I had just read that article and then noticed this thread and was about to post about it.
Tbh hes right. Its the problem with flagship species, craploads of money is spent on them when there are other species that are just as threatened, or even more threatened, but if they arent as cute, dont get the research/conservation work.
Conservation is a bit cut throat, poor old David Bellamy pretty much disappeared after deciding to voice his opinion that climate change wasnt real ><
Quote from: zpyderConservation is a bit cut throat, poor old David Bellamy pretty much disappeared after deciding to voice his opinion that climate change wasnt real ><
Err he stuck his oar in and got politically lynched for getting it wrong.
As to the panda, the problem is numbers of people, disturbance and destruction of habitat, not the animal ability to survive.
There might be good reasons behind his statement but if we give up on the panda why bother saving the others? We will doubtlessly do an equally bad job there too.
You could argue the Pandas ability to survive in a habitat effected by humans is sub-standard. Yes if left alone itll be fine, but face it, it wont be left alone, the habitats they can still be found in will continue to be infested by people and their population will decline and they will become extinct.
Packham has actually voiced the opinion of most ecologists I know, yes none of us want to see any species go extinct, especially because of us, but at the same time most people in the non public-charity aspect of conservation and ecology feel that flagship species divert a lot of money that would be better spent on other conservation issues.