Erstellt am: 28. 10. 2014 - 11:07 Uhr
Today's Webtip: Eaten to Extinction
Remember the DoDo? Probably not. It's gone. Dead. Extinct. Flown the coop so to speak.
A fate that many animals have suffered. Not because we destroyed their habitat (although that is probably the major cause of extinctions right now) but because they were overexploited. Either because the were tasty or provided some other resource of commercial value.
Like whales way back when. Or the Bison.
public domain
That pile of bison skulls was an example of the pretty heady demand Bison meat once commanded. The result was catastrophic.
I mention this all because I did a story this morning about an author who suggested we eat the meat of endangered species in order to increase their economic worth, thus spurring commercial interest to valiant acts of conservation.
I mean what could possibly go wrong right?
Well, I might suggest reading an article about thirteen animals that were hunted to extinction in the past.
Ahh but that was then, right? Back when humanity was greedy and stupid and didn't have a grasp of concepts like sustainability...
Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same I guess. There are still quite a few tasty wild animals out there that haven't been wiped out yet. Only almost.
For a more serious explanation of the threat the current wildlife population is facing to do over exploitation I will give you a link to a PDF on noss.cos.ucf.edu.