Endangered Species which don't get enough attention
 

The extinction of the Western Black Rhino reminded me of how we often have these "flagship endangered species". Pandas, tiger, elephants for example. I have nothing against these animals (especially since elephants are my favorite animal), but they often draw attention away from other species which aren't considered "charismatic enough" such as amphibians. Here just list some of your thoughts.

Domesticate them. Grow them as food. Problem solved. :D

For Pandas, they're China's national animal. As long as that country continues to invest in maintaining them, they're alright.

It's the big animals out in Africa, who should be worried though. The people are poor and hungry over there. Why would they have concern over wild life? Then again, their low standard of living may actually help keep those animals alive over there -- due to less land development.

Thing is there is little an individual can do about the situation. There are parks to keep them in safe but poachers still hunt them because of one part of the animal that gives them profit. Not realizing that a horn of a creature regrows and they could easily set up an entire industry by simply not killing the creature and letting them multiply.
Economy and living conditions in those country are influenced not only by poor income but also greed of their leaders and government which keep the population from actually rebuilding and building upwards to a new future. You could say that giving them money would help, but how many have we already given and how much effect has it really had? Not much because organizations keep more than what they spend on helping people.
It is a situation that is out of hand because of the lack of direct resources. Giving people money when they don't know what to do with it does not help anyone. There is enough opportunity in Africa but the civilization has never been stable enough to accept and improve due to greed, war, belief and simply have stood still while the rest of the world moved forward in technology etc.
IMO it's nothing we can really change, we have zoo's and that's as far as we can get in terms of helping the animals because an undereducated and simply refusing society thinks its a good idea to poach them and only take the horns. They could eat rhino, but I guess non of them actually thought of that.

I think the marine species are most important right now, yet they are hard to protect and monitor. If coral populations could be maintained or even increased in the next 100 years, that'd be a huge environmental triumph for mankind.

Well, don't quite remember the specific species, but it's "Save the..."-arrogance at it's best

Was looking at a documentary of a group of monkeys/primates that had taken the mountains as their territory

Well nature rules so it was a fact that the mountain didn't carry enough food for the group to survive the winter

To cope with that they were given foodsupplies by volunteers from some animal aid group

Why?: "Because it was the only group of that type of monkeys living there"

Now, all very admirable, but there was one thing that irked me they mentioned in that shoot:
They were being 'saved' because they were the only group living on a mountain, but in no way differed from the monkeys in the lower lands
the only thing making them 'endangered' was their unique location, but in actuality they weren't endangered at all

To put it bluntly: they moved to an unnatural location where they would die of starvation, but are artificially kept alive by people who are ignorant of how nature works
A bit like trying to keep a beached whale alive by pouring water over it just because you think it should be allowed to live on the beach if it chooses so

Time, money and resources that could have been used for species that needed it more if you ask me

I like this thing:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...#ixzz1fI2SfGhc

I recall that in Oregon, they consider the old "Save the Spotted Owl" campaign a cover for drug farming operation in the woods.

But the question was how to get attetion to other creatures that are not on the usual watch list? Endangered insects, reptiles, fish, other smaller non-warmblooded animals that tend to be ignored. Most "Save the X" campaigns are for mammals and birds.

On the other hand sometimes these campaigns are economically or politically driven more than to actually save any creatures. I heard a story about a low income housing project in California that was to provide a number of houses in a undeveloped area of land. It was blocked by enviromental groups for 25 years over one endangered animal or plant after another. Each case getting dismissed eventually only for another to be brought up on a different animal or plant. By the time all the lawyers were done, the landowner had to built luxury housing or appartments on that land to make up for all the money lost in those 25 years. The irony is the enviromental group protested that because the development was to have been for low income housing. The developer basically told them if they hadn't forced him to waste so much money, he could have afforded to make low income housing, but now the only way to make up for his losses was to build it this way. So it was their fault the low income housing didn't come.

Let's not forget the "Petting Factor"

If it's cute and cuddly, the chance of getting saved are leaps greater than being ugly and dangerous

So given your reasoning, the polar bear is screwed ?

Are you implying that Polar Bears are not cute?

I agree with Jaden actually. Many ocean species from shallow to the deep are in a grave danger of extinction and they don't get enough attention. Not to mention that most people don't even know that the aforementioned species exist (small fish, corals, and all). I even more convinced about this when I saw the last episode of BBC's Blue Planet which covers the danger the humans (advanced fishermans, in this case) pose to the ocean's habitat. Can you believe that we even more dangerous to the ocean lives than the Great Natural Extinctions (meteor, ice age, and all)?

Maybe the kid, a adult is probably too big and menasing to be ever considered cute.
But of course some do like yandere so...

Please save this poor little luvy-buvy bear from extinction
http://www1.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/P..._yJoCDHAWl.jpg


...oh, this one could use a little help too
http://animals.nationalgeographic.co...odile-baby.jpg




It's all in the advertising

Polar bears were always one of my favorite animals. But I kind of doubt I am alone in that. They are big white and furry, what's not to like?

Now I also think crocs are kind of cute, as long as you don't cross one's path. Guess you shouldnt cross a Polar Bears path either though.

Well, my point was that Greenpeace didn't advertise with a Seal cub for nothing

Too bad they didn't just advertise...

http://inewp.com/wp-content/uploads/...olar-bear2.jpg

Not pointing any fingers, but I'm pretty sure that big white thing right there is the culprit.

Lol.

I agree though. The only the animals I see being extensively broadcasted are those that a majority of the population finds "huggable". If it resembles an arthropod or a reptile, it doesn't quite register as much as that cute sneezing panda bear. Which is funny, because pandas can be extremely violent.

Personally, I'd love to see the California condor get some more attention. I mean just look at it.

http://images.nationalgeographic.com...86_600x450.jpg

D'aaaawwww. I love birds, especially raptors, and the condor here in Cali to represents one of the greatest birds alive. The species speaks many things to me, some of which aren't even describable. There's only a few hundred alive today, which is a shame.

Oh, and I'll just leave this here. Animals aren't the only ones in deep shit.

Can't say I'm charmed with them lately
But back when I was a wee little innocent lad, I admired their idealism


Still chuckling hard over PETA's hypocrisy

personally i am of 2 minds about it.

emotionally I would be sad if they went extinct

intellectually, i realize 99% of all lifeform that existed on earth has gone extinct. Whether the cause is natural or man-made, every animal that currently exist will go extinct.

True, but is that enouh of a reason to accelerate thios tendence ?