Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years • Hacker News Board

Re: Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years

#31

Post by FreeFull » Thu, Mar 01, 2012, 2:12 PM UTC

srl wrote: post #9

lionhearted wrote: post #3

> The important thing, the scientists thought, was to get a few of these insects protected and into a breeding program. That wasn't so easy. The Australian government didn't know if the animals on Ball's Pyramid could or should be moved. There were meetings, studies, two years passed, and finally officials agreed to allow four animals to be retrieved. Just four. > When the team went back to collect them, it turned ou…

This is one of the few instances where I disagree with that attitude. The risks involved in relocating ill-studied life forms are, obviously, enormous, and it does need careful and dispassionate consideration. I'd much rather risk a mildly interesting species go bye-bye than risk introducing a major ecological stressor. On the other hand, I might just be taking this stance because I'm so unfamiliar with biological st…

I'd assume the island's ecology would already have adapted to these insects though considering they probably previously have existed for a long time on it. It is possible that something other than the rats being introduced has changed in the ecology in the last 80 years, but I think the chance of a disaster is less than 50%.

Re: Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years

#32

Post by ramblerman » Thu, Mar 01, 2012, 2:23 PM UTC

"Step one, therefore, would be to mount an intensive (and expensive) rat annihilation program. Residents would, no doubt, be happy to go rat-free, ..."

I despise rats. Yet I find it disconcerting that the author just brushes this off as a triviality. We are perfectly happy saving one species by wiping out another.

Re: Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years

#33

Post by lysol » Thu, Mar 01, 2012, 2:28 PM UTC

ramblerman wrote: post #32

"Step one, therefore, would be to mount an intensive (and expensive) rat annihilation program. Residents would, no doubt, be happy to go rat-free, ..." I despise rats. Yet I find it disconcerting that the author just brushes this off as a triviality. We are perfectly happy saving one species by wiping out another.

Black rats are in no danger of extinction.

Re: Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years

#34

Post by lysol » Thu, Mar 01, 2012, 2:30 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #28

[deleted]

The beetle mentioned in that article is not the same insect as in this article.

Re: Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years

#35

Post by 3am » Thu, Mar 01, 2012, 2:42 PM UTC

ramblerman wrote: post #32

"Step one, therefore, would be to mount an intensive (and expensive) rat annihilation program. Residents would, no doubt, be happy to go rat-free, ..." I despise rats. Yet I find it disconcerting that the author just brushes this off as a triviality. We are perfectly happy saving one species by wiping out another.

Black rats are extremely common worldwide and are at no risk of extinction so nobody is 'wiping out' black rats. They're only talking about on Howe Island. The goal is not to avoid killing animals, it's to preserve biodiversity. Same reason people try to wipe out Kudzu, zebra mussels, snakeheads, rats, and other invasive species that displace endemic populations.

Re: Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years

#36

Post by fsniper » Thu, Mar 01, 2012, 2:43 PM UTC

lysol wrote: post #33

ramblerman wrote: post #32

"Step one, therefore, would be to mount an intensive (and expensive) rat annihilation program. Residents would, no doubt, be happy to go rat-free, ..." I despise rats. Yet I find it disconcerting that the author just brushes this off as a triviality. We are perfectly happy saving one species by wiping out another.

Black rats are in no danger of extinction.

Even that, this means genocide for a species.

Re: Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years

#37

Post by leke » Thu, Mar 01, 2012, 3:02 PM UTC

The neighbouring Howe Island, is pure island porn. Ideal, steady annual climate, no venomous or stinging life forms. There aren't even sharks in the daytime waters.

Re: Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years

#38

Post by DanBC » Thu, Mar 01, 2012, 3:08 PM UTC

ramblerman wrote: post #32

"Step one, therefore, would be to mount an intensive (and expensive) rat annihilation program. Residents would, no doubt, be happy to go rat-free, ..." I despise rats. Yet I find it disconcerting that the author just brushes this off as a triviality. We are perfectly happy saving one species by wiping out another.

Wiping out another - on that particular island, where they were non-native.

Invasive species cause havoc and removing them (whether by killing or by trapping[1]) is hard but useful work.

[1] See hedgehogs on some obscure Scots islands.

Re: Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years

#39

Post by astrodust » Thu, Mar 01, 2012, 3:22 PM UTC

fsniper wrote: post #36

lysol wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Black rats are in no danger of extinction.

Even that, this means genocide for a species.

Nuclear weapons couldn't kill off even half of the rats on this planet.

Re: Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years

#40

Post by jimrandomh » Thu, Mar 01, 2012, 3:29 PM UTC

This seems to me like a case of empathy gone awry. All that work and effort to bring back a species of insects? There is no balance to preserve; they've been gone for almost a century. Those resources could be spent preserving human life.