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

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

#91

Post by baq »

jimrandomh wrote: post #57
exch wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Playing the devil's advocate here but I believe humans do not need preserving. With 7 billion individuals and counting, it seems we're doing just fine. Regardless of how poor the living conditions are for many of us. For this particular species of insect however, having the last 24 remaining individuals of the entire species (presumably) be dependent on a single small shrubbery makes me think the effort put into this…

Humans are dying at a rate of 1.8 per second, and every human death is a tragedy of greater magnitude than the extinction of an insect species.

not fast enough.

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

#92

Post by theon144 »

>"Eve became very, very sick. Patrick ... worked every night for a month desperately trying to cure her. ... Eventually, based on gut instinct, Patrick concocted a mixture that included calcium and nectar and fed it to his patient, drop by drop, as she lay curled up in his hand."

They look just about damn disgusting, but the mental image produced by that paragraph was just so... heart-warming.

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

#93

Post by mixmastamyk »

jimrandomh wrote: post #57
exch wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Playing the devil's advocate here but I believe humans do not need preserving. With 7 billion individuals and counting, it seems we're doing just fine. Regardless of how poor the living conditions are for many of us. For this particular species of insect however, having the last 24 remaining individuals of the entire species (presumably) be dependent on a single small shrubbery makes me think the effort put into this…

Humans are dying at a rate of 1.8 per second, and every human death is a tragedy of greater magnitude than the extinction of an insect species.

I'm surprised at your selfishness. Sitting at the table of plenty but won't spare a crumb for another. Disgusting, really.

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

#94

Post by literalusername »

blacksmith_tb wrote: post #87
Drbble wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. I clicked that link on my phone, and the mobile redirect got DNS hijacked by t-mobile and redirected to a tmobile/yahoo domainsquat spam page.

Bad trailing slash, I think, though it really should just err on the Wiki, not get hijacked by an ISP. http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus_australis

The URL with a trailing slash redirects to a 404. Presumably tmobile feels they're providing a more useful result, and monetizing it. If my ISP did this I would use a proxy.

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

#95

Post by nazar »

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.

They should import cats. Thats how they got rid from enormous rat population after Leningrad (current St.Petersburg, Russia) blockade during the WW2. That would be a natural way of annihilating rat population(passive killing).

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

#96

Post by kpanghmc »

From the Wikipedia article on Dryococelus australis [1]

"The ultimate goal is to produce a large population for re-introduction to Lord Howe Island if the project to eradicate the invasive rats is successful."

I wonder what the 347 residents of Lord Howe Island think about this? It's an amazing story and all, but I sure wouldn't want a bunch of these insects introduced into my neighborhood.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus_australis

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

#97

Post by JL2010 »

DanBC wrote: post #86
unseen wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Duh, its evolution. You make it sound like a war theatre.

April 2003 - Attempts to begin a cull of hedgehogs on North Uist in the Western Isles have got under way. ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2920067.stm ) April 2005 - Animal rights activists are trying to rescue hedgehogs as an annual cull gets under way in the Outer Hebrides. ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4406675.stm ) October 2005 - Protest over annual hedgehog cull ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland…

Also: Australia's efforts against the cane toad, invasive fish species all over the world introduced by humans for "sport", Florida's efforts against the Burmese python (which has become the dominant predator - even swallowing local adult alligators).

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

#98

Post by JL2010 »

nazar wrote: post #95
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.

They should import cats. Thats how they got rid from enormous rat population after Leningrad (current St.Petersburg, Russia) blockade during the WW2. That would be a natural way of annihilating rat population(passive killing).

So long as there's something there to eat cats. Introducing one invasive species to cure another can lead to unpredictable ordeals.

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

#99

Post by nazar »

JL2010 wrote: post #98
nazar wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should import cats. Thats how they got rid from enormous rat population after Leningrad (current St.Petersburg, Russia) blockade during the WW2. That would be a natural way of annihilating rat population(passive killing).

So long as there's something there to eat cats. Introducing one invasive species to cure another can lead to unpredictable ordeals.

There are always big predators at top of the biological food-energy chain. They are few in numbers. Anyways, I believe populations of cats and rats will fluctuate. Increase in cats will cause decrease in rats and then subsequent decrease in cats. Like phase difference between sine and cosine wave graphs.

I believe introducing some small wild cat population would be a right thing to do, tho I would like to hear opinions of experts.

Edit: I don't think cats are invasive in the way rats are

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

#100

Post by ars »

nazar wrote: post #99
JL2010 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So long as there's something there to eat cats. Introducing one invasive species to cure another can lead to unpredictable ordeals.

There are always big predators at top of the biological food-energy chain. They are few in numbers. Anyways, I believe populations of cats and rats will fluctuate. Increase in cats will cause decrease in rats and then subsequent decrease in cats. Like phase difference between sine and cosine wave graphs. I believe introducing some small wild cat population would be a right thing to do, tho I would like to hear opinio…

> There are always big predators at top of the biological food-energy chain.

Not on islands. That's why islands have such unique animals found nowhere else.

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