Trying to Slow Extinction

[gracemacdonald]

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47721807

Culling an animal means to reduce their population by selective slaughter. Although this sounds barbaric, the culling of certain on some islands could help stop the extinction of native species. 75% of most animal extinctions in the last 500 years have been seen on islands, and most of these extinctions are due to the introduction of foreign species. These animals, introduced by humans, can be extremely invasive and threaten the survival of many native island species. Hearing about the slaughter of animals is worrying to me, as it is not their fault they have been introduced to these islands, but I hope it is done in a humane way without any suffering. Hopefully people will stop introducing new animals to foreign places so such extreme measures will not have to be taken in the future.

[AndrewAltobelli]

As I learnt in biology class, the introduction of new species in an area where they may not have any predators to control their growth, can cause detrimental effects on the community of wildlife and plants in the environment. An example of this in recent memory was when Goldfish, yes goldfish, were introduced into a small lake in St. Albert in 2017. This resulted in the gold fish reproducing exponentially and growing to a monstrous 30 inches! The main concern though was them getting into the river system and spreading, even though they destroyed the natural habitat in the pond. So I definitely agree with the article that the introduction of new species can lead others to extinction.