Pink Poogle Toy Forum

As of right now in this world, there are less then 60 captive kept birds called the Spix’s Macaw. It is the smallest of the blue macaws, which out of all the parrots have always been some of the most popular. The Spix’s macaw is not a large bird, quite the contrary, of the four species in the blue macaw group (respectively the Hyacinth, Lears, Blue/Yellow and Spix) it is the smallest. And it is the rarest as well.
No Spix’s macaws live in the wild anymore. The last one disappeared in 2001 without any trace and though expeditions have been made to find it there have been no signs, recordings or general sightings of this small blue macaw. And what’s worse… of the less then sixty (I can only say less because numbers cannot be exact) almost all live scattered across the world, their owners too selfish to turn them in to a breeding program. For mans own pleasure we are allowing a birds species to be turned to an almost certain extinction. Even if all the birds are gathered now, it is arguably too late to save the species. Some are too old for breeding, a few more sterile… and sadly there have been no cases of captive breeding for the Spix’s macaw.
And yet… this is not the only creature we’re killing. We as man know that creatures like Rhinos are going extinct, that we are slaughtering them needlessly for the trinkets of their horns which are used in ceremonial knives and in “ancient medicines”. And yet, you do not realize that one of the worlds leading organizations the World Wild Life Fund, WWF, asked people to kill the Saiga antelope instead of the rhinoceros. And what you don’t hear… is that now the Saiga antelopes with their strange wrinkled nose and slender curved horns are now too being pushed towards extinction. 30’000 of them do remain still, but the vast majority of those are female considering it is only the males that bear horns.
Although the numbers of antelope are still far more then those of rhinoceros, considering the culling of the antelope still takes place (Albeit illegally) we are pushing them to the brink. Isn't it bad enough that we're killing one species, should we really be sacrificing another species to it's cause?
It's bad enough that we've known Rhinos have been in danger for decades, and that some people have tried to stop it. But still as a group we kill them. The Sumatran and Javan rhino both of whom have a species number in the 60's are fighting for the place of rarest large land mammal. And still people poach them. Their forests are guarded now, and people will go to the extent of killing a guard for a simple horn. It costs a dollar to buy enough poison to poison a rhino. And the Sumatran rhinos which horns are barely a stub compared to it's counterparts suffer just as much as the others.
And let us look at the plight of the pygmy blue whale, or Omuras blue whale, which was hunted ruthlessly for it's meat when it was a newly discovered species in the later 1960s and 70s. It was not a traditional "Blue Whale" it was not the recognized species, and this made it exempt from any hunting legalities that had been placed on the previous known species of Blue whale. This gave hunters the edge, and they slaughtered them. There is a huge possibility that it is indeed a completely new species rather then just a sub species, and yet it's been seen with less frequency and thusly been searched for with more urgency over the past few years. Should not the finding of a species of new baleen whale be the cause for joy? Should we not realise that this is not something to slaughter... but instead something to cherish?

*sighs*
it's a bit of a rant isn't it? *shrugs* I read a book today (which was bad of me, I should've been unpacking) called "No Turning Back, the life and death of animal species". I've always had an interest in extinct species be it from dinosaur to mammoth to aurochs so this book was a great find. But it's just heartbreaking.
So. I implore you. Think before you purchase animals or animal products. Do research on what you're buying first... some of what you purchase could easily be from a protected or endangered species. Be careful. (<-geeky ending. My bad.)

And pictures... respectively... of what creatures I just talked about...



Sumatran Rhino



Javan Rhino

http://www.worldparrottrust.org/news/images/presley/pres014C.jpg

Spix's Macaw

http://www.cic-wildlife.org/fileadmin/cic-wildlife/other/saiga_antelope.jpg

Saiga Antelope

http://www.geocities.jp/aquaticlifeartgallery/main-page/whales-of-the-world/hige/omuras-w.jpg

Omura blue whale (i'm sorry, it was the only non dead whale picture I could find... even if it is... just a drawing.)

What beautiful creatures..

It saddens me knowing that we have been killing off these and many other species for many many years.. it makes me wonder just how blood hungry and selfish mankind is when it comes to the wildlife on this planet.

Wiping out entire species and all we have to show for it are horns, hooves, heck, even pelts, greed is doing this. ._.

And then there're creatures we kill without reason.
Everyone knows about how the Dodo went extinct. Europeans landed on the island and slaughtered them. But Dodos weren't edible, their meat was gross. And at that time there was no reason for the slaughter... it was simply a senseless thing to do because Dodos were so docile, and so easily approachable.
There's also things like river dolphins... (and i'll include Belugas in this considering their love of the St. Lawrence) that are being poisoned, and having their food taken from their mouths. River dolphins were always rather rare. And with the three rivers dam that was built in China... it's spelt doom for a species of them. The Yangzte river dolphin has almost no hope of survival now. It's feeding grounds utterly demolished by the flooding of the gorge.
As well, the other two species, Indus and Ganges aren't in much better shape.
Then there are the pink dolphins in the Hong Kong harbour that had a airport built overtop of their living area. They'll probably be gone in the next 20-30 years. Yippee.
Isn't progress great?

Humans are very selfish creatures.
We breed out of control and could care less what we're doing to the earth we live on.

Very sad that many animals are on the verge of extinction.
Hopefully scientists are trying to do something about it though by cloning. It's a bit out there but I think that would be the only way to prevent certain animals from completely disappearing off of this planet.

As a New Zealander, I know all about the danger of extinction, though here it is all about the birds. I want to know why the Kiwi, despite being such a nationalised image still has its habitat forested? The majority of our large offshore islands have been turned into habitats, while some species such as the fantail and tui have managed to blend into our general suburban wildlife. It really isn't enough though.

If humans are so terrible, why don't we all just drop dead here and now? Campaigning for endangered species is good, but spare me the species-wide self-hate.

The point here is because of the self-centered and selfish acts of many humans these wonderful animals may be wiped off the face of the Earth. A lot of people have no idea things like this are occuring and I applaud anyone who brings them to light and chooses to do what they can to help these species, and in fact our world, even if it is just spreading information. Each person with more knowledge is one more person that can inform others, stop using certain products and making choices that could encourage the killing of endangered species, and encourage others to do the same. It only takes one person to start a chain.

Jasujo, you have the right idea, but you're not the one calling all of mankind "blood-hungry and selfish," or listing manmade structures that endanger species and then extrapolating it way out to say that there shouldn't be progress.

EDIT: And if there is any way this thread can be moved to Debate, please do so.

Oddly I never really saw this topic turning into a debate. And I don't want it too. I'm not trying to argue about man or destruction, because there's also a lot of good that we do for species we realise we're destroying.

I'm not saying that there shouldn't be progress, but I do believe there could be better ways to do some things. And i'll leave it at that. This thread isn't a debate, if you would like to cross-post this to the debate board and turn it into such, you may do so, but please don't post any more arguments here.

Edit: I really just wanted to get the names of these animals out there... yeah. I mean honestly, whose heard of a Spix's Macaw or a Omura blue whale. *shrugs* And really that was my goal. So yeah.

I find cassowary's fascinating! they're gorgeous creatures, but unfortunately very endangered

blame nature.
she gave us the tools to propergate beyond control, to gain power over the lesser creatures, to drive them to extinction.
ofcourse the Population growth is crashing (male fertility down 60% in the last few decades) but that wont help the roughschild girraffe will it (less than a dozen left in the wild)
Species come and go, its natural selection taken to the Nth degree nothing more.
still, were more than oerdue for a good old extinction event.
i wait in the hope that i survive long enough to see the "save the endangered human who cant do anything without his technology anymore" posters being paraded about by the cockroaches.

Oh for heavens sake! I'd like to point out that knowingly destroying habitats and forcing species into extinction, although done without the intention to kill, is not progress. Its carelessnes.

And complaining about somthing that you cannot possibly hope to stop is pointless.
Complaing that you will die is pointless.
Complaining that Ferrarri are infact a crap F1 team is pointless.
and complaining that the six and a half billion humans with a birth rate of one more exery two seconds are destroying the enviroment is useless.
we can live without almost all other life on Terra.

the rainforests are expendable, the Coral reefs are expendable.
The elephants, rhinos and giraffes are expendable.
oh sure, it would be a shame for them to die off, but you have to face facts.
Nature created us as Egotystical, Xenophobic killing machines.
now she reaps what she did sowe.

Before anyone posts further in argument. Don't.
I've already stated that this is not the purpose of this thread. If you want to argue what man is or isn't, take it to debate. But not here.

This is the problem. People could very well take steps to help save these animals. To think that any living creature is just expendable saddens my heart. When I was in high school, I had written to over 200 animal groups to get information on what I could do to help and be better informed. The amount of info I got was astounding. Animals a lot of people didn't even know were heading for the endangered list and needed help badly, I received stacks and stacks of research on. I went around my school (of a bit over 600 students at the time), and formed a group of my friends and others willing to help and collected over 200 signatures from students and staff members to help save a group of wolves to be relocated in Washington. It seriously made me cry to see how many people actually cared and went out of there way to help. People I didn't even know, younger classmen, older classmen, came up to me and asked what they could do. It was just beautiful. My social studies teacher, Mrs. Goodale, was heavily into animal rights and she was so proud of the whole movement that she let me write an article about it all in the school paper to inform everyone even more. That is truly one of my fondest moments of high school.

People can try to save these animals and even if it is too late, others can be helped from reaching the same point. All you have to do is inform people, write letters to your government representatives, maybe even help at animal rescue shelters and such. It takes such little effort and it really can make a difference.