Which extinctions could have been prevented ?

[Berus]

Since the last 1000 years mayn unique animals died out, mostly because of humans. Which ones could have been prevented ? I really like hypothetical thoughts like this, because it would be awsome if Moas or giant lemurs would still be around.

For example:
Moas, if the Maori would view Moas as holy sacred animals which they werent allowed to hunt, this would rise the chance of them surviving, because the Moas still are around, the Haasts eagle could survive aswell.

Megaladapsis, a koala like lemur that lived in Madagascar till the 14th century, again it was most likely the humans who were responsible for its extincton. what if hunting a Megalapasis, would have been taboo, hunting Indris was taboo for exampe. I think they could survive aswell in that case.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_extinctions

 

[Lalli]

Perhaps dodos, passenger pigeons and thylacines could survive.

 

[Julius Vogel]

I'd love to see the Moa survive, but it does seem that the early Maori migrants wiped it out very quickly (a century), or at least that is a current theory.

Maori would have to develop this religious theory asap in order to save the Moa

http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/moa/

 

[twovultures]

The ivory billed woodpecker relied on micro-habitats that were destroyed through logging. Thing is, we could have clear-cut much more forest in the 19th century as we did and still had this bird survive, as long as we left their particular woods alone. It would be pretty cool to have a bird known as the Lord God Bird still around

 

[Ledalek]

you can pretty much save milions and milions of all that tiny little critters nobody of you care about, who lived only in small area of rainforest which is no more nowadays

but well, from the larger more charismatic ones, you can save anything by making it "taboo" and not introducing predators. In case of New zealand, many birds were fucked up in longer term anyway. Maori introduced polynesian rat to Aotearoa.

I would love to have surviving New Caledonian terrestrial species of crocodile Mekosuchus inexpectatus (there are some stories that it might have survived till 17th century and there was another pacific terrestrial crocodile which went extinct roughly 3000 years ago as well as indonesian dwarf true gharials) or New Caledonian giant armored turtles Meiolania.

I would love to see surviving giant madagascar birds Aepyornis and Mullornis, or any of the three species of dwarf hippos which went extinct after humans settled it. Or Monkey-like terrestrial lemurs.

Both Thylacine and Tasmanian devil might still live in mainland australia and on New Guinea, if humans never brought a dog to australia..

And its quite contrast between pre-human-settled Easter island and post-human one. Barren place, altrough with some giant statues, is far less interesting than lush rainforest, where several flightless species of birds once lived, including two species of fligthless parrots and a flightless egret.

 

[Sior]

I'd love to see the Moa survive, but it does seem that the early Maori migrants wiped it out very quickly (a century), or at least that is a current theory.

Maori would have to develop this religious theory asap in order to save the Moa

http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/moa/

or The Elephant birds an extinct family of flightless birds found only on the island of Madagascar and comprising the genera Aepyornis and Mullerornis.
They are among the heaviest known birds (Dromornis stirtoni of Australia reached a similar weight). The reasons for and timings of their extinctions remain unclear, although there are written accounts of elephant bird sightings on the island in the 17th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_bird

 

[el t]

Extinctions

The ivory billed woodpecker relied on micro-habitats that were destroyed through logging. Thing is, we could have clear-cut much more forest in the 19th century as we did and still had this bird survive, as long as we left their particular woods alone. It would be pretty cool to have a bird known as the Lord God Bird still around

I heard that it was re-discovered a few years ago. I'm not sure if the bird in question was really an ivory billed though.

 

[el t]

Extinctions

Definitely Carolina Parakeets.

 

[Unalist]

Save the Neanderthals!

Preferably as a protected population in their own territory.


To see if they are smart dumb or just different.

Unfortunately unless thy're in the most remote place(s) on earth the easiest way I can imagine off hand is as a slave race.

 

[Slowpoke]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Pigeon

 

[Magnum]

what about the tasmanian tiger and attempts to clone it ?

 

[Meerkat92]

Keep the Great Auk alive somehow. Maybe a series of volcanic eruptions in Iceland triggers a longer Little Ice Age, keeping Scandinavia and Iceland more unpopulated, and relieving the pressures of overhunting somewhat?

 

[ArKhan]

short answer: all of them
long answer: all of them provided that humans either didn't exist of where fundimentally different as a species.

 

[mosodake]

Not sure if passenger pigeons would be able to survive in huge numbers much later than OTL. If things happen the way they did OTL and chestnut blight gets introduced to the US around 1900, a major source of food for the pigeons gets wiped out. The American chestnut population went from around 4 billion to a few hundred at most in 40 years.

 

[fscott]

Preferably as a protected population in their own territory.


To see if they are smart dumb or just different.

Unfortunately unless thy're in the most remote place(s) on earth the easiest way I can imagine off hand is as a slave race.

I like that idea. The question that I have is if we can reasonably be sure that they would die out without human interference should we save them?

 

[oshron]

The ivory billed woodpecker relied on micro-habitats that were destroyed through logging. Thing is, we could have clear-cut much more forest in the 19th century as we did and still had this bird survive, as long as we left their particular woods alone. It would be pretty cool to have a bird known as the Lord God Bird still around

actually, the ivory-billed woodpecker still exists, but is critically-endangered

 

[mowque]

actually, the ivory-billed woodpecker still exists, but is critically-endangered

Debate rages on the topic. Personally, I think they are extinct.

 

[The Kiat]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Pigeon

And Bison... yeah, I know they aren't extinct, but they came close to it.

I'd also like to add that island species (dodo, moa, etc) could have been saved if humans never set foot on their islands. Even the Wake Island Rail could still be here (not a whole lot of Polynesian activity there) if not for WWII. The Japanese wiped them out when their supply convoys failed to bring more food.

Humans aren't the only victims of their own wars.

 

[Dave Howery]

the quagga and blue buck of southern Africa might have survived, if the white settlers had been more discriminating in their hunting. The double whammy of being shot in mass hunts and dying from introduced diseases put both of them into extinction. A couple of other species barely survived this one-two punch...

 

[twovultures]

I'd also like to add that island species (dodo, moa, etc) could have been saved if humans never set foot on their islands.

That would be a pretty interesting side-effect of a "No Polynesian Expansion" timeline-a virgin ocean filled with islands populated by monstrous birds.

Debate rages on the topic. Personally, I think they are extinct.

Extinct, or about to be