~Old Posts~ Endangered

For http://tigertime.info 

An issue that has come up with regards to myself, through twitter, recently has been the plight of tigers worldwide and, indeed, naturally, the plight of many native and non-native species. 

I am a bit of science geek and, biology just is my bag. Within the scope of biology I have a fond love of the zoological and, within the scope of that, I am a man of the cat. As such, the work of Tiger Time immediately appealed to me and, with it being run through such a reputable and amazing charity as the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation you know that money and information is being used in the right ways. Charities don’t have to be huge to make a difference,  indeed, large charities require lots of experienced staff to run them and, sadly, those staff do not come with the charities best interests at heart…they expect to be paid. As such, smaller, but more efficient charities can get money where it is needed, when it is needed as directly as is possible and, thus, make a huge difference. 

The tiger is a fantastic creature, a walking paradox that is as cute as it is scary and as affectionate as it is murderous. But such is the appeal of the feline. Their subspecies have, sadly, been dwindling rapidly, with I believe around 4 subspecies going extinct in the 20th century alone. That kind of rapid extinction rate can only be attributed to man and, as such, it is our responsibility to make up for past mistakes and past ignorance in order to help support the species that remain in the world. 

It may escape the notice of a lot of individuals due to its lack of press but, amongst biological circles it is well publicised that we are in the midst of one of the largest ever extinction events known in the 4.5-5 billion year history of the Earth and it is one that is occurring directly as a result of mankind’s actions. It is not just the majestic Tigers prowling around from the Tundric plains of the Amur region to the humid forests of India, but many species worldwide that are under threat. 

One fantastic cetacean, the Baiji or Yangtze river dolphin is already functionally extinct. Essentially, a population may exist but it is too small to sustain itself, and, natural problems caused by unnatural death, inbreeding depression etc. is going to kill it off. I am sure the massive commercial and industrial forces in China are directly responsible for this. There sadly cannot exist ecological and economic growth based upon commercialist ideologies and, as a result, many species in emerging nations in Asia, Africa and the Middle East are going to see drastic declines in their populations and, scientists will see many more extinctions, unless we make urgent plans now to stop such from occurring. 

I’m no hippy. I get that money makes the world go round. But money and ecology do not have to be mutually exclusive. If the UK can spare £250m to murder innocent children in the name of Nato in Libya why can we not spare such an amount to assist in protecting populations of creatures that are now endangered, some of which are in their delicate positions as a direct result of British colonialism and the selfish breed of trophy hunter that helped us establish colonies. 

There is always money to help kill, apparently, but never any money to preserve life.