Saturday, August 3, 2013

Butterfly Extinction in Florida



             Since the year of 2000 scientist have not found the Zetos skipper butterfly or the Rockland grass skipper butterfly. Usually conservatives find these two species in a different location years after their disappearance, but now they think the two species are now extinct. The Zetos skipper butterfly had strong bodies with large black eyes and large wings that were covered with spots similar to eyes. Being almost identical to other species of butterflies the Zetos skipper was never reported as an endangered species and was denied access to the U.S.'s Endangered Species Act (ESA). Conservatives thought that there was a bountiful reserve of the Zetos skipper, but it turned out to be a completely different species. With only one appearance in the year 2000 since the 80’s the Rockland grass skipper butterfly, an amber gold insect, is now believed extinct. Scientist and conservatives realized that these two species vanished overnight and the “abundant populations” were faulty. A possible solution for the extinction of animals is that conservatives, in the future, will do anything in their power to save species from disappearing. Barriers to this solution are time and money. If conservatives do not have enough money and time to save one species from extinction, then many more species will follow. I believe that conservatives should start on one species at a time and see if they are capable of saving it. Many people do not realize that one by one species are becoming extinct from careless mistakes and lack of care. Many species have already been destroyed and if we do not act soon then the humans may be the only race left in the world.
http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/46274




7 comments:

  1. Extinction is a major problem and the fact that they can’t trace the butterflies is a tragedy. It’s sad to think that the so-called “abundant population” was a lie and now the two butterflies are extinct. However, I hope conservatives and scientist learn from this incident that they must keep a close eye on all species because there is a possibility there are more cases like this one and other animals have gone extinct without notice. We must not make careless mistakes because animal’s lives are on the line. I agree with Patrick that with more mistakes like this one human’s may be the only race left in the world.

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  2. I agree that scientists should just take one step at a time and try to save one species at a time. it is important to realize that saving one species is better than saving none. I also agree with Payton that extinction is a huge problem that needs to be prevented for the benefit of the environment as well as future generations.

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  3. Butterfly extinction is a serious concern. Losing just a small portion of our ecosystem could be harmful. I hope that scientists realize that attention needs to be brought to the butterflies in order to maintain a balanced ecosystem. To overcome the barriers of time and money, we could make the public more aware of this issue. Printing articles that draw attention to the problem would be inexpensive and effective. In most cases people will be willing to help, they were just not aware of the problem. I agree with Patrick that we should focus on one species at a time and work our way towards the bigger picture. This will prevent us from becoming overwhelmed by the issue. Taking it in steps will ultimately be more effective. We could also work at getting the butterflies approved for the Endangered Species Act. This will protect them better than we ever could; when faced with the threat of the law people would be more cautious of the butterflies. If we buckle down, and work hard at it, the endangered butterflies can still be saved.

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  4. This article was very interesting Patrick and brought to my attention the plight of different endangered species, such as the Zetos skipper butterfly. What really surprised me was how faulty information could lead to such misguided decisions that have, at least in this case, negative consequences. A rare species of butterfly was almost wiped out due to undetailed observations and a lack of understanding, and I think this proves how attuned we as human beings need to be to our effects on the world, making informed and beneficial decisions with reliable information. Hopefully, people will learn from past errors and make sure we understand the consequences of our actions and, like you said, prevent "careless mistakes".

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  5. also, a helpful article is http://www.prairiefrontier.com/pages/butterflies/endangered.html

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  6. Whoa whoa whoa. Let's slow down a roll. I agree with what you are saying about the destruction of a species and being more careful to monitor a species. Obviously though, we will not just be the last species on earth. For lesser species we just fail to notice some things. Though it's sad that these butterflies went extinct, it also just shows the carelessness of our race and difficulty of distinguishing species. In another article I read they just found a new mammal. It wasn't deep within some jungle either. It was in a zoo. The small almost unnoticable differences within this species of butterflys and the misinformation is what killed it, whereas the small differences and missinformation about this new mammal is what found it. It's rough.

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  7. I think I had one of these in my front yard today. I have a picture but I'm not sure about differences between subspecies.

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