Survival of the Fittest

Most people believe in the concept of survival of the fittest.  Even most religious people who have a brain believe in this.

That begs a question: why, if you believe in the survival of the fittest, is so much effort spent in protecting endangered species (wink, wink).  It seems like we are trying to undo nature’s plan.

BTW: it seems like the species that we spend the most effort to protect are the cute, neat, and big animals: such as pandas, rhinos, big cats, various monkeys, beautiful birds, etc.  The other group of species that we seem to protect are those that serve another purpose that has nothing to do with protecting the species (see Snail Darter [stopped the building of a dam] and the Northern Spotted Owl [stopped logging in the Northwest]* to name just a couple).

In case you have not figured it out I am kidding, on the square, here.  It is obvious that there is a real effort to protect endangered species.  Once you get beyond the science community and special interests, however, you find that the species that get any protection and real support in being saved are the “sexy” ones, unless they serve another purpose.

*  A special note about the Northern Spotted Owl: during the campaign to have it named an endangered species in order to stop logging, an environmentalist was interviewed.  In a moment on candor, he said that if they were unsuccessful in getting logging stopped for the Spotted Owl, they had several other species they were ready to go to court with.  I am not questioning their sincerity and veracity in regards to the Spotted Owl (I am not, I really am not) but I have often wondered what happened to those other species that the environmentalists did not go to bat for when the Spotted Owl served their purpose.

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