You are one lucky, lucky, lucky man - that has to be the trip of a lifetime. It's the only place in the world I am determined to visit one day. Please, please take loads of pics for us... and have a wonderful time

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There's a website which clocks all the species that go extinct in a given time period.

Why do we only worry about the megaspecies?

Extinction is a process of evolution. The efficient outlive the inefficient.

It's man fault really, there was nothing natural about the extinction of his sub-species.

Unless you're refering to to mankind as the effienct.

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Man has hunted the whale way more than the tortoise. The hunt for the tortoise is actually a byproduct of whaling.

Yea... man is a big factor but why is it that some species are able to overcome the impact of man?

Man might speed up the process but can you actually place blame in that direction?

There was an interesting fact on the Life in Cold Blood series that explained one reason why some of these mega-torts became extinct in the 19th & early 20th Century;

Torts are so efficeient at conserving and using energy that some of them can live for up to a year without eating. This made them ideal 'living lunch boxes' for humans of the time who were traversing the seas for months at a time often with an unknown arrival time and limited access to fresh food.

However, by making torts extinct how will we learn their secrets of efficent energy conversion to life? Is that an advance for our race in the longer term? What is the greatest power & threat to us today? I think most would say 'Using our resources fairly & efficiently'; Thats what torts do. That's why preserving our environment is important and 'human progress' needs to be re-evaluated.

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I care for:

1.0.0 Red Eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans)- 10/11 yrs old

0.0.2 Leopard-Spotted Catfish (Synodontis eupterus) -5/6 yrs old

0.0.1 Red Tailed Shark (Epalzeorhynchus bicolor) - 7 yrs old

2.1.0 Moggies - various ages

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be measured
by the way in which its animals are treated."
- Mahatma Ghandi

You gotta wonder... man is a species of this planet. Can you call that a fault.

There is no doubt that extinction is a natural process.

But this was not extinction, it was eradication.

Comparing it to whales is a bit of a poor analogy as it is a lot harder to find a whale in an ocean than a giant, slow moving reptile on a relatively small island. Once one ship had found it they would tell the rest of their fleet and so more men would stop there to catch them.

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Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead.
Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow.
Do not walk beside me either, just f*** off and leave me alone.

The Aldabra tortoise seems to be fairing well... Oh... it's not an endangered species.

I admit... man had a big hand in the pot as far as the Galap goes... but many seem to be missing the point.

Extinction is a natural process.

True - but the Arnolds Giant Tortoise & the Seychelles Giant Tortoise are under severe pressure.

You have to subscribe to that they are a seperate species... another... big... can of worms.