Hacker News Reader

Comment by sandworm101 | Hacker News Reader

They were believed to be sub-species and so I doubt zoos mixed and matched.

The real outcome seems to be that the species is now 1/4 its previous size. Where there was once one endangered species, now stand four very endangered species.

Similar and more dramatic story with mantas: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080731-new-r...

View on HN

There's a philosophical question in the fact that something just became more treasured because of DNA testing results, but I'm not even going to attempt answering that.

the philosophical questions raised by multiple, visually similar species being considered as one have come up before. Zebras were discovered to be 3 separate species. See "What, if anything, is a Zebra?" from 1983 http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/gleazer/462_readings/gould.pdf

Value isn't absolute, but a relation between the valuer and that being valued.

W.F. Lloyd, 1833, "A Lecture on the Notion of Value as Distinguished Not Only from Utility, but also from Value in Exchange".

http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/lloyd/val...

There's no need to invoke philosophy here. It's pretty well accepted that an ecosystem with less biodiversity is more fragile, and from that perspective the extinction of a species is a concerning event, particularly if the extinction was accelerated by human actions. If new information indicates that a species or group of species is in much greater danger of going extinct than was previously thought, then it makes sense to prioritize conservation efforts for those species more highly.

> The real outcome seems to be that the species is now 1/4 its previous size.

I had a sudden panicky vision of miniature quarter-size giraffes caused by improper zoo breeding before I figured out what you meant.

5' tall proportional giraffe "ponies" would actually probably be a bigger hit than the full sized ones at zoos.

Only if they were smarter. Giraffe are reputed to be about the least intelligent animal on four feet. It's something to do with the braincase and the pressure differences due to that long neck.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com