An Elusive Whale Is Found All Around the World | Hacker News Reader

An Elusive Whale Is Found All Around the World

nytimes.com

73 pointsdnetesn10 comments

> “if new whales are still being described, it means we are probably also losing species of animals that we never even knew existed.”

Ouch. That's incredibly poignant.

Is more common than people would think.

In the last decades the common dolphin was split in two species, we have also a second and new species of bottlenose dolphin from Australia, the burrunan dolphin, and the killer whale is probably a complex of four species. In the same time the Chinese dolphin Baiji went extinct and the american porpoise Vaquita is probably extinct also at this moment.

Yeah, it probably happens all the time. It's weird when we actually hear of it.

For example there is the cat that allegedly killed a species of bird.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyall%27s_wren

I know a bunch of natural photographers, and they're all very anti-outdoor-domestic-cat. As in, they want them all killed as an invasive species. Especially bird photographers are very vocal about this. I'm not sure why municipalities consider off leash and roaming dogs illegal, but it's OK for cats to roam and also be off leash. Cats have way more infectious disease potential transferred from a bite than a dog.

I would imagine that it's because most cats aren't "threatening" to people, in that they don't generally approach people, and people aren't generally afraid of them when they do. E.g., my grandmother was terrified of unleashed dogs (as are many others), regardless of how "friendly" they were.

Also it’s nearly impossible to contain a cat that is motivated to explore

Imagine this at the scale of the universe: There are probably entire planets and civilizations being lost that no one will ever know about.

Consider the dinosaurs of our own planet; we would have never known about them if we didn’t chance upon their remains.

Existentially, that's change -- other than these sorts intrinsic aspects, conserving biodiversity is important to humanity in a utilitarian way just for having stable ecosystems to support our needs.

It’s sad that we have to justify the preservation of beauty and niceness by citing “utilitarian” advantages, to appease the rather poisonous aspect in our current societies that only values tangible benefits.

"An Elusive Whale Is Found All Around the Tropical World"

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