Philosophy Now Forum

To save the endangered northern spotted owl, biologists have begun killing barred owls, a more widespread and aggressive bird that has invaded the former species' territories in the U.S. Northwest. Once a barred owl enters a spotted owl's range, it can out-compete it for food by being less picky and often aggressively kicks it out of its roost by repeatedly harassing and even "body-slamming" it.

But killing owls--even an aggressive intruder--represents a moral challenge for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). On the one hand, killing these large birds seems wrong to many, but that agency is also required by law to protect spotted owls, which are listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. [http://www.popsci.com/article/science/k ... s-feathers]

Ecology is about balance. And balance dictates that something has to die in order for something else to live. We like to play God and decide which species is to live and which is to die. We are against evolution. We are against balance. And we will pay the price...

PS. And no, I did not even refer to the fact that we call two owls as "different species"... Hehehe...

Makes sense.

Perhaps the 'Spotted Owl' is less aggressive because it had no competition for it's territory and food source. Perhaps now, with competition, it will get off it's collective butt, and defend it's place in the environment, or die out?

That's because they are seperate species, there are apparently 200 species of owl, just as there are species of wolves and whatever. Probably the only life form I know of that has not undergone significant speciation in its extremely short existence is us.

I do agree though aggressive culling is hardly a suitable way to maintain a stable ecology, it never really works and it often leads to problems later on down the line. I would just let nature take its course myself, after all it seems to have gotten by for more than 4 billion years without having the self styled animal police deal with offenders.

Animals with high sustainable food sources tend to be less aggressive, this can be seen in chimpanzees for example where there is pentiful food chimpanzees seem to become quite passive hence the Bonobo chimps aka the love ape and the more violent neighbours. Its said that you can tell the difference between the two types of chimp because if a bonobo comes across something unknown it's first instinct is to mate with it where as the more agressive chimps first instinct is to attack it.

Well in my opinion there should be habitats where a certain healthy population is preserved, so the species doesn't die out... but I don't really see the point in "balancing populations". If one bird is better suited then it might as well take the bigger cake, these are not humans and we have no obligations to distribute their power and their wealth more equally.

As long as diversity is preserved, anything more than that seems excessive.

Blaggard wrote:That's because they are seperate species, there are apparently 200 species of owl, just as there are species of wolves and whatever. Probably the only life form I know of that has not undergone significant speciation in its extremely short existence is us.

I do agree though aggressive culling is hardly a suitable way to maintain a stable ecology, it never really works and it often leads to problems later on down the line. I would just let nature take its course myself, after all it seems to have gotten by for more than 4 billion years without having the self styled animal police deal with offenders.

Animals with high sustainable food sources tend to be less aggressive, this can be seen in chimpanzees for example where there is pentiful food chimpanzees seem to become quite passive hence the Bonobo chimps aka the love ape and the more violent neighbours. Its said that you can tell the difference between the two types of chimp because if a bonobo comes across something unknown it's first instinct is to mate with it where as the more agressive chimps first instinct is to attack it.

Owls belonging to different species of owls...

Antiphasis at its best!

Owls, birds of the order Strigiformes, include about 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision and binaural hearing, and feathers adapted for silent flight. Exceptions include the diurnal Northern Hawk Owl and the gregarious Burrowing Owl.

Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds, although a few species specialize in hunting fish. They are found in all regions of the Earth except Antarctica and some remote islands.

Owls are divided into two families: the true owls, Strigidae; and the barn-owls, Tytonidae.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl



All I said was there are different species of owls, a barn owl is not of the same species as a tawny owl. They are both types of owl though. You seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of species and genus, which is no ones fault not even the Romans.

There's only one species of human though and that is Homo Sapiens Sapiens. We are a pretty extraordinary example though.

Darwin investigated the Galapagos finches and found they had speciated across the range of islands, they were all finches but of differing species and or subspecies.