| Curious Danny
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| 189065. Sun Jul 08, 2007 3:09 am |
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In the late 19th century, the US Government started a deliberate policy of wiping out North American buffalo so the Indians would have to go on to reservations or starve to death.
Have any other organisations or goverments deliberately introduced policies to wipe out animals? |
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| Ameena
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| 189133. Sun Jul 08, 2007 10:52 am |
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| If I might just enter Pedant Mode for a sec - I would think you mean American bison, not buffalo (seeing how buffalo live in Africa ;)). |
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| Curious Danny
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| 189139. Sun Jul 08, 2007 11:48 am |
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We are talking about the US Government here. Buffalo, Bison, it's all the same to them.
Either way, it is a large bovine animal eaten by Plain Indians |
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| djgordy
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| 189140. Sun Jul 08, 2007 11:55 am |
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| Curious Danny wrote: |
Either way, it is a large bovine animal eaten by Plain Indians.... |
...and sometimes by attractive Indians too, |
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| djgordy
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| 189141. Sun Jul 08, 2007 11:58 am |
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| Ameena wrote: | | - I would think you mean American bison, not buffalo (seeing how buffalo live in Africa ;)). |
Why wasn't Buffalo Bill called Bison Bill then? |
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| Curious Danny
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| 189143. Sun Jul 08, 2007 12:02 pm |
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| Because Bison Bill doesn't sound as good |
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| Quizwizard
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| 189145. Sun Jul 08, 2007 12:20 pm |
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The Dodo?
Portuguese sailors were to blame for that one. But I think more so the idiocy of the bird... Run Dodo Run! |
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| Curious Danny
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| 189232. Mon Jul 09, 2007 3:19 am |
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We seem to be a bit low on ideas!
Here's another:
In WW2 Britain, If you saw a cabbage white butterfly, you were meant to kill it. Their catterpillars eat cabbages needed for people |
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| Ameena
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| 189234. Mon Jul 09, 2007 3:23 am |
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| There was also that factoid brought up by someone (can't remember whom) in one episode of QI (can't remember which but think it might've been Series C...) about the British bee being one of the lesser-known casualties of World War I, having all died out and new ones being imported from different countries to replace them. I'm not sure if "British bee" refers to honey bees or bumble bees or what, but there you go... ;) |
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| jaygeemack
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| 189303. Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:46 am |
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On the subject of bees, below is a poem by the late Matt McGinn. Effin is a town in Co. Limerick, Ireland.
THE BIG EFFIN BEE
He kept bees in the auld toon of Effin,
An Effin beekeeper was he;
And one day this Effin beekeeper,
Was stung by a big Effin bee.
Now this big Effin beekeeper's wee Effin wife
For the big Effin polis she ran;
For there's naethin can sort out a big Effin bee
Like a big Effin polisman can.
Noo the big Effin polisman he done his nut,
And he ran doon the main Effin street;
In his hand was a big Effin baton,
He had big Effin boots on his feet.
The polis got hud o' this big Effin bee,
And he twisted the Effin bee's wings;
But the big Effin bee got his ain back,
For the big Effin bee had twae stings.
Now they're baith in the Effin museum,
Where the Effin folk often come see
The remains o' the big Effin polis,
Stung tae death by the big Effin bee. |
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| Curious Danny
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| 190605. Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:17 am |
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| How about the extermination of wolves and bears in the british isles? |
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| markvent
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| 190637. Thu Jul 12, 2007 11:00 am |
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| Ameena wrote: | | There was also that factoid brought up by someone (can't remember whom) in one episode of QI (can't remember which but think it might've been Series C...) about the British bee being one of the lesser-known casualties of World War I, having all died out and new ones being imported from different countries to replace them. I'm not sure if "British bee" refers to honey bees or bumble bees or what, but there you go... ;) |
Howard Goodall said that in Series A - he said that "all the bees in England got a terrible cold during the First World War and practically died out. And they imported Mexican bees, and bees from all over everywhere else, er, to start bees again. So all the bees that you think are ethnic British bees--"
It was around 1900 when british bees began dying off, the cause was found to be the tracheal mite. The microscopic mite resides in the bee's windpipe, where it feeds and reproduces. Female young climb out and onto the ends of the bee's hairs, where they are spread by contact with other bees. Affected bees are weakened, though it may take an outside stress such as another disease or poor weather before large scale damage results. However Howard is wrong on one point.
Originally the problem was diagnosed as "Isle of Wight Disease" but it was later acknowledged that it was the tracheal mite, acarine, that was causing the decline in the bee population. The first incidents of this disease appeared in 1904 on the Isle of Wight. In the course of a very few years the official figures show that 95% of the colonies of bees in Great Britain had been wiped out through this disease. The epidemic reached its height between 1914 and 1916, of course at the time of this outbreak the country was at war with Germany, sugar was scarce and honey was in great demand. Bees were also needed for pollination for fruit and vegetable crops. Holland had great numbers of skeps of bees for sale and these were purchased as part of the government's restocking programme. Since the Dutch bee was known to be given to swarming, it was the practice to requeen colonies with Italian queens, which at the time were cheap and easily obtainable.
Honey Farming by R.O.B. Manley has a good "eye-witness account".
Mark.
Last edited by markvent on Tue Sep 18, 2007 4:17 am; edited 1 time in total
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| Nonieth
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| 190743. Thu Jul 12, 2007 6:24 pm |
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The Australian government imported cane toads (Australia has no native toads) to get rid of cane beetles. Now the cane toads have become a massive pest since they breed faster and compete better against the native amphibian life. They're also pretty crap against cane beetles because the toads can't reach them at the top of the plant where they usually are, and when the larvae are emerging, the toads are in hibernation.
Cane toads are also so toxic that any animal that eats (or drinks water contaminated by) toads, toadspawn or toadpoles dies or in lucky cases becomes extremely ill.
As you can see, they grow to huge sizes when food is in abundance.
The Australian government is currently trying to develop a viral strain that will attack the toads without destroying the native frogs. |
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| jamiepgs
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| 190770. Fri Jul 13, 2007 1:49 am |
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| Quizwizard wrote: | The Dodo?
Portuguese sailors were to blame for that one. But I think more so the idiocy of the bird... Run Dodo Run! |
It was mentioned in The Book Of General Ignorance that Deforestation is to blame. But the "Pigeon" was hardly a loss. It was apparently ugly and dumb and didn't provide much game for hunters. Although their their idiocy may have played a part, the blame is down to the destruction of their habitat. Many complain that no record was kept of The Dodo, and is a reason why we should be archiving records of Earth's animals, but Seeing as the Dodo died out in the 19th Century, no-one was in a hurry to use what was the latest technology to photograph one. There was also a stuffed record kept of apparently the last Dodo, but it was moth bitten and was burned. An employee of the museum where it was held managed to salvage the head and a few limbs. Their current state I don't know of.
So this isn't an ordered extinction, as it wasn't intentional. But I can't think of any other examples of forced extinction. Plus, as many creatures don't inhabit just one place, extinction couldn't be solely down to one area or government. You could look at killing animals. I'm sure governments have ordered animals to be killed due to over-population.
In a US State, some sort of bird was introduced to get rid of spiders. I can't remember the details... maybe someone else knows about it? |
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| General_Woundwort
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| 256883. Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:39 am |
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| Curious Danny wrote: | | In the late 19th century, the US Government started a deliberate policy of wiping out North American buffalo so the Indians would have to go on to reservations or starve to death. |
Okay, this is effectively thread necromancy, but no-one in this thread seems to have addressed this assertion (and I have used the search function). Is there any proof for this, or is it one of those truisms which get repeated in today's Genocide Olympics? Even wiki does not appear to provide a potential citation.
I would have thought the reason was overhunting on a scale never witnessed before, but one which the Plains Indians would not have been adverse to if they had the means. Their misfortune was to come up against a much more numerous and powerful tribe, called the United States of America.
Buffalo/bison products were highly lucrative and it would not have made financial sense to wipe out a resource simple to hobble the Plains Indians who, we are so often told were being attacked by other means (as, in many cases, they were). Whatever else one says about 19th Century USA, which certainly wasn't a blameless period, it was not marked by financial idiocy. Not responsible behaviour, or that which I would have supported, but nor evidence for a charge genocide which is trotted out with weary regularity against various defendents.
Undoubted genocides, such as the (Jewish) Holocaust or Rwanda 1994, were marked by single-minded determination to destroy the hated population at the expense of all other strategic and personal survival considerations.
As with the carrier pigeons, I've always thought these species had a minimum population to support reproduction. So, even when the herds/flocks appeared immense, there came a point when the populations simply crashed.
| Curious Danny wrote: | | How about the extermination of wolves and bears in the british isles? |
Were they part of the natural diet for the Picts?
Last edited by General_Woundwort on Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:46 am; edited 1 time in total
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