[LEPS-L:8017] Extinct 'species'

[Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX]

Followed this thread with interest.  The website search results shared by
John Shuey were interesting.  Setting aside the Euploea eleutho from
Micronesia as being not relevant to the continent I live on; I note with
interest that the website does not show ANY extinct species for Canada and
USA(continental part).  I see a list of subspecies and one thing that does
not have a subspecies name.  Of course I use the word species in the
biological and taxonomic sense that most reasonable people also use.
Lawmakers have been known to pervert the language and the science and define
'species' as almost anything - talk about 'dumbing down'.  I wonder too how
diligently suitable areas have been searched in hope of finding an extant
population to be used in recovery efforts. I would think these taxa are
priority candidates for some fieldwork. I am reminded that Fender's blue was
'known' to be extinct for about 50 years until someone actually went looking
for it and found it was not extinct.  I am also reminded of the sordid tale
of boloria acrocnema- if memory serves, a population was pronounced extinct
on one mountain top after scientific survey; few years later it went from
'zero' to very healthy population; my belief is that the surveyors looked
too late in the season during an unusually early flight season. The moral of
the story is be careful how and when you look and do so in more than one
year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
Forest Ecosystem Specialist, Ministry of Environment
845 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 1H3
Phone 250-365-8610
Mailto:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca       
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca


 
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