Extinction vs accuracy

[Chris J. Durden]

Any way one cuts it, extinct means gone to never return again. Atala was
>never extinct in Florida.
 
 
>Accuracy is what needs to be communicated. If something is extinct then use
>that term. If locally absent then just say that. If a status is unknown but
>probably whatever then say that. It is fine to warn of fire in the theater
>if there is one. But if not, when there really is one nobody will pay much
>heed.
 
 
>The Red Wolf was once extirpated from South Carolina. Now it has been
>reintroduced -  because that taxon has never been extinct.
>
>Ron
 
 
    *Canis rifus* - The Red Wolf was discovered in Texas. The type locality
is 15 miles West of Austin on Barton Creek. In Texas it is a species
"vanished" from the wild. It is not extinct and most individuals are in
zoos. There are also Red Wolf genes "invested" in mongrel Dog x Coyote
populations in East Texas.
    There are old ranchers in the Balcones Canyonlands who claim that they
have on their land, red wolves, larger than coyotes with long front legs
and patterned faces, with bone crushing premolars, that run down deer. No
one recently has or wants to produce a specimen. We are left with the
possibility that this "vanished" species may recover if we would only leave
its habitat alone. The fossil evidence shows that the range of this species
expanded and contracted several times over the late Pleistocene with
climatically induced changes of habitat. At one time it has occupied parts
of a range from Mexico City in the South to Washington DC in the North.
...............Chris Durden
 
 
 
 ------------------------------------------------------------
 
   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:
 
   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl