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What should you do when you see a new animal you've never seen before?

  2. Tori
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Beat it to death, of course! Or at least that's apparently the thinking in Bangladesh where fisherman beat an endangered Ganges River dolphin to death. After the men were unable to sell the dolphin as a rare fish, they either dumped it in front of a museum or took it to a visitor center (same thing?) where it is being prepared for display ("this is what a bruised dolphin looks like, kids!" huh?!). There are fewer than 5,000 of the mammals left, and there are bound to be fewer than that if everyone who's never seen the rare creature before decides to bash it to death...
Tori

5 responses // What should you do when you see a new animal you've never seen before?

  • Maybe they should have been educated a little better on the rare types of river dolphin that frequent their area, but I guess if it is that rare, getting a picture must be pretty hard...
    mattbrawn
  • just because you've never seen something before doesnt mean you should kill it. Thats crazy!
    FunSizedGirl
  • If someone saw a fish they never seen before here; they would have kept it alive and tried to capitalize it.

    In that region; money or getting on TV is so foreign to them. They are thinking where there next meal is from; not the next production deal is coming from.

    Education in this region in order to preserve is the key.
    jennabean
  • Before everyone freaks out, if scientists had found it they would have done essentially the same thing.

    To prove a species is new to science, you have to take a "holotype" to a local museum or university. Without a corpse they can't classify it. So every "new" species you hear about had at least one killed to prove it's new.

    Weird huh?
    Marvelle
  • During Thor Heyerdhal's Kon Tiki's voyage across the South Pacific, the crew (all of them scientists of one sort or another) caught a fish which none had seen before save in fossils, a Coelacanth which was a species believed to have been extinct for millions of years. The biologist on board looked at it, and said "No, fish like that don't exist", and threw it back into the ocean!
    Vierotchka

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