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Or perhaps to dig deeper as to WHY they are on the brink of extinction. If they develop a trait that causes them to lay their eggs on the rim (which can be dir

Or perhaps to dig deeper as to WHY they are on the brink of extinction. If they develop a trait that causes them to lay their eggs on the rim (which can be directly linked to the species decline), isn't that just Darwin at work? Who are we to step in an say "yep, they're idiots for doing it, but we should still save them."

vanderZwan 12y ago
That kind of trait doesn't just come out of the blue - there always is some form of selection pressure involved. Most likely caused by us in some way. That's why we need to step in. But yes, ideally at the point that causes this selection pressure to exist in the first place.
bayesianhorse 12y ago
Charles Darwin was a scientist, not a super-natural deity responsible for evolution. He can't be "at work". Extinction events for natural reasons shouldn't be as frequent. Otherwise there would be far fewer species left. Therefore any extinction process we witness, especially with a species starting out with a healthy population, probably isn't natural.