# If you could make any one species go extinct, which would it be? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 28, 2015, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124 "2015-08-28T00:43:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/21 "2015-08-28T04:03:00Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > It’s an entire _family_ of insects people! Okay, then I’m _very much_ a lumper. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/22 "2015-08-28T04:27:18Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > It’s an entire _family_ of insects people! But, as pointed out, cats is an entire family too, yet that was one of God’s six choices given in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/23 "2015-08-28T05:13:26Z")
Domestic cats. ---
**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/24 "2015-08-28T05:46:34Z")
> [@CoastalMaineiac](#): > > What do you kill? None. And it’s not God who is causing the current mass extinction, but human beings. I’m appalled by how easy people destroy things and fail to add value to their natural or social environment. I for one would enjoy creaging new living things, either here on Earth or on other planets, superior beings that would make use of their reason more efficiently than people do and even benevolent gods that could help mankind exceed its limits. Too phantasmagorical? No problem. Let’s go back to killing. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/25 "2015-08-28T07:41:43Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > It’s an entire _family_ of insects people! Insect people?!:eek: All the more reason to get rid of them. > [@](#): > > Okay, okay - I know. Nobody likes a pedant at a cocktail party. You guys have your fun. But when those heavily armed thugs from the **International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature** get here, I’m gonna point them in your direction and go “right that way gentlemen.” 😛 Heh, just unleash a mighty swarm of mosquitoes on them and see how dedicated they are to their precious zoological nomenclature.🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/26 "2015-08-28T09:30:03Z")
Nm ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/27 "2015-08-28T09:55:49Z")
Giant Pandas, stupid furry shits. “ooooo! look at me, I’m black and white”, nob heads. Go ahead and die out already, you’ve backed yourself into a evolutionary niche and now you are whining about it? Be less picky about your diet and get off your fat furry arse and have more sex. You suck up millions that rightly belong to something even more endangered and far more interesting…yeah, like a snow leopard. Can you chase mountain goats up a sheer cliff face?..no Can you survive winters on the high Himalayan peaks?..no Can you kill and eat meat?..no Are you a pretty black and whi…actually scrap that one Do you have a fabulous thick fluffy tail?..no, didn’t think so. Just think yourself lucky that your range doesn’t intersect with the snow leopard because you’d be black and white toast quicker than you can grunt “Chinese Government propaganda tool”…and I emphasise the word “tool” ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/28 "2015-08-28T10:34:31Z")
Yeah… I’m not picking one of the six. If we’re killing off a species, it should be pandas. We spend far too much money and effort on an animal that is dying off largely because it won’t have sex and exclusively eats something with almost no nutritional value to it. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/29 "2015-08-28T11:28:56Z")
If it has to be one of this list : 1. Humans 2. Cats 3. Dogs 4. Pigs 5. Chickens 6. Cows Well, it can’t be #1. If humans are extinct, no one cares what other animals survive - it is de facto the same as extincting the entire list and then some. (if the other animals are around but no humans enjoy them, they don’t matter) #2 and #3 are right out - these are critical companion animals. That leaves pigs, chickens, and cows. Well, chicken is the heathiest and most efficient meat of the 3. So that leaves pig vs cow. I enjoy steak far more than I enjoy pork chops and bacon. So that’s the decision, extinct those pigs. Other users may disagree and would rather the cows became extinct and leave the pigs - I guess I’d have to get used to the taste of bacon and porkchops in such a world… ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/30 "2015-08-28T11:31:49Z")
> [@Honey](#): > > Black flies are way worse than mosquitos. At last you can kill mosquitos, but black flies are too fast, and they leave welts that bleed. Agreed, I can deal with mosquitoes (ignoring the disease aspect) but I hate hiking in black fly season. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/31 "2015-08-28T11:34:41Z")
I’d go with the mosquitoes, but the bats are in enough trouble, so I’ll take black flies, too. Mean, painful, and sneaky - black flies make yellow jackets look like honey bees. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/32 "2015-08-28T11:46:38Z")
My first thought was mosquitoes too, but given the list I’d choose chickens. If humans became extinct then I think chickens would follow, I don’t think they’d survive in the wild for long, especially with all the cats roaming around looking for food. Anyway, everything tastes like chicken and it could easily be replaced with turkey and ostrich. Plus, no more chickens being kept in squalid conditions. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/33 "2015-08-28T12:42:56Z")
Slightly less lumpy: [anopheles mosquitos](http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/biology/mosquitoes/), the mosquitoes genus that carries malaria. There’s still 30-40 species that are involved, though. If God’s up for it, I’d ask Her to pre-approve my choice, just so I don’t hit the half-hour mark and have god say, “Too vague with your mosquitoes, roll roll roll, hey a 1” Mosquitoes are such an obvious answer, if allowed, that I prefer a slightly different question. God hasn’t decided to kill all members of a particular species. She’s decided to turn them all into wiener dogs. Do you still choose mosquitoes? ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/34 "2015-08-28T13:18:24Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > Yellowjackets, without a moment’s hesitation. Burn in hell, you evil-tempered minions of Satan. > [@jz78817](#): > > this. seriously, _fuck_ yellowjackets. ::Snip:: > Yellowjackets? total fucking crackheads. they get all up in your business and no matter how you react they’ll probably sting you. “A couple of University of Georgia fans, eh?”, muses Doctor Jackson as he proudly wears his Georgia Tech polo shirt at work on casual Friday. “Well, we Yellow Jacket fans certainly do not want to kill off all the bulldogs, else we would have to find some other chunk of humanity at which to point and laugh”. I’d have to go with the pandas, too. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/35 "2015-08-28T13:39:11Z")
I remember reading that humans enjoyed deer meat. And they thought, “Well, the coyote is eating our deer meat. Lets put a bounty on them, remove the competition.” And they did. And what happened was starvation of the deer. There wasn’t enough food for all the deer. The coyote was better at controlling the population than humans. So, without knowing the big picture, annihilating a species has big implications. Some have mentioned extinguishing the mosquito that carries malaria. But maybe that disease is helping to control the human population. And there is more food for those who survive. But god inspired hurricanes, earthquakes, drought also help reduce the population. I nominate two for extinction. God and Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/36 "2015-08-28T13:57:06Z")
Fine, the fucking Anopheles mosquito. I’ve had malaria twice, yellowjackets only sting, ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/37 "2015-08-28T13:58:03Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > “A couple of University of Georgia fans, eh?”, muses Doctor Jackson as he proudly wears his Georgia Tech polo shirt at work on casual Friday. “Well, we Yellow Jacket fans certainly do not want to kill off all the bulldogs, else we would have to find some other chunk of humanity at which to point and laugh”. > > I’d have to go with the pandas, too. no, I had some of the bastards build a nest in the exterior wall of my apartment, and they started inviting themselves in. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/38 "2015-08-28T14:00:50Z")
I’m gonna [second Jimmy Carter, and go with the guinea worm](http://www.npr.org/2015/08/22/433569465/jimmy-carter-remains-stalwart-in-vow-to-eradicate-guinea-worm). ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/39 "2015-08-28T15:10:00Z")
I can’t believe no one has mentioned spiders yet. Yeah, I know, they do all kinds of beneficial stuff, but they scare me and they look like aliens. And it’s all about me. Poof! Spiders begone. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/40 "2015-08-28T15:35:13Z")
The only thing I would worry about with mosquito’s is that there are some creatures higher up the food chain that would be affected if all the mosquito and mosquito larvae were wiped out. If this would affect the whole web of life thing, tor if we have to stick to one species and so wouldn’t be able to affect that total mosquito population much, then my next vote would be for Toxicodendron radicans (aka poison ivy) there is really no point to this plant. If it were wiped out whatever ate it could just as easily eat whatever woody vine replaced it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124.md?page=3)