# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/61 "2015-08-29T02:05:23Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > Yellowjackets, without a moment’s hesitation. Burn in hell, you evil-tempered minions of Satan. I support this extinction. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/62 "2015-08-29T13:34:59Z")
Can’t decide between the king cobra and the box jellyfish. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/63 "2015-08-29T14:17:15Z")
> [@Tibby or Not Tibby](#): > > Wow! I’m amazed. My house has been infested with pandas on multiple occasions. Glad to know I’m not alone. Do you leave bamboo lying around all over your house? Because that’s how you get pandas. ---
**Author:** ![breezman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@breezman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breezman)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/64 "2015-08-29T15:07:35Z")
Tobacco, although though there would be a lot of unintended consequences. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/65 "2015-08-29T18:16:00Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > 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. Gamers are Pandas? ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/66 "2015-08-30T04:34:27Z")
No mentions of rats? Anyone heard of the Black Plague? Yes, I know it was caused by the fleas on their bodies, but the rats were (and still are today) the perfect hosts. ---
**Author:** ![Fat2FitMama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7cd45c/32.png) [@Fat2FitMama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fat2FitMama)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/67 "2015-08-30T05:07:18Z")
Chickens. Mostly because we’re poor and we eat A LOT of chicken because we can usually get a bag o frozen chicken boobs for relatively cheap. It’s gotten to where I really REALLY hate the taste of chicken. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/68 "2015-08-30T15:27:29Z")
Just to throw in a new candidate: Cane Toads. Ugly pests that are damn difficult to kill. Let’s give the Almighty a challenge. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/69 "2015-08-30T18:05:21Z")
Bed bugs. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/70 "2015-08-30T18:11:58Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Do you leave bamboo lying around all over your house? Because that’s how you get pandas. No! That’s the puzzling and frustrating thing about it all—I don’t leave bamboo lying around all over the house like some type of untidy, messy person. :mad: Granted, I do have a bamboo structured house with bamboo furniture, a bamboo ceiling, a bamboo blow gun with d-tubocurarine tipped darts (to control the squirrels and chipmunks) and we eat a lot of Chinese stir-fry with bamboo shoots. But, I assure you, there’s absolutely no bamboo lying around on the floor. In fact, my floors are made of eucalyptus! …Did I mention I have an infestation of koala bears, too? They’re worse than the frickin’ pandas. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/71 "2015-08-30T18:40:42Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Just to throw in a new candidate: Cane Toads. Ugly pests that are damn difficult to kill. Let’s give the Almighty a challenge. Hey! You better watch who you call ugly, pal. My ex-wife looks exactly like a Cane Toad. Here’s a photo of a [Cane Toad](http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2009/01/15/1111120/693508-cane-toads-unappreciated-beauty.jpg). Here’s a photo of [my ex](http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/752470-3x2-940x627.jpg). I defy you to tell the difference between the two (except for my ex’s BMI being considerably higher than the toad’s). ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124/72 "2015-08-30T20:23:29Z")
> [@Fat2FitMama](#): > > Chickens. > > Mostly because we’re poor and we eat A LOT of chicken because we can usually get a bag o frozen chicken boobs for relatively cheap. It’s gotten to where I really REALLY hate the taste of chicken. ☹ 1. Have you tried seasoning it? The fact that chicken has little inherent taste means you can readily transform it many different and versatile ways. You can create 10 chicken based meals and they all taste radically different from each other. 2. The reason you can more easily afford chicken despite being poor is the chicken breasts you are buying took less than half the resources to produce that a unit of beef took. That is reflected in the price. It’s also supposed to be less likely to clog your arteries, which is a good thing given you would have trouble paying for health care if you are poor, and it would be bad for your family to have someone fall over dead suddenly if you don’t have vast sums of money as a buffer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-make-any-one-species-go-extinct-which-would-it-be/729124.md?page=3)