# We're evacuating the planet for an unspoiled Earth. What animal species do we take with us? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 19, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234 "2010-11-19T17:16:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/21 "2010-11-19T18:31:15Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Why dont we just bring two of everything? Because we are significantly less ignorant than Bronze-Age herdsmen. ---
**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:** [November 19, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/22 "2010-11-19T18:45:05Z")
We should bring chimpanzees and dolphins. We should have a back-up plan in case we don’t make it. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/23 "2010-11-19T18:46:36Z")
**Skald** , O Evil Overlord, I need details. If this is an alternate Earth where 10,000 humans didn’t survive, did most other species survive? What about plants? Micro-flora and fauna? Marine species? We need pollinators (such as bees and hummingbirds), bacteria that aid most other species in digestion, soil-chewers (like dung beetles and earthworms) and various fungi. But if this is truly an alternate Earth with a fiercer Toba, most of these species or their ecological equivalents already exist. Probably a lot of pests, like mosquitoes and leeches already exist too. A pity, that; I can’t see that mosquitoes contribute much to the general well-being of the planetary eco-system. We’ll want our domestic animals (dogs, cats, cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and pigs), because we really don’t want to go through the hassle of re-domesticating their alt-Earth analogs. But beyond that, alt-Earth will have developed its own eco-system, and I’m not sure it’s a good idea to introduce new species to it. Look at what rabbits have done to Australia. I would very much miss elephants, penguins, and pandas, but this alt-Earth will have its own versions of these animals. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/24 "2010-11-19T18:53:23Z")
> [@Oy](#): > > **Skald** , O Evil Overlord, I need details. I don’t have my evil overlord hat on, dearest. If it were I’d just be evacuating myself and the Seventeen. > [@](#): > > If this is an alternate Earth where 10,000 humans didn’t survive, did most other species survive? What about plants? Micro-flora and fauna? Marine species? My thought here is that, on the alternate Earth, humanity went extinct after Toba for other reasons. Wikipedia says that there may have been as few as 1000 breeding pairs left; it’s not hard to imagine that there might have been a period when they could easily have perished. F’nstance, if they were all in a fairly small area, a bad flu strain might have depressed their numbers even further. That doesn’t mean that other animals – dogs, elephants, auroches, horses, etc – wouldn’t have suprised. I imagine there’d be plenty of passengers pigeons would be around in North America, for instance. > [@](#): > > We need pollinators (such as bees and hummingbirds), bacteria that aid most other species in digestion, soil-chewers (like dung beetles and earthworms) and various fungi. But if this is truly an alternate Earth with a fiercer Toba, most of these species or their ecological equivalents already exist. Probably a lot of pests, like mosquitoes and leeches already exist too. A pity, that; I can’t see that mosquitoes contribute much to the general well-being of the planetary eco-system. > > We’ll want our domestic animals (dogs, cats, cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and pigs), because we really don’t want to go through the hassle of re-domesticating their alt-Earth analogs. But beyond that, alt-Earth will have developed its own eco-system, and I’m not sure it’s a good idea to introduce new species to it. Look at what rabbits have done to Australia. I would very much miss elephants, penguins, and pandas, but this alt-Earth will have its own versions of these animals. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/25 "2010-11-19T18:54:22Z")
Pretty much everything that has been domesticated to some degree. Add frozen embryos and and tissue samples from everything we can take a scalpel to. We will eventually perfect artificial wombs and cloning techniques to bring anything out of storage that we later determine to be beneficial. Except chihuahuas. Nasty little buggers. I’m betting we will find ancient manuscripts revealing that they began existence as Loki’s dingleberries. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/26 "2010-11-19T18:54:26Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > We should bring chimpanzees and dolphins. We should have a back-up plan in case we don’t make it. What? I take it you mean we should have a backup plan for ensuring the existence of a sapeint species on Earth. Why? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/27 "2010-11-19T18:58:01Z")
A world without voles is not a world worth living in. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/28 "2010-11-19T19:00:27Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > That doesn’t mean that other animals – dogs, elephants, auroches, horses, etc – wouldn’t have suprised. I imagine there’d be plenty of passengers pigeons would be around in North America, for instance. If that’s the case, I wouldn’t bring anything. It would be too disruptive. Now, if we found another alt-Earth that had just never developed animal life, I’d bring everything along, and let every endangered species have another shot at it. Then I’d make humanity leave them the hell alone. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/29 "2010-11-19T19:07:40Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > I would promote dogs (in particular) several stages up, probably immediately after whichever herd/meat animal you choose (probably sheep due to the wool and lack of religious restrictions); with only 10 million people it’s pretty likely we’d need their hunting/vermin-killing/herding skills before long. > [@pbbth](#): > > My thought is that if this volcano managed to destroy humanity entirely on this new planet it probably managed to destroy most everything else too. Humans have an uncanny ability to survive in truly horrible conditions and anything we couldn’t manage probably did in everything except cockroaches and sharks on this new planet. Meh. We’re large predators, pretty far up the food chain; I would not expect a pre-agricultural humanity to be unusually hardy in surviving a global (or local-to-where-humans-are) disaster. I’d certainly expect rodents and other small mammals to outlive us. ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/30 "2010-11-19T21:12:27Z")
Wombats, definitely. ---
**Author:** ![Unpronounceable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9de0a6/32.png) [@Unpronounceable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unpronounceable)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/31 "2010-11-19T21:22:44Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Because we are significantly less ignorant than Bronze-Age herdsmen. I wouldn’t bet on that - it was _seven_ pairs of the “clean” animals and one pair of the “unclean.” ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/32 "2010-11-19T21:25:33Z")
I think the animals should leave the damn humans behind. But then, I was just re-reading “Lovelock” by OSC and was reminded of how much people suck sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/33 "2010-11-19T21:29:22Z")
> [@Unpronounceable](#): > > I wouldn’t bet on that - it was _seven_ pairs of the “clean” animals and one pair of the “unclean.” Your point being? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/34 "2010-11-19T21:32:05Z")
Mosquitoes. ---
**Author:** ![Kalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/df705f/32.png) [@Kalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalypso)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/35 "2010-11-19T21:38:33Z")
I think I would pick chickens for meat and eggs, goats for meat and milk, donkeys or an extremely hardy breed of horse for meat, milk, and beasts of burden, and dogs for working animals. Bees would be important too, if we are bringing our own crops. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/36 "2010-11-19T21:40:16Z")
Smew ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/37 "2010-11-19T21:40:37Z")
> [@Kalypso](#): > > I think I would pick chickens for meat and eggs, goats for meat and milk, donkeys or an extremely hardy breed of horse for meat, milk, and beasts of burden, and dogs for working animals. Bees would be important too, if we are bringing our own crops. You seem to be specifically leaving out cattle. Why? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/38 "2010-11-19T22:06:38Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Why dont we just bring two of everything? I wasn’t going to tell you this, but I was told by a thunderous voice recently to start building a spaceship and gather two of all animals, one male and one female. It might take a while, though. I’ve spent this whole week trying to catch a couple of squirrels. Those suckers run _fast_. Also, gender assessment is less than straightforward. So, I hope that catastrophe isn’t all that, you know, imminent. By the way, have any of you guys got a polar bear trap that you aren’t using? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/39 "2010-11-19T22:16:36Z")
Sild ---
**Author:** ![Kalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/df705f/32.png) [@Kalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalypso)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234/40 "2010-11-19T22:36:10Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > You seem to be specifically leaving out cattle. Why? Cattle are inefficient as a meat source. See here: [U.S. could feed 800 million people with grain that livestock eat, Cornell ecologist advises animal scientists | Cornell Chronicle](http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/aug97/livestock.hrs.html) I wanted to pick rabbits because they are very efficient meat sources, but it’s bad to introduce them somewhere new. I really want to pick horses over donkeys, because they are much nicer for transportation, but they’re a little delicate inside and out, where donkeys are much hardier. I picked animals that the primitive cultures on Earth keep, as they’d probably be best suited for our reboot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-for-an-unspoiled-earth-what-animal-species-do-we-take-with-us/561234.md?page=3)