UK reintroducing insects into ecosystem

Beth HodgsonJanuary 26, 2010 17:10

Everyone has a different opinion on what role the human population should play when it comes to messing with the natural order of things in the animal kingdom. So a new plan the U.K. has recently unveiled is sure to be a source of controversy. It goes beyond the preservation of threatened species, and aims to reintroduce them into the ecosystem.

What’s really got people talking is that the species are neither feathered nor furry friends, which is where conservation efforts are normally focused. Rather, they’re intending on breeding and releasing four different species of insect back into the environment.

Human activities cannot be directly blamed to the decline of these scarce insect species, like the dark bordered beauty moth. The moth is one of the species at the center of the initiative headed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It’s possible that climate changes that have altered ecosystems could be a source, or insect species just might be dwindling in numbers as they fall at the bottom of the food chain.

Whatever the reasons, there are still questions if this is taking conservation efforts too far. Making up for harm caused to the animal kingdom as a result of human activity is one thing but this is another.

Do you think when it comes to natural evolution and the survival of the fittest humans should interfere or remain hands-off?

(Image Courtesy Royal Society for the Protection of Birds)