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[Eric Blank]

European swallows are kind of cute if you don't realize they're not native to north america at all.
Actually no they're pretty gross little birds. Rocky mountain bluebirds are cute.

And of course, rabbits are cute. Except the ones in Australia.

[hops]

Just wait until puppy there gets affectionate and starts to try and lick your face.

Snails are puppies that are made entirely out of tongue.

"Top 100 Invasive Species"

Huh. Suddenly a bit less cute.

I mean, so are cats.

[Levi]

I go camping in the summer with a girl who used to bring her pet snail.  It was quite a bit smaller though.  His name was Mortimer.

[Sirus]

"Top 100 Invasive Species"

Huh. Suddenly a bit less cute.

I mean, so are cats.

Yeah, but the top result when googling cats isn't a website listing destructive invasive species. Googling the giant african snail on the other hand...it even comes up before Wikipedia!

[Reelya]

You should know that negative press getting google hits doesn't mean a thing. Fake snail news! Cats are far more invasive and destructive, but they have a better PR manager than snails.

Meanwhile we've had pet snails, but who'd like a pet slug?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Grim Portent]

You should know that negative press getting google hits doesn't mean a thing. Fake snail news! Cats are far more invasive and destructive, but they have a better PR manager than snails.

It's like pandas really, they get a ton of press and are used as the flagship conservation animal, but they're basically a dead end animal (evolved into a terrible niche and aren't even very good in it) that doesn't even fill a unique niche in it's habitat. If we could stick the funding that gets spent trying to get the fuzzy layabouts to breed on cleaning up water bodies in China or India we could save dozens of endangered amphibians, fish and invertebrate species that are food for things higher up the food chain, good indicators of water hygiene, controllers of pest species and so on.  Same goes for the god damned koalas.

Also those slugs are adorable.

[Sirus]

I'm almost positive that those water slugs are what Pyukumuku is based off of, despite it being called the "sea cucumber" pokemon.

[hops]

"Top 100 Invasive Species"

Huh. Suddenly a bit less cute.

I mean, so are cats.

Yeah, but the top result when googling cats isn't a website listing destructive invasive species. Googling the giant african snail on the other hand...it even comes up before Wikipedia!

To be fair, cats have higher brain functions and don't eat sidewalks, but still.

You should know that negative press getting google hits doesn't mean a thing. Fake snail news! Cats are far more invasive and destructive, but they have a better PR manager than snails.

It's like pandas really, they get a ton of press and are used as the flagship conservation animal, but they're basically a dead end animal (evolved into a terrible niche and aren't even very good in it) that doesn't even fill a unique niche in it's habitat. If we could stick the funding that gets spent trying to get the fuzzy layabouts to breed on cleaning up water bodies in China or India we could save dozens of endangered amphibians, fish and invertebrate species that are food for things higher up the food chain, good indicators of water hygiene, controllers of pest species and so on.  Same goes for the god damned koalas.

Also those slugs are adorable.

I mean the subspecies of humans that went extinct were probably shitty at their evolution too, but I'd rather they didn't go extinct and I'm kind of annoyed at our ancestors' part in causing most of them to go extinct.

[Grim Portent]

The other humans types were meant to be pretty good, just overspecialized or competing with a more potent competitor. Koalas and pandas are overspecialized and terrible at their specialty anyway.

[hops]

We're pretty overspecialized, too. Heck, we're the only thing occupying the "ridiculously smart" niche.

[scriver]

Well, us, and octopuses, and magpies.

[Neonivek]

You should know that negative press getting google hits doesn't mean a thing. Fake snail news! Cats are far more invasive and destructive, but they have a better PR manager than snails.

It's like pandas really, they get a ton of press and are used as the flagship conservation animal, but they're basically a dead end animal (evolved into a terrible niche and aren't even very good in it) that doesn't even fill a unique niche in it's habitat. If we could stick the funding that gets spent trying to get the fuzzy layabouts to breed on cleaning up water bodies in China or India we could save dozens of endangered amphibians, fish and invertebrate species that are food for things higher up the food chain, good indicators of water hygiene, controllers of pest species and so on.  Same goes for the god damned koalas.

Also those slugs are adorable.

It is this same old assumption that Pandas somehow take money that would have otherwise gone to other animals

I am just going to say what most conservationists say: "Pandas save themselves"

The most you can hope for is to group up animals so you can spread some of the panda money to other animals.

Also how many times are we going to see those sea slug pics?

[Reelya]

The other humans types were meant to be pretty good, just overspecialized or competing with a more potent competitor. Koalas and pandas are overspecialized and terrible at their specialty anyway.

"We'll eat anything"

- The true Advantage of the Cro-Magnons.

BTW I've heard a whole lot of dumb theories about how our ancestors were meant to be smarter than Neanderthals, but each of the theories was massively flawed or just didn't make any sense at all. Basically, when people grasp at straws to keep trying to prove the same thing that has no actual evidence, you know you have a myth on your hands.

The only provable difference is tha Neanderthals ate much more of a meat-centric diet. So they were in a predator / prey balance with the fauna. Our ancestors were true omnivores, so we hunted, but when the fauna died off, we stick around eating plants, thus ensuring the fauna population is permanently depressed instead of cyclic. So we probably indirectly caused the decline / assimilation of neanderthals by collapsing the big animal stock they relied on.

Some of the stupider theories I've heard about "we beat Neanderthals because of our better brains" include:

- Neanderthals lacked "lateral thinking" (based purely on their tools). Now this one posits "lack brains" because Cro-magnons had tools made of more variety of materials, e.g. fish hooks made of bone. Never mind that materials are dependent on environment, but that same argument was applied in a racist fashion in the past against e.g. Australian Aboriginals. So it's both dubious and has links to known racist arguments.

- Neanderthals lacked conscious thought. Seriously, for real, an acquaintance saw this on a doco and believed it. The argument goes that Neanderthals made stone tools purely from "instinct" (e.g. they evolved the trait of making stone tools without actually being aware of what they were doing) and lacked any consciousness because they're "animals", meanwhile our ancestors had the better "conscious" version of toolmaking. I kid you not, this is was a real theory on a science doco. But the whole premise goes against occam's razor. We know our ancestors made the same types of tools as Neanderthals, yet we're meant to believe that both races did it according to completely different mental processes (evolved vs learned). Doesn't make sense, basically.

There are many other dumb theories like this, but they're all trying desperately to prove the "we are smart, they are dumb" argument, based on our ancestors having different tools to their ancestors.

[Neonivek]

Our ancestors were true omnivores, so we hunted, but when the fauna died off, we stick around eating plants

Well two things about that
a) the majority of our diet was plants back then
b) we typically followed our prey and migrated with them... unless we found a source of food that didn't runith dry. (one of the few ways for a stationary tribal society)

Actually funny thing is... The whole "Neanderthals ate a much more meat-centric diet" actually... could be "the" reason if you think about it.

[Grim Portent]

I think the arrival of cro-magnons also coincided with some ecological and environmental changes in Europe, neither of which would favour the neanderthals. Cro-magnons were better at dealing with changing circumstances, which is usually better than niche specialization once change begins and niches are put into jeopardy.