Tutorial # 2 – ENV221H - 2025
Biodiversity: priceless or worthless; how do you decide?
Back in 2012 the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) network of 8000 scientists identified 100 of the most threatened animals, plants, and fungi from 48 different countries.
Photos and status information on each of these species have been assembled in an e-book (Baillie, J.E.M. & Butcher, E. R. 2012. Priceless or Worthless? The world’s most threatened species. Zoological Society of London, United Kingdom), accessible at:
https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2012-096.pdf
Assume you have been given the resources to save only one species from this list of 100. Review the species’ photos and status information presented in Chapter 2, and select the one species you would choose to save. Provide a short discussion on why and how you made this selection. We are not looking for a “right” answer, we simply want to know how you would approach this decision.
Repeat this exercise, but this time select the one species you would be least inclined to save and provide a short discussion on how you made this selection.
Your discussion of your most and least likely saved species should be 250-500 words and submitted in the tutorial #2 assignment link before noon on the day of your tutorial #2.