Naturalist: For decades we have known that the tuatara, a New Zealand reptile, have been approaching extinction on th...
Motunrayo-Bamgbose-MartinsAugust 18, 2020
What is wrong with my reason for eliminating C
I eliminated C because it mentioned "global extinction" and I thought the stimulus limited our scope to the island only. Hence, global would have been out of scope.
I thought it was possible to go extinct in a nation/island but not necessarily globally.
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The stimulus tells us that South Island tuatara (SIT) have been approaching extinction for a long time. This wasn't a big deal because people thought that SIT were the same species as North Island tuatara (NIT). BUT, new research shows that SIT are different from NIT and are ONLY found on the south island. So, the ENTIRE species of SIT are on South Island. This means that if the SIT go extinct on the South Island, they actually go extinct everywhere, because they only exist on the South Island.
The stimulus argues that this means the SIT now must be protected, because we cannot let a whole species go extinct.
Answer (C) reflects the idea that if the SIT go extinct on the South Island, they actually will go globally extinct, because they only exist on the South Island. The SIT didn't need to be protected when it was believed that they were part of a bigger population. It was okay for them to go extinct on just the island. BUT, now that it's known they are not part of a bigger population, they have to be protected because, otherwise, they will go entirely extinct.
It is possible to go extinct on an island but not go globally extinct. The catch is that that is not possible for the SIT because they only exist on the island. If they don't live anywhere else then going extinct on the island is the same as going globally extinct.
shunheAugust 19, 2020
Hi @Motunrayo-Bamgbose-Martins,
Thanks for the question! So you’re certainly right in that (C) mentions “global extinction.” But remember what the passage tells us. We’re told that the tuatara is a New Zealand reptile, which we can safely assume means that it lives only on New Zealand. And now that it lives on New Zealand, apparently it lives on South Island and North Island. And those are two different species, and “the South Island tuatara are a distinct species, found only in that location.” And “if the South Island tuatara are lost an entire species will thereby be lost” to the entire world, since South Island is the only place they’re found in the entire world, so them going extinct there is them going extinct across the entire world. And then (C) does apply to this, since them going extinct on that island is global extinction, and that’s the extinction that we’re concerned about.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.
