We are in a new era with respect to biological diversity, and we need to change our behaviour accordingly.

Of the nine planetary boundaries, the one that is most significantly ‘shot to death’ is biosphere integrity –  genetic diversity. This is because we humans behave like unsustainable super-predators who are annihilating species hand over fist. And this includes the endangered species that we keep in captivity.

Not a day goes by without some poor member of a threatened species being shot to death by its captors.

A recent atrocity was a jaguar (IUCN Red List status: near threatened) called Juma that was owned by a zoo run by a military unit in Manaus, Brazil. As the Olympic torch ceremony passed through the town, the jaguar was bought out, only to escape and be subsequently shot dead.

Only a week before Juma the jaguar, was the tragic killing of Haranbe, a western lowland gorilla (IUCN Red List status: critically endangered) that was shot dead after a small boy fell into its enclosure in Cincinnati Zoo.

This is not the only member of this species killed in captivity in the US. In 2004, Jabiri, a 13 year old gorilla (IUCN Red List status: critically endangered) escaped its pen and was subsequently shot dead.

Then there was Travis the common chimpanzee (IUCN Red List status: endangered) that was shot dead after maiming a woman.

A pygmy hippopotamus (IUCN Red List status: endangered) shot dead in Northern Territory after escaping a wildlife park

And all this just foreshadows the 2011 tragedy in Zanesville, Ohio, USA.

At this time, Ohio had extremely lax guidelines on the ownership of ‘exotic’ animals. In Zanesville, the owner of the private zoo let all his animals out of their enclosures, then shot himself. Fearing for the safety of Homo sapiens (IUCN Red List status: Least Concern), police opened fire on the wildlife and 49 animals were slaughtered, including 18 Bengal tigers (IUCN Red List status: endangered), 17 lions (IUCN Red List status: vulnerable), six black bears, a pair of grizzlies, three mountain lions, two wolves and a baboon.

You read that right: EIGHTEEN BENGAL TIGERS.

I believe that if we humans are unable to protect iconic species such as the tiger (and especially those held in captivity), then our own species is doomed. If we fail to revere nature, we will not see the Long Future.

Just because Homo sapiens can build nuclear weapons, and shoot tigers, does not make our species fit or competitive in any biological sense.

In evolutionary biology, the word ‘fit’ means adaptive to change. The fit species are able to adapt to changes in their environment. Is our species fit?

Do we have what it takes to adapt to the reality of a world that has planetary boundaries that should not be crossed. Can we change? Because we have to if we want to survive.

To be fit, we need to start seeing ourselves as a part of the grand biological scheme of planet Earth.

We are not aliens on this planet, we grew here. We evolved here over millions of years.

We need to get in touch with our ecological self and get back-in-sync with nature.

One outcome of this change in thinking might be to give over half of the planet to wildlife, as proposed by biologist E. O. Wilson.

Half the world for one species, the other half of the world for the other 20 – 100 million species. That sounds fair, in a capitalist sense.

Failing a radical and enlightened shift in the human psyche, will just have to keep shooting tigers, gorillas and any other captive threatened species that displeases us.

End.

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