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Geist, V.
Endangered species and the law
1992 Nature (357): 274-276
The science of taxonomy may be thought of by many as an arcane subject, innocent of the problems of the real world. But then taxa became included in conservation laws, this innocence vanished. Endangered species acts, wildlife management laws and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), essential, if imperfect, tools for conservation, lable species and subspecies with formal taxonomic names. Such taxa, elevated to legal status, became subject to legal action. That may place biologists, accustomed to privacy, anonymous peer review and uncertainty in knowledge, in the witness stand, subject to hostile cross-examination. In one Canadian court case I was questioned for 24 hours on the taxonomy of red deers (_Cervus elaphus _Linnaeus, 1758). The case led to fines of $25,000 for the defendant, who argued that by crossing two (invalid) subspecies listed in legislation he had created a new form of life, and that laws controlling commerce in wildlife did not apply to his creations.
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