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The Extinction Thread (Imminent / Declared Extinctions)

Lovely vid: thanks -- puffins are truly delightful creatures. I live basically toward the wrong end of Great Britain for puffins -- i.e. the southern end. Quite frequently visit the West Country nowadays; but in these times, that area is pretty puffin-poor. A couple of years ago, I visited Skomer Island, which has plentiful puffins in the season -- likewise guillemots and razorbills too.
 
Good news is that the fossil record shows us that the greatest explosions of genetic diversity have all occurred during warming periods on this planet. :twisted:
 
An Extinct Giant Gecko Was Found Stuffed in a Museum Basement

Kawekaweau was a giant forest gecko in New Zealand. Only one person had seen a living specimen—and he’d killed it. Then a stuffed gecko turned up in a museum, in France. No one knows where it came from.

Scientists only know about kawekaweau, a large brown gecko that lived in the forests of New Zealand, second-hand. There were legends about it, but no modern scientist had ever seen one. They were long-extinct. The closest any encounter any biologist had ever had with one happened in 1873, when he heard a Maori chief describe killing a kawekaweau in 1870. The biologist wrote, “He described it to me as being about two feet long and as thick as a man’s wrist; colour brown, striped longitudinally with dull red.”

Then, in 1986, researchers going through the basement of the Natural History Museum of Marseille, in France, came across an unlabeled specimen. It was a gecko, roughly two feet long, with “dark reddish-brown longitudinal dorsal stripes.” Scientists took a closer look, comparing it with both surviving descriptions of the famous gecko, and with the physiology of its closest living relatives, and determined that this dead stuffed relic was the only physical specimen of the giant gecko in the world.

The specimen got the scientific name Hoplodactylus delcourti, for Alain Delcourt, the assistant in charge of the herpetology collection at the Marseille museum. No one has been able to find out anything about the gecko, including when or how it came to Marseille.

http://gizmodo.com/this-specimen-of-an-extinct-giant-gecko-was-found-in-a-1742435773
 
There's a bit in the latest FT about animal "die-offs" which says starlings are on the way out, down from 45 million of them in the 1980s to 3.4 million now. Apparently they're not finding enough insects to eat or places to nest, but they're also committing mass suicide by drowning themselves for no reason anyone can see. There kind of skittish little things, I remember Ben Elton describing them many years ago as the "skinheads of the bird world" but they do create marvellous shapes when they swarm in the sky.
 
GNC said:
There's a bit in the latest FT about animal "die-offs" which says starlings are on the way out, down from 45 million of them in the 1980s to 3.4 million now. Apparently they're not finding enough insects to eat or places to nest, but they're also committing mass suicide by drowning themselves for no reason anyone can see. There kind of skittish little things, I remember Ben Elton describing them many years ago as the "skinheads of the bird world" but they do create marvellous shapes when they swarm in the sky.
Click to expand...

There's a small flock of about twenty of them left around here. Quite sad, they still go on manoeuvres together as if they were in the thousands.
I haven't read the latest FT yet, but it's swings and roundabouts isn't it? I never saw a Collared Dove as a child but now every garden seems to have a pair.
 
GNC said:
There's a bit in the latest FT about animal "die-offs" which says starlings are on the way out, down from 45 million of them in the 1980s to 3.4 million now. Apparently they're not finding enough insects to eat or places to nest, but they're also committing mass suicide by drowning themselves for no reason anyone can see. There kind of skittish little things, I remember Ben Elton describing them many years ago as the "skinheads of the bird world" but they do create marvellous shapes when they swarm in the sky.
Click to expand...

An angling author I know remarked recently that even 20 or 30 years ago if you drove a car about on a summer evening, it would be literally peppered with the remains of dead insects. That was the case (I have a good memory, which I assumed is 'OK'). Not so much these days.

We all think that insecticides are over used and water is over abstract from some rivers, and it might just be that the unintended consequence of both of these things is a decimation of insect life, which in the end is one of the bottom brick in the triangle of fauna anywhere.

As river conservationists know (the proper ones, not the 'bung in an otter job done' sort) know that you have to start with insect life and habitat and being involved in the management of a number of small water, I can personally vouch for this. One must start with insect habitat and encouragement - if a lake doesn't have a visible cloud of insects above the water on a late spring evening, you've got a problem coming.
 
Thanks for that insight. I wonder if the starlings are drowning themselves accidentally while trying to get at the dwindling insect population in water?
 
I have noticed the decline of insects over the course of my life too.
I remember back in the 60s and 70s when living with my parents, the back garden would be covered in all kinds of insect life in the summer time. We had loads of grasshoppers jumping about.
This summer, I did spot a couple in my back garden - but that is probably because I have long grass and don't do much to disturb the garden.
I think people mow their lawns too much. They weed too much. They use too much insecticide.

It is extremely worrying.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I have noticed the decline of insects over the course of my life too.
I remember back in the 60s and 70s when living with my parents, the back garden would be covered in all kinds of insect life in the summer time. We had loads of grasshoppers jumping about.
It is extremely worrying.
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I notice a similar lack of many insect types ladybugs, grasshoppers, katydids, preying mantis, honey bees not to mention less snakes frogs and toads. It seemed the yard and field was crawling with critters when young. The only one we currently have a surplus of is those pesky yellow jackets.
 
That's in New York State? Are you in the part that's relatively unspoilt?
Things are bad if that place is affected.
 
Western and central NYS has a lot of open country and forest country with abundant lakes and rivers. But I'm talking about my own yard which is filled with wildflowers, trees and shrubs. The insects and amphibians in particular are not so abundant as they once were, not even in my yard. If I go back to my childhood at my folks yard the place was crawling with bugs and critters. We still have stuff milling about, but not to the same extent as we did years ago.
 
Dormice in Britain 'vulnerable to extinction'
By Claire Marshall BBC environment correspondent

Britain's native dormouse has declined by more than a third since the year 2000 according to a new report by wildlife charity, the People's Trust for Endangered Species.
The State of Britain's Dormice report also shows that hazel dormice are extinct in 17 English counties.

The researchers assessed more than 100,000 records gathered from across the UK over 25 years.
The report says the dormouse is now vulnerable to extinction in Britain.

Since 1998 trained volunteers around the country have been gathering data on the tiny hazel dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius). It is one of the longest-running small mammal monitoring projects in the world.
The creatures live mainly in hedgerows and woods, weaving ball-like nests in the undergrowth from bark in the summer and hibernating on or near the ground in winter between October and May.
They are extremely tricky to locate - a populated area the size of two football fields will only contain four dormice. A giveaway sign is a nibbled hazelnut.

Today's report shows that they are more difficult to find than ever. Over the last 16 years, the population has declined by almost 40%. Populations are now restricted to the Welsh borders and southern England. They have never been recorded in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Ian White is dormouse officer at the People's Trust for Endangered Species. He has been monitoring the species for the last decade and describes the decline as "dramatic". He says: "Dormice have been around for 40 million years, but their future in Britain is now precarious and there's a pressing need for action to ensure their long-term survival."
In 1885, dormice were present in 49 English counties; today, they're known in 32 - excluding those counties where they have been reintroduced.

Mr White said the evidence pointed towards a few key factors in their decline. They are a woodland animal and there has been a loss of woodland and hedgerows. Their habitats are more fragmented and they can't disperse through the landscape.
The management of farmland and woodland has also changed making it harder for them to survive. They are also vulnerable to changes in the weather, in particular wetter springs and summers, when foraging for food becomes harder. Warmer winters also interrupt successful hibernation.
Mr White said: "This is a sad tale, the raw data is a bit doom and gloom but my personal experience is that there is a lot more interest in what we can do about this and a lot of enthusiasm from the public to help."

There have been efforts to bring hazel dormice back to the wild. More than 850 animals have been reintroduced at 26 sites. The latest was at Aysgarth in Wensleydale in June. At five of these release sites the population has died. The others have shown signs of success, such as breeding or dispersal to new areas beyond the site.

PTES monitors 400 sites regularly along with building a national dataset from the information that the public sends in. They also help to train woodland managers and landowners.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37290176
 
Some environmentalists are now saying that the giant panda isn't worth saving and that it should be allowed to slowly die out.
 
Mouldy13 said:
Some environmentalists are now saying that the giant panda isn't worth saving and that it should be allowed to slowly die out.
Click to expand...

I reckon those environmentalists aren't worth saving. I'd set grizzlies on them.
 
This may come across as a bit of a “commercial” for various things which I like; but I hope that people might indulge me. I’m very fond of the Isle of Wight, and its red squirrels (have made sundry posts re same, in the “Red Squirrels” thread).


The Isle of Wight is a good place not only for red squirrels, but – relatively – for hazel dormice. One reason for this, I understand, is that there are no deer on the Isle of Wight: dormouse-habitat vegetation does better, than in areas with deer -- for which it is food.


The People’s Trust for Endangered Species, cited in rynner2's today's "Dormice in Britain 'vulnerable to extinction' " post, does much work on behalf of dormice, including on the Island. It is possible to take part in an organised “dormouse visit” to their woodland reserve near Newport. I participated in one such, in October last year. Fascinating and delightful -- staff members took the group around, imparted plentiful information, and located and fairly briefly took out from “hibernation mode” for display, in a couple of different spots, respective female dormice and several young. (Visitors could hold them, but within the confines of a plastic bag.) Most lovable creatures – I had only once before encountered a dormouse – in Surrey, briefly and by chance, long ago.


I understand that the PTES is running a similar event on the Isle of Wight on Saturday October 22nd this year – fee £10. Would recommend to anyone interested, to get in touch with said outfit. Linking attempt, below; but my skills re linking stuff, leave a lot to be desired – in case of failure of same, I’d recommend Googling “People’s Trust for Endangered Species”.


https://ptes.org


The above, "whichever way", should give access to PTES’s website, with much info, and instructions for signing-on to get regular messages from them.
 
Mouldy13 said:
Some environmentalists are now saying that the giant panda isn't worth saving and that it should be allowed to slowly die out.
Click to expand...

To which ramonmercado riposted: "I reckon those environmentalists aren't worth saving. I'd set grizzlies on them."


While I harbour no actual hostility toward the giant panda; I confess to at times getting a little weary of the species, and the unending, always-to-the-max, impassioned devotion which it seems to inspire. There are a fair number of other severely endangered species which, in the event of their demise, I'd miss more acutely than I would the giant panda.

Among endangered species, a great favourite of mine -- a thread on which I started in "Cryptozoology - general" a few years ago -- is the kakapo: the owl parrot of New Zealand. Given a hypothetical situation in which I was visited by some god-like being who told me -- "either the giant panda, or the kakapo, must immediately go extinct; the choice is yours as to which lives and which dies": there'd be no contest -- those unadaptable black-and-white buggers would be gone in a heartbeat.
 
Unfortunately, this is a major problem with many endangered species. They don't adapt, and they don't breed fast enough.
Years ago, I did a short stint at the RSPB as a volunteer. One of the things I worked on was this website:
http://www.blackgrouse.info/
At the time, they were doing whatever they could to preserve Black Grouse.
The big problem with Black Grouse is that they don't breed fast enough and live in a very particular set of environmental conditions. They do this elaborate mating ritual that goes on for ages before they (finally) mate.
I'm amazed that the species has survived at all.
Anyway...good news. The Black Grouse has become less endangered thanks to the RSPB.
 
amyasleigh said:
To which ramonmercado riposted: "I reckon those environmentalists aren't worth saving. I'd set grizzlies on them."


While I harbour no actual hostility toward the giant panda; I confess to at times getting a little weary of the species, and the unending, always-to-the-max, impassioned devotion which it seems to inspire. There are a fair number of other severely endangered species which, in the event of their demise, I'd miss more acutely than I would the giant panda.

Among endangered species, a great favourite of mine -- a thread on which I started in "Cryptozoology - general" a few years ago -- is the kakapo: the owl parrot of New Zealand. Given a hypothetical situation in which I was visited by some god-like being who told me -- "either the giant panda, or the kakapo, must immediately go extinct; the choice is yours as to which lives and which dies": there'd be no contest -- those unadaptable black-and-white buggers would be gone in a heartbeat.
Click to expand...

A bipolar bear will be around to speak to you.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Unfortunately, this is a major problem with many endangered species. They don't adapt, and they don't breed fast enough.
Years ago, I did a short stint at the RSPB as a volunteer. One of the things I worked on was this website:
http://www.blackgrouse.info/
At the time, they were doing whatever they could to preserve Black Grouse.
The big problem with Black Grouse is that they don't breed fast enough and live in a very particular set of environmental conditions. They do this elaborate mating ritual that goes on for ages before they (finally) mate.
I'm amazed that the species has survived at all.
Anyway...good news. The Black Grouse has become less endangered thanks to the RSPB.
Click to expand...


Glad to hear anything good concerning the black grouse. I know I do a lot of citing books: but, from Charlie Elder's witty tome While Flocks Last (pub. 2009) -- the author's quest to see all Britain's then Red List bird species in the course of a year -- he made a black grouse pilgrimage to the area of the northern Pennines which holds England's last significant concentration of the species. There, per Mr. Elder, the grouse-shooting fraternity and the birders have, rather touchingly, sunk their differences and worked together, inter alia to get on side sympathetic landowners: so that black grouse may continue to be around in decent numbers, both to watch and to kill... Elder describes an expedition at first light with a guy from the "shooting" side, to see a black grouse "lek" (mating ritual) or two: which was duly achieved, and a fascinating spectacle it was. (To my regret, I've never seen a live black grouse -- when walking the Pennine Way some years ago, a pub at which stayed overnight -- I think, not far from scene of Mr. E.'s experience -- there was a magnificent stuffed one in a glass case.)

I understand that the kakapo does the "lek" thing; though with elaborations and ramifications which make the black grouse's procedure look simple, straightforward and etiquette-free. One has to agree: per Darwin's strict specifications, many of these species damned-well don't deserve to survive. Various ones of us, though, just like various ones of the species -- and want to cheer on, and help on, our thus favoured ones, regardless...
 
There was a news story recently that said pandas are significantly less endangered than they used to be, thanks to conservation.
 
You'd have to be very hungry to want to eat a panda. Unless you just have the bloodlust to kill animals. Which some people do.
 
I'd eat a panda steak .. if I lived in that area and needed to .. and they weren't endangered only because they're a bit crap at having sex to make more pandas ..
 
GNC said:
You'd have to be very hungry to want to eat a panda. Unless you just have the bloodlust to kill animals. Which some people do.
Click to expand...
You know me, I was only joking.
However, I bet the 'hunting fraternity' are watching and waiting for the opportunity.
There was something on the radio recently about hunters who go and kill lions that are bred in captivity and then released into the wild. I dunno, they might get the same sordid idea that they can do the same with pandas.
 
I'd eat a panda steak .. if I lived in that area and needed to .. and they weren't endangered only because they're a bit crap at having sex to make more pandas ..
Click to expand...

So you're the one who stomped on all those extinct butterflies?
 
Mythopoeika said:
You know me, I was only joking.
However, I bet the 'hunting fraternity' are watching and waiting for the opportunity.
There was something on the radio recently about hunters who go and kill lions that are bred in captivity and then released into the wild. I dunno, they might get the same sordid idea that they can do the same with pandas.
Click to expand...

I suppose it's humans next. "He was a zombie, honest!"
 
At an auction held earlier today in the United Kingdom, a 95-percent-complete skeleton of an extinct dodo bird that was painstakingly assembled over the course of 40 years has sold to an unnamed private collector for a whopping $430,000.

Aside from maybe the passenger pigeon, no other animal is more closely associated to extinction than the dodo bird. It comes as little surprise that a collector was willing to hand over nearly a half million dollars to acquire the first dodo skeleton to come up for sale in nearly 100 years.
Dodo reconstruction at Oxford University Museum of Natural History. (Ballista/Wikimedia)

The rare skeleton was assembled by a man who started buying bones from private collections and auctions in the 1970s. Realizing he had enough bones to put a skeleton together, the collector was able to construct the 95-percent-complete bird. He eventually decided to sell the item, which fetched a hammer price of £280,000 ($347,700)—bumped to £346,300 ($430,000) when adding the buyers’ premium, which covers the auctioneer expenses—at Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst, West Sussex.

An auction house spokesperson told the Guardian that there are only about 12 similarly complete skeletons in the world, all of which are in museums. It’s not known who purchased the skeleton, or whether it will ever be put on public display. It would be a real travesty if this exquisite item becomes somebody’s private conversation piece.

Dodos, which went extinct in the late 17th century, were a species of flightless birds that lived on the island of Mauritius off the east coast of Africa. Standing nearly 3 feet tall (1 meter), and closely related to pigeons, they were the first species known to have gone extinct because of humans.

http://gizmodo.com/this-dodo-skeleton-just-sold-for-nearly-half-a-million-1789280191
 
Giraffes facing 'silent extinction' as population plunges
By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent

A dramatic drop in giraffe populations over the past 30 years has seen the world's tallest land mammal classified as vulnerable to extinction.
Numbers have gone from around 155,000 in 1985 to 97,000 in 2015 according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The iconic animal has declined because of habitat loss, poaching and civil unrest in many parts of Africa.
Some populations are growing, mainly in southern parts of the continent.

Until now, the conservation status of giraffes was considered of "least concern" by the IUCN.
However in their latest global Red List of threatened species, the ungainly animal is now said to be "vulnerable", meaning that over three generations, the population has declined by more that 30%.

According to Dr Julian Fennessy, who co-chairs the IUCN giraffe specialist group, the creatures are undergoing a "silent extinction".
"If you go on a safari, giraffes are everywhere," he told BBC News.
"While there have been great concern about elephants and rhinos, giraffes have gone under the radar but, unfortunately, their numbers have been plummeting, and this is something that we were a little shocked about, that they have declined by so much in so little time."

The rapid growth of human populations has seen the expansion of farming and other forms of development that has resulted in the fragmentation of the giraffe's range in many parts of Africa. But civil unrest in parts of the continent has also taken its toll.

"In these war torn areas, in northern Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia in the border area with South Sudan, essentially the giraffes are war fodder, a large animal, extremely curious that can feed a lot of people," said Dr Fennessy.

A study in recent months suggested that the giraffe was actually four different species but for this update of the Redlist, the IUCN have stuck with the traditional definition of one species with nine subspecies.
Of these, five have had falling populations, one has remained stable while three have grown. Different outcomes seem to be highly dependent on location.

"The species in southern Africa, those numbers are increasing by two to three times over the last three decades," said Dr Fennessy.

"But when you come up through East Africa, those numbers have plummeted some by up to 95% of the population in the case of the Nubian giraffe, in the last three decades alone."

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38240760
 
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