We'll Never See These Animals - Center for Biological Diversity

We'll Never See These Animals
                   Again
                      And things look dicey for a few more
                                    species.
                LAURA SMITH, MORHWE JONWA DEC. 31, 2016
HTTP://WWW.MOTHERJONES.COM/ENVIRONMENT/2016/12/ANIMALS-EXTINCT-LAST-YEAR-
                          -WHAT-TO-WATCH-2017

If 2016 was a rough year for the animal kingdom, 2017 could be worse. Most
scientists agree that we are experiencing a sixth mass extinction, but unlike the
previous five that extended over hundreds of millions of years and occurred because
of cataclysmic natural disasters, humans are responsible for this one.

Climate change, agricultural expansion, wildlife crime, pollution, and disease have
created a shocking acceleration in the disappearance of species. The World Wildlife
Fund recently predicted that more than two-thirds of the vertebrate
population—mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles—would be lost over the
next three years if extinctions continue at the current rate. A 2015 study that appeared
in the journal Science Advances suggests that the rate of vertebrate extinction has
increased nearly 100 times. Paul Ehrlich, a professor of population studies at Stanford
University and a co-author of the study, notes half the life forms that people know
about are already extinct. Another study, published in the journal Current
Biology, observes that some species are likely becoming extinct before scientists have a
chance to discover and classify them. Researchers looking at Brazil's bird populations
found some already so threatened when they were discovered, they went extinct
almost immediately. "That we have these examples," the authors write, "may be by
good luck: we will surely have missed many others."

Scientists have cautioned against making sweeping overall estimates, rather than
talking about risks for specific populations. As Duke University professor of
Conservation Ecology, Stuart Pimm, observed, even though animal populations are

"declining precipitously," pinpointing exactly how many animals will be gone and the
timeframe for their extinction doesn't capture the complexity of the problem. "It's bird
populations in Europe, it's fish in the Pacific," Pimm says. "You can't add those
together and come up with a number that makes any sense."

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has tried to show the
scope of the problem in its Red List, a comprehensive roster of threatened species.
Here are some of the highlights, including three species that went extinct last year and
others to watch out for in 2017:

The Bramble Car melomys: This small Australian rodent that resembled an ordinary
mouse was confirmed as extinct in 2016. It is the first known mammal to go extinct as
a result of human-caused climate change. Its habitat on an island in the Great Barrier
reef was assaulted by the rise of sea levels, coastal erosion, and flooding—all driven
by climate change.

Rabbs' fringe-limbed tree frog: In 2016, the appropriately named Toughie died in
the Atlanta Botanical Garden. He was at least twelve years old, though his exact age
is unknown. Toughie and another Rabb's fringe-limbed tree frog were collected from
Panama in 2005 for research on chytrid fungus, a deadly fungus that has been
ravaging amphibian populations in the region. Amphibians, like Toughie, have
the highest rate of endangerment, with a third of known species being at risk of
extinction. Toughie became the face of the amphibian extinction crisis as visitors to
his enclosure knew they were looking at the last of his kind.

Dolphins and porpoises: There has been a lot of alarming news about the ocean
recently: A UN report found that ocean acidification is up around 26 percent, and more
than half of the sharks and rays in the Mediterranean are at risk of extinction.But, in
2016, with a population of only three, the Irrawaddy dolphin in Laos was declared
"functionally extinct." The announcement came after a World Wildlife Fund survey of
Cambodia and Laos determined there were not enough mating pairs for the species to
survive. Resembling Flipper—except with a bulbous face instead of a bottle

nose—this sea faring mammal's extinction is blamed on gill nets, a type of netting
used by commercial fishermen that trap fish by their gills. Dolphins are caught in the
nets and drown.

Vaquita, or "Little cow" in Spanish, is the smallest species of porpoise, and the
remaining few live in the Gulf of California. Vaquita are so rare that some people
who live on the Gulf don't believe they exist, according to a recent
Vaquita documentary. In May, a Conservation Biology acoustics survey found that there
are only 60 left. Now, some have dropped the estimate to fewer than 50. Like the
Irrawaddy dolphin, they are victims of gill net fishing.

African Grey Parrot: In December 2016, the International Union of Concerned
Naturalists revealed that 11 percent of newly discovered bird species were already
threatened and changed the status of others, such as the African Grey Parrot, from
"vulnerable" to "endangered." Highly intelligent and capable of mimicking human
speech, the African Grey Parrot's population has shrunk by as much as 99 percent in
some places because of habitat loss and trapping. Perhaps the most famous member
of this species was Alex, the subject of intelligence studies at Harvard and Brandeis
universities who, when he died in 2007, knew more than 100 English words.

Giraffes: Bad news for the planet's tallest land creature was announced before the
end of 2016: Giraffe populations are plunging in what scientists call a "silent
extinction" due to poaching and habitat loss. (The extinction is "silent" because we
had largely failed to notice their plummeting population.) Previously, the IUCN's Red
List had given them a "least concern" rating. News that their populations have
dropped by as much as 40 percent since 1985 has caused their status to be changed
to vulnerable.

Jaguars and most large cats: The protection of all big cats will be important in the
coming years, as populations continue to plummet. The African lion population, for
example, has dropped 90 percent. At the end of December, a study from the
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that the fastest land

animal on earth, the cheetah, now only has a worldwide population of about 7,000.
That's down from its population of about 100,000 a century ago. The study attributed
the drop to habitat loss: Cheetahs have lost 91 percent of their range.

Large cats are also endangered in our own backyard. "El Jefe," who was named by
Arizona school children, is the only known wild jaguar in the United States, but it is
an elusive animal whose exact whereabouts are often unknown. In February, the
Center for Biological Diversity released a video of the enormous cat slinking through
the mountainside in the Santa Rita mountains outside of Tucson. Randy Serraglio, a
biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity who tracks El Jefe, suggests the
animal has likely migrated to Mexico in search of mates. Once there, it faces other
dangers from ranchers, who kill jaguars for sport or out of concern for their
livestock, Mexican newspapers reported. Back in the US, a Canadian mining company
might threaten El Jefe's habitat by developing a massive open pit copper
mine through its territory in Arizona. On top of all that, should Donald Trump
actually make good on his proposed border wall, jaguar migratory patterns would
be disrupted.

Rhinos: These massive mammals have long been hunted for their horns, which
are erroneously believed to have healing properties. The western black rhino is already
extinct and there are only three northern white rhino left. There is still a small
population of Javan Rhinos in Indonesia, but two other subspecies, one in Vietnam,
have also gone extinct. In 2016, numbers showed that the previous year was the worst
year ever for rhino poaching. Given the trends, scientists predict that the entire wild
rhino population will go extinct between 2021 and 2031. Many of the horns already on
the market are fake, and some companies are trying to deal with the crisis
by flooding the rhino horn market with 3-D prints of rhino horns, under the dubious
assumption that this will make poaching less lucrative. However,
some conservationists argue that it could actually make things worse by removing the
stigma about using the horn and making it harder for law enforcement officers to
track poachers.

Yellow-faced honeybee: Seven species of Hawaii's yellow-faced bees made it onto
the endangered species list last year, but more than a quarter of the bee population in
the US is also in trouble. This has potentially devastating consequences for the
planet's food supply: Bees are responsible for pollinating more than a third of the
world's food.

The African elephant: The Endangered Species Coalition reports that the population
of the largest land animal in the world—once 10 million strong—has fallen to about
400,000. The Great Elephant Census, a pan-African census that collects data using small
planes, reports that the Savannah elephants have lost nearly a third of their population
in the last seven years. The population drop is attributed to ivory poaching and loss of
habitat. If poaching continues at its current rate, there will be no African elephants
in 20 years.