The Extinction Blues
The news is relentlessly bad — and too often, a counsel of despair rather than a call to arms. Species face their final stand, their numbers dwindle, the trend line falls toward annihilation. “With more and more species threatened with extinction by The Flood that is today’s global economic juggernaut,” Thomas L. Friedman recently noted, “we may be the first generation in human history that literally has to act like Noah — to save the last pairs of a wide range of species.”
Here is a sampling of some of the recent dark headlines from the front lines of the war on wildlife.
“We continue to see a downward trend” World biodiversity has declined by almost one third in the past 35 years due mainly to habitat loss and the wildlife trade, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) reported. WWF’s Living Planet Index tracks some 4,000 species of birds, fish, mammals, reptiles and amphibians globally. It shows that between 1970 and 2007 land-based species fell by 25 percent, marine by 28 percent and freshwater by 29 percent.
Poachers kill last four wild northern white rhinos ”The last four northern white rhinoceros remaining in the wild are feared to have been killed for their horns by poachers and are now believed to be extinct in the wild. Only a few are left in captivity but they are difficult to breed and the number is so low that the species is regarded as biologically unviable.” The Times (London), reports on the apparent demise of the last northern white rhino in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Disappearing Diporeia Decimated by invasive species and pollutants, this tiny cructacean is gone from large areas of lakes Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario. This animal has been ”a major food source for commercially important species like lake whitefish and many prey fish upon which salmon, trout and walleye rely.”
New Zealand’s Dolphins ”The Hector’s dolphin is estimated to number around 7,400 from 29,000 in the late 1970s. However, one of its sub-species, the Maui dolphin, is said to be the rarest in the world and facing extinction with as few as 111 animals left.” Most of the dolphin deaths are a result of commercial fishing.
Vietnam — Only 100 Tigers Left “On the endangered species list since 1960, the country’s tiger population is still falling prey to poachers… Tiger skins, teeth and bones can be readily purchased in major cities.”
Chinese parks “sell tiger wine” ”Illegal ‘tiger bone wine’ is still being made and sold by some animal parks in China, say campaigners. The Environmental Investigation Agency says staff at two parks offered to sell the drink, made from carcasses soaked in rice wine, to its researchers. The trade in parts of the endangered species has been subject to an international ban since 1987, and has been outlawed in China since 1989.”
Shark Populations Collapsing ”Some shark populations in the Mediterranean Sea have completely collapsed, according to a new study, with numbers of five species declining by more than 96 percent over the past two centuries… In November, the International Union for Conservation of Nature warned that more than 40 percent of shark and ray species in the Mediterranean were threatened with extinction because of intense fishing pressure.”
Insecticide “killing Kenya lions” According to naturalist Dr Richard Leakey, a powerful and toxic poison called carbofuran is being bought not by farmers wanting to control bugs and insects, but mainly by herdsmen who use it to kill lions, leopards and other predators. Leakey has called for the insecticide to be banned in Kenya. It is illegal in Europe and the EPA is taking steps to eliminate all use in the United States.
Photograph by Caroline Fraser / Nepal, 2006
