23 We Won't See

Breaking with the normal flow of these posts, I wanted to highlight the bigger news in the U.S. on extinct species.  The United States passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973 as a way to identify and save species from extinction.

There are two ways to be removed from the Endangered species list.  To recover or to go extinct.

The Endangered Species Act has helped save 54 species, like the brown pelican, the humpback whale, California Condor, American alligators, and our nation's symbol, the Bald Eagle to name a few. We love these animals and are glad they are doing well (see logos below).

This week 23 more species were also removed from the Endangered Species List.  Should we be excited?  Well these 23 species have been deemed extinct, since there has been no proof of their existence for 50 or more years.  That means these animals are "as dead as a dodo".

There is also a 55 day "comment window" for anyone to provide proof of one of these 23 species, but the outlook is bleak for them.

Why does it matter?  If an animal is on the endangered species list, that animal and its environment are protected.  When they are removed, that could change what happens in those areas for other species.

Additional Resources:

Endangered Species Act (for kids) - https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/endangered-species-act

Extinction Info in Charts - https://ourworldindata.org/extinctions

23 Species Now Deemed Extinct = 

https://www.fws.gov/news/ShowNews.cfm?_ID=37017

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/09/30/2021-21219/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-removal-of-23-extinct-species-from-the-lists-of

Animals being saved from extinction by zoos today - (the Mountain Chicken is a type of frog) -https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/features/zoo-species-surviving/









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

KAWEKAWEAU (DELCOURT'S GIANT GECKO)

Image
The Kawekaweau was the largest member of the gecko family that lived in New Zealand.  It was nearly 24 inches long, which is about twice as large as any other gecko species ever known.  It was the width of a man's wrist and had reddish stripes running the length of its body. Scientists thought that the Kawekaweau was simply a legend for a long time. The name Delcourt comes from the French scientist who rediscovered the only known specimen of of the Kawekaweau in the Natural History Museum of Marseille in 1986. The last recorded living Kawekaweau was in 1870 by a Maori chief.  It is thought that the arrival of Europeans and the invasive species they brought; rats, cats, and weasels took their toll on the Kawekaweau. Additional Resources: http://gizmodo.com/this-specimen-of-an-extinct-giant-gecko-was-found-in-a-1742435773 Drawing from the book, A Gap in Nature The only known specimen of a Kawekaweau
Read more

Visiting Lonesome George in NYC and Martha the Passenger Pigeon in DC

Image
I started this blog  to point out animals you'll never get a chance to meet first hand.  No, I'm not talking about unicorns or centaurs, but about recently extinct animals.  2014 was a big one in extinction news because it marked the 100 year anniversary of the passenger pigeon, when Martha died at the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914 at 1pm.  I took my family to the Cincinnati Zoo, but Martha's statue wasn't there because they were building a memorial that opened a few weeks after our visit. My wife and I also got to see the real Lonesome George who was on display in New York at the Natural History Museum, before being shipped back to be displayed in the Galapagos.  
Read more

YUNNAN LAKE NEWT

Image
The Yunnan Lake Newt (YLN) was a newt that lived in the region in and around Kunming Lake in the Yunnan Providence in China.  The YLN was about an inch long and the male and female coloration varied slightly. The Yunnan Lake Newt was last seen in 1979.  As the cities around its lake habitat increased, its population plummeted. Amphibians like frogs, salamanders, and newts are extremely vulnerable to pollution because they absorb water, oxygen, and even toxins through their porous skin.  There are many concerns for many amphibian species today (see 2nd link below). Besides pollution, habitat loss for increased housing also took its toll on the YLN population.  The addition of invasive species were the nail in the coffin for this species.  The newts couldn't compete with the addition of domestic ducks, exotic fish and frogs added to the lake. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: http://www.edgeofexistence.org/amphibians/species_info.php?id=1367 http://frogsaregreen.o...
Read more