Gone Forever: Remembering the Top 7 Mammals Recently Declared Extinct

A Solemn Look at Modern Biodiversity Loss

The visual image of our planet is beautiful and moving, yet delicate. Everyday the threads are tugged free, frequently by human fingers, and after they are removed there is no possible way of getting them back into a weaving. The formal classification of an animal as extinct is a sad world event, an epilogue to a story that is millions of years old. It acts as a vivid message to the extent that we are affecting the world and the need to safeguard what is left.

This is more or less an obit of an article, an obituary to seven fantastic mammals that have, either during our lifetime or in recent memory, been officially declared dead. We will learn their distinct histories, see what made them disappear, and consider what the loss of them tells us. Their extinctions leave a gap in their ecology and in ours a silent monument to a conservation failure.

Understanding "Declared Extinct"

It is perhaps necessary to define what is meant by recently declared extinct. The procedure is a painstaking conservative one. Scientists do not proclaim this statement easily A species will normally be declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) when, after extensive surveys of the areas in which it is known, and even likely to occur, occurrence is unable to be confirmed over the course of some years, well in excess of the length of its generation. Some of these species would have been dead over a year or two decades prior to the formal announcement of extinction as the hope and science helped to what was probably inevitable.

The Top 7 Mammals We've Lost

1. The Bramble Cay Melomys (Melomys rubicola)

Region: Bramble Cay, Torres Strait, Australia

Year Declared Extinct: 2016

The Bramble Cay melomys may rightfully be viewed as the earliest mammalian victim of anthropogenic climate change, and serves as an ominous foreboding of what could be in store for a great number of coastal species.

It was an insignificant little rodent, natively found on only one, very small sand island (Bramble Cay) between Papua New Guinea and Australia. It was a very special, unique isolate and the only mammal species confined to the Great Barrier Reef. The amount of land that it occupied was only 4 Hectares (Approx. 10 acres).

Reason of the extinction: There was no doubt that the main reason was the sea-level rise. Recurrent storm surges and rising ocean inundation salted the soil and destroyed the vegetation upon which the melomys relied as food and shelter. The habitat of the island merely contracted and degrades to reach a level of reversibility. Although there is knowledge of the species, it was too late to salvage the species in a final attempt to rescue it. Its loss is the result of a direct and reported consequence of anthropogenic climate change, a canary in the coal mine concerning island biodiversity.

2. The Western Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis longipes)

Region: Sub-Saharan Africa (Cameroon, primarily)

Year Declared Extinct: 2011

Western black rhino was an imposing and formidable species of the black rhino. One time wandering the savannas of sub-Saharan Africa, its population was wiped away due to the combined effect of the loss of habitat as well as most prominently the rampaging poachers.

The Reason of Extinction: The demand of the rhino horn, a use as ingredients in traditional medications (it has no medical value), as well as the status symbol of a dagger handle among Yemenis, became insatiable, thereby creating a poaching crisis. In the 20th century its numbers declined drastically. Efforts in conservation during the second half of the century failed. By the early 2000s only a few remained and none were seen again after 2006. This is a moribund declaration in 2011 made by the IUCN. It teaches a cruel lesson of the horrible nature of the illegal wildlife trade.

3. The Baiji / Yangtze River Dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer)

Region: Yangtze River, China

Year Declared Extinct: 2006 (Functionally Extinct)

It is especially haunting to lose the Baiji. This swanlike, pale grey dolphin, with it narrow, long beak has been in the Yangtze River of China over 20 million years. It was one of few available freshwater dolphin and played a special role in Chinese culture and mythology as the sign of "Goddess of the Yangtze."

Reasons behind Extinction: The extinction of the Baiji was a case of a death by a thousand cuts all which was caused by the human being. It was industrializing the Yangtze River and it was fatal:

• Ship Traffic Noise: The propellors of ships injured and killed dolphins and ship engine noise disturbed their more advanced sonar.
• Fishing: Birds were a big bycatch of fishing gear. Overfishing had also made their sources of foods finite
• Pollution:The river was contaminated by industrial and agricultural over flows.
• Damming: Such huge projects as the Three Gorges Dam dramatically changed and ruined its habitat.

A survey in depth in 2006 turned up nothing. Although there are unconfirmed sightings, the species is considered functionally extinct- a sad reminder of the price of runaway economic development of our natural ecosystems.

4. The Christmas Island Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus murrayi)

Region: Christmas Island, Australia

Year Declared Extinct: 2017

This is a small, cannibalic bat and it only weighed a few grams; its presence was restricted to Christmas Island. And over years scientists were able to follow its population drop into a catastrophic and inexplicable decline, warning and begging that something needed to be done about it.

The cause of extinction: This chain reaction is complicated, but it is connected to the setting of invasive species. Unintentional introduction of yellow crazy ant introduced ecological pandemonium that wiped out island crabs population which probably caused the increased insect population that the ants were unable to control. This could have spurred increase of wolf snakes-another introduced predator as it fed on the bats. Disease could also have contributed An inaction Tragedy was the last one. A plan to take the remaining few people to have a captive breeding program was delayed controversially to the extent that it was too late to execute the plan. A sad lesson on how bureaucracy can cost is the disappearance of the last bat in 2009 with no hope of their recovery.

5. The Christmas Island Forest Shrew (Crocidura trichura)

Region: Christmas Island, Australia

Year Declared Extinct: 2014 (Assessment, last seen circa 1985)

This medium sized insectivorous shrew has the unfortunate fortune of many other endemic species on Christmas Island. It was the only indigenous land mammal on the island and was described as it having a long snout, a whiskery nose, and brown fur.

Cause of Extinction: The Christmas Island forest shrew is considered to be in decline and eventual extinction due to the same ecological disaster that isfallen on the Christmas Island pipistrelle: loss of land on Christmas Island to invasive organisms. Yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) supercolonies invaded by accident ending in a trophic cascade wiped out the red crab population of the island. This interference probably caused epidemics of other insects and further spread of new predators such as the wolf snake (Lycodon capucinus) and the black rat (Rattus rattus) that fed on the shrew and usurped its insect food. Its frailty was also as a result of Habitat clearance. It ceased being reported with confidence since the mid-1980s, although there are extensive surveys.

6. The Formosan Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa brachyura)

Region: Taiwan

Year Declared Extinct: 2013

This was a gorgeous and elusive cat, which is a subspecies in the clouded leopard and originally inhabited the island of Taiwan. It was also apex predator and held an important position on the island, being renowned due to its cloud-like topographic surface of its fur.

Cause of Extinction: It was extremely harsh habitat loss caused by excessive logging and crop farming which broke up the high-density forests it inhabited. It was also hunted in large numbers over the course of time due to beautiful pelt (used in textiles) and its bones that were used in traditional medicine. There was no sighting on a single individual captured despite several rounds of surveys using camera and scent traps in over 13 years. The final proven encounter was in 1983. Its loss is the erosion of a whole ecological pyramid in the wild of Taiwans.

7. The Little Mariana Fruit Bat (Pteropus tokudae)

Region: Guam, USA

Year Declared Extinct: 2021 (Proposed)

A last sighting of this miniature flying fox was back in 1968. It is native to Guam and died out due to the same processes that have caused extinctions of island species everywhere.

Extinction Cause: The main cause was over-exploitation through hunting by the human community that lived in the area. In addition, the introduction of the invasive brown treesnake to Guam following World War II made for an apocalyptic situation on the island as native birds and bats lacked any natural means of defending themselves against the new predator. One snake in particular exterminated several native species. The USDA had issued its official extinction status and it acts as a warning on the terrible harm that invasive species may cause to secluded ecosystems.

A Way Forward: The lessons of loss

Declaring extinction is not only a terminal point; it remains an important data point on the future of conservation. Each of these losses leaves us with a lesson:

• Climate Change is an Imminent Danger: The extinction of Bramble Cay melomys is a testament that climate change does not pose a threat in the distant future, rather the deadly effects are being felt today.
• The Wildlife Trade is Ravaging: The story with the western black rhino indicates that the demand on the other side of the world can bring a species to extinction.
• Industrial development requires mitigation:The case of the Baiji is a lesson to achieve a healthy balance between the economy and the environment, particularly in the preservation of freshwater and marine ecosystems.
• Invasive Species are Ecosystem Murderers: The non-native predation described in the Christmas Island Pipistrelle and Little Mariana Fruit Bat wholeheartedly prove the need of biosecurity to encompass the entry of alien competitors and predators.
• Crippling Bureaucracy: The bureaucracy is highlighted by the fact that pipistrelle died out. The fact that pipistrelle perished due to bureaucratic delay highlights the urgency necessitated in rushing a coherent and aggressive conservation funding be executed when the animal is on the edge of peril.

Finally, a Way Forward: Being Vigilant.

It is not an exercise in despair that seven mammals are recalled, but one that is in resolve. The situations around their stories are heart breaking but they have to serve to solidify our determination to conserve the remaining biodiversity that is marvelous. Other species such as the Vaquita porpoise and the Northern white rhino are on the very brink of extinction. They are still in the process of being written up with regard to their fate

Conservationists, researchers and members of local communities around the globe have succeeded in bringing creatures such as the black-footed ferret and the California condor back to life. We know, and with enough will, have the resources, to stop further extinctions. By donating to conservation organizations, choosing sustainable consumer options, participating in efforts to secure effective environmental policies, and placing a better relationship to the natural world, we will at least make sure the ranks of recently extinct mammals will stop expanding. Neither can the memory of these lost species be satisfied with less.