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Extinction of Species

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Re: Extinction of Species

#51

Post by Volkonski »

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: Extinction of Species

#52

Post by RTH10260 »

See - i say it all the times - No Climate Change!

:twisted:
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Re: Extinction of Species

#53

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Haven't seen any bats here on the North Fork for 2 years. Before the pandemic bats used to fly in figure 8s over our front yard.
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Re: Extinction of Species

#54

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“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: Extinction of Species

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“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Extinction of Species

#56

Post by Volkonski »

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Extinction of Species

#57

Post by Volkonski »

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Extinction of Species

#58

Post by AndyinPA »

:(
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
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the non-extinction part (breeding success) is far down the article
The houbara’s flight from extinction
For Arab falconers, the houbara — a bug-eyed, long-necked, spindly-legged creature the size of a turkey — was always the king of game birds. Today, it’s a symbol of conservation in the Arabian Peninsula. How did it come back from the brink?

Wednesday 09 November 2022 14:41

Not many bird species can lay claim to their very own museum. An exhibition perhaps, or maybe a dedicated area in an aviary, but a whole museum?

However, in May 2019, the world’s first — and probably only ever — houbara museum opened in Saudi Arabia’s Al Qassim Park, a joint project from the International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC) and Saudi Arabia’s Al Qassim Region. Aimed at highlighting the importance of protecting the species, it bears testimony to the cultural and environmental importance of the Asian houbara.

So why does the houbara, with its long neck and spindly legs, hold such a special place in Arabic culture?

Falconry is a tradition that goes back millennia in Arabic culture. It’s so significant it has been inscribed on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Much has remained unchanged in the sport over its long history. The hunter is always a falcon, and the houbara has always held the dubious honour of being the quarry of choice. Said to have aphrodisiac qualities, it is prized for its meat.

As long as hunting parties were small and the number of birds caught could be replenished, a balance was maintained. It is the huge increase in the scale of hunts that has left the houbara on the edge of extinction. Ahmed Boug, general director of terrestrial studies at Saudi Arabia’s National Center for Wildlife (NCW), says, “This activity has lasted for thousands of years, which means traditionally it was dealt with in a sustainable way. In the last decades, hunting has been carried out in an unsustainable way.”

With convoys of all-terrain vehicles now able to access areas that would once have been too remote or challenging to reach, and with flocks of falcons being flown each time, the number of birds killed per hunt has increased exponentially. Add to that habitat decline and an increase in the number of birds captured alive, in order to train falcons, the houbara is now classified as ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List.




https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-c ... 17747.html
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Florida manatees facing starvation fed through program

https://apnews.com/article/florida-plan ... ce=Twitter
Along Florida’s East Coast, threatened manatees are fed and offered supplies through an unprecedented program that tackles the recurring, pollution-related starvation crisis, wildlife officials said Wednesday.

With winter approaching and water temperatures dropping, a program that feeds lettuce to the marine mammals at a warm-water power plant near Cape Canaveral enters its second year.

“Now is the time for things to start ramping back up,” said Jon Wallace of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during an online news conference. “If we have a significant event this year, which we are hoping we won’t have, we’ll be ready for that.”

The second year of the feeding program comes after a record 1,101 manatee deaths in 2021, mostly due to starvation as pollution from farm, urban and other sources decimates the seagrass on which the animals depend. So far this year, 765 manatee deaths have been confirmed through Dec. 9.
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Extinction of Species

#61

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

SURANIS ALERT!

https://www.treehugger.com/endangered-p ... re-7107347

9-Year-Old Pocket Mouse Named 'Oldest Living Mouse in Human Care'
The tiny, endangered mouse is part of a San Diego Zoo conservation breeding and reintroduction program.


Endemic to a narrow strip of coastal scrublands, dunes, and riverbanks that once stretched from Los Angeles to the Tijuana River Valley, their numbers started declining sharply in the 1930s, thanks to human encroachment and habitat degradation. In fact, the Pacific pocket mouse was considered extinct for several decades. But in 1994, a small population was rediscovered at Orange County’s Dana Point headlands. It turns out there were a few small populations left, but they were isolated by distance and manmade barriers.

Enter the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, which launched the Pacific pocket mouse conservation breeding and reintroduction program in 2012 to help save the species from extinction. The first year of the program saw the birth of Pat (named after actor Sir Patrick Stewart), who was born on July 14, 2013.

Now, at 9 years and 209 days old, Guinness World Records has awarded Pat the title of "Oldest Living Mouse in Human Care."

As the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance notes in a press statement announcing the new record, the title is "a win for all the tiny but mighty—and often overlooked—species around the world that play an important role in their ecosystems." The Pacific pocket mouse is noteworthy for their dispersing of native plant seeds and abetting plant growth through their digging activities.

Many of these mice will be reintroduced into native habitats this spring.

While there is much debate about zoos, the pocket mouse program is a good example of how some zoos have pivoted from entertainment to conservation. In addition to the Alliance's breeding program, the researchers study behavior, ecology, genetics, microbiome, and physiology to "best support genetically diverse, healthy and behaviorally competent mice that are well prepared for reintroduction into native habitats."
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Extinction of Species

#62

Post by Lani »

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: Sat Feb 11, 2023 10:56 am SURANIS ALERT!

https://www.treehugger.com/endangered-p ... re-7107347
:snippity:
Pictures in the article. This is a really very tiny mouse. Also cute.
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#63

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Endangered African penguin chicks hatch at Arizona aquarium

https://apnews.com/article/science-fish ... da50c82224
An Arizona aquarium is celebrating the hatching of three endangered African penguin chicks, saying the tiny additions are genetically valuable as zoos and aquariums around the world work to ensure the species’ survival through breeding programs and conservation efforts.

Officials at OdySea Aquarium made the announcement Friday, posting video of the fuzzy birds on social media. They hatched a few weeks ago and will remain behind the scenes with their parents until they’re ready for a public appearance.

African penguins have suffered a massive population decline over the decades and are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

So any successful hatching is cause for celebration, said Jess Peranteau, director of animal care and education at the aquarium.

“As the population of the African penguin continues to rapidly decline — down 23% in the past two years alone — OdySea Aquarium remains committed to the survival of the species in partnership with other Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ accredited facilities,” Peranteau said in a statement.
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#64

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

https://www.treehugger.com/monarch-butt ... ow-7370271
Monarch Butterflies Will Go Extinct if We Don't Take Action Now
This is not a drill.


Monarch butterflies perform one of the most mind-bending feats in the animal kingdom. Weighing just half a gram, they fly on wafer-thin wings through cities and across interstates, migrating up to 2,800 miles from Canada and the United States to their wintering grounds in the forests of Mexico.

They grace our gardens with delight along the way and perform pollinating services that include contributions to healthy ecosystems and support for agricultural food production.

Yet they have been in perilous decline over the years—and despite the efforts of many, without more people getting on board, we run the risk of losing them altogether.

"In just one year, the presence of monarch butterflies in their wintering grounds [in Mexico] dropped 22%, from 7 acres to nearly 5.5. acres. This is part of a mostly downward trend over the past 25 years—when monarchs once covered more than 45 acres of forest," reports World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
:snippity:
“Despite heroic efforts to save monarchs by planting milkweed, we could still lose these extraordinary butterflies by not taking bolder action,” said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a letter sent to Treehugger. “Monarchs were once incredibly common. Now they’re the face of the extinction crisis as U.S. populations crash amid habitat loss and the climate meltdown.”

Threats to the Monarchs
As explained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which placed monarchs on the Endangered—Red List in 2022: "Legal and illegal logging and deforestation to make space for agriculture and urban development has already destroyed substantial areas of the butterflies’ winter shelter in Mexico and California, while pesticides and herbicides used in intensive agriculture across the range kill butterflies and milkweed, the host plant that the larvae of the monarch butterfly feed on."

In the U.S., the butterflies have lost around 165 million acres of breeding habitat to herbicide spraying and development in the last few decades. "The caterpillars only eat milkweed, but the plant has been devastated by increased herbicide spraying in conjunction with corn and soybean crops that have been genetically engineered to tolerate direct spraying. The butterflies are also threatened by neonicotinoid insecticides, fungicides, and other chemicals that are toxic to young caterpillars," notes the Center for Food Safety (CFS). In 2014, scientists led by the Center for Biological Diversity and CFS petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the butterfly under the Endangered Species Act.

According to WWF, the dwindling numbers leave the butterfly "highly vulnerable to extinction."

“It is not just about conserving a species, it’s also about conserving a unique migratory phenomenon in nature,” said WWF-Mexico’s General Director Jorge Rickards. “Monarchs contribute to healthy and diverse terrestrial ecosystems across North America as they carry pollen from one plant to another. With 80% of agricultural food production depending on pollinators like monarchs, when people help the species, we are also helping ourselves.”
:snippity:
https://www.treehugger.com/make-food-st ... rs-4858585
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#65

Post by RVInit »

We have been members of MonarchWatch.com for years. It's a great site for getting information about setting up your yard as a monarch waystation, full of food and larval plants. It's pretty easy to convince neighbors to do the same when they start asking why all the butterflies seem to always be heading over the fence and into your yard.

We used to tag them, but haven't done that in a few years. But we keep up the milkweed as well as other butterfly species larval plants and lots of native nectar plants as well.

https://monarchwatch.org/
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#66

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Rosalynn Carter butterfly trail

https://rosalynncarterbutterflytrail.org/
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#67

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

https://www.treehugger.com/make-food-st ... rs-4858585
Make Food for Struggling Monarch Butterflies Using Your Leftovers
Monarchs need food and you can help.
O

Considered a pesky nuisance by many, milkweed is often weeded into oblivion. Both milkweed and nectar plants are vulnerable to the herbicides used by landscapers, farmers, and gardeners, and others—not to mention the lethal impact insecticides have on the butterflies.

Re-establishing milkweed is crucial. So if you have an extra patch of dirt, perhaps consider planting some milkweed. In the meantime, you can also help the flitting lovelies by using leftovers to make butterfly food—a perfect win-win!

Recipe Using Old Fruit
The National Wildlife Federation suggests using a plate and adding fruit that is going bad. Butterflies are particularly fond of sliced, rotting oranges, grapefruits, strawberries, peaches, nectarines apples, and bananas—they benefit from the nutrient-rich liquid of the rotting, fermenting fruit. Simply place on plates and put outside. The mixture can be kept moist by adding water or fruit juice.

Recipe Using Beer & Bananas
From "The Butterfly Garden," by Matthew Tekulsky (Harvard Common Press, 1985) comes this formula which makes use of old bananas and flat beer. It is based on much of the same premise as above, but it has more ingredients. The delivery is different as well.

1 pound sugar
1 or 2 cans stale beer
3 mashed overripe banana
1 cup of molasses or syrup
1 cup of fruit juice
1 shot of rum
Mix all ingredients well and paint on trees, fence posts, rocks, or stumps–or simply soak a sponge in the mixture and hang from a tree limb.

Simple Sugar Water
Master Gardener Bobbie Truell from Texas A & M University recommends this simple alternative food source.

4 parts water
1 part granulated sugar
1. Boil the solution for several minutes until sugar is dissolved, and then let cool. Serve the solution in a shallow container with an absorbent material such as paper towels saturated with the sugar solution.

2. Bright yellow and orange kitchen scouring pads may be placed in the solution to attract butterflies and give them a resting place while they drink.

3. Place the feeder among your nectar flowers on a post that's 4-6 inches higher than the tallest blooms. Extra solution can be stored in your refrigerator for up to a week.
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Why are India’s lions increasingly swapping the jungle for the beach?
The last of the world’s Asiatic lions live in Gujarat state, but as the apex predators outgrow their forest reserve, they are moving to the seaside

Sushmita Pathak
Fri 19 May 2023 06.00 BST

It was one morning, while walking on the beach in Gujarat, that wildlife expert Meena Venkataraman spotted a pair of paw prints. But this was no dog or fox that had visited. The footprints belonged to an Asiatic lion, the king of the jungle – and, increasingly, the beach.

Once found throughout Mesopotamia, Persia and the Indian subcontinent, the Asiatic lion was almost driven to extinction by the early 1900s due to hunting and habitat loss, before a nawab in the western Indian state of Gujarat intervened. Today, the state is the only home of the Asiatic lion.

While most of the nearly 700 animals counted in 2020 are found in the dry, deciduous terrain of the Gir forest and its surrounding protected areas, many have been moving to seaside locales.

Between 2010 and 2020, the number of lions living along Gujarat’s coast rose from 20 to 104, and forest officials in Gujarat say coastal habitats are now the most significant of all satellite habitats that the lions occupy.

Finding lions in coastal areas is not unprecedented – in Namibia, lions have adapted to the beach, where they hunt seals – but in India it is unusual, says Venkataraman, principal consultant at Carnivore Conservation and Research.

“Lions using the sandy beach and walking at the edge of the sea is an incredible sight. I have had the good luck to see that a few times,” she says.




https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -beach-aoe
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Species of mammal named after David Attenborough believed extinct rediscovered
Long-beaked echidna with spines of a hedgehog and snout of an anteater photographed on last day of expedition

Reuters
Fri 10 Nov 2023 08.31 CET

Scientists have rediscovered a long-lost species of mammal described as having the spines of a hedgehog, the snout of an anteater and the feet of a mole, in Indonesia’s Cyclops Mountains more than 60 years after it was last recorded.

Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna, named after British naturalist David Attenborough, was photographed for the first timesince 1961 by a trail camera on the last day of a four-week expedition led by Oxford University scientists in June and July.

Having descended from the mountains at the end of the trip, biologist James Kempton found the images of the small creature walking through the forest undergrowth on the last memory card retrieved from more than 80 remote cameras.

“There was a great sense of euphoria, and also relief having spent so long in the field with no reward until the very final day,” he said, describing the moment he first saw the footage with collaborators from Indonesian conservation group Yappenda.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... os-footage
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Post by Volkonski »

GOING EXTINCT IN TEXAS
Declaring an endangered species officially gone can take decades.


https://www.texasobserver.org/extinct-s ... -gambusia/
Getting a species declared extinct, it turns out, is tough. In Texas and nationwide, there are many plant and animal species that haven’t been seen in decades but still have not been delisted.

Extinction questions involve a lot of science and, often, a lot of human emotions—especially when someone sights a plant or animal that was thought to be extinct. “You have these very hardened researchers literally shaking or breaking down into tears,” said Tania Homayoun, an ornithologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). “There’s a lot wrapped up in it when you let yourself process what that means, to be in the presence of something that is almost gone from the planet.”

An extinction decision means that federal and state protections and conservation funding are removed for the species, so it’s done with great caution. Reported sightings of species that had been missing for a long time are hard to verify, but they can be enough to keep a species from being “delisted” as extinct.

One reason for the hesitancy to declare a species extinct is that there isn’t enough funding to frequently sample—find and count—the species. In Texas, 1,300 species have been designated as “rare or in danger of declining,” and an additional 240 are listed as endangered or threatened. In many cases, especially with plants, conservation experts trying to find rare or endangered species may be relying on sightings from years ago, before GPS coordinates were available. They often need to go onto private land, perhaps at certain times of the year, to find and count a plant species, and they don’t always get permission to do it.

A plant “may only occur on one specific type of limestone … at the edge of a seep. … They may only come up after three inches of rain in July,” said Michael Eason, the botanist in charge of the rare plant collection at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. “A lot of these places are really difficult to get to.” Even Big Bend National Park, which many people consider remote, rough, and inaccessible, is easier to navigate than some of the places researchers need to access on private land. For most of the landowners he works with, Eason said, it’s a source of pride to find out their property harbors rare plants. “Just them knowing that they have that on their property allows them to protect those areas.”

Unsurprisingly, Texas agencies focus first on endangered or threatened species that are endemic to Texas—that is, only found here.

In the case of the tiny San Marcos gambusia, University of Texas at Austin ichthyologist Robert Edwards began studying the little fish almost as soon as it was scientifically described in 1969. Even then, it was threatened by dropping water levels, pollution, and manmade changes to its environment. And it prospered only in a narrow range of water temperatures. He successfully bred it in his lab in the late 1970s. But when he sent that batch to a New Mexico fishery that specialized in breeding endangered species, the gambusia died during their first too-cold winter. After that, Edwards went back to the San Marcos River and found three males and one female of that species but could never get them to reproduce. By 1983, the San Marcos gambusia appeared to be gone.
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Mass deaths of elephant seals recorded as bird flu sweeps across the Antarctic
Researchers warn of one of ‘largest ecological disasters of modern times’ if the highly contagious disease reaches penguin colonies


https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... saster-aoe
Bird flu is spreading in the Antarctic, with hundreds of elephant seals found dead, and fears it could bring “one of the largest ecological disasters of modern times” if the highly contagious virus reaches the remote penguin populations.

The virus was first reported among brown skua on Bird Island, off South Georgia. Since then, researchers and observers have reported mass deaths of elephant seals, as well as increased deaths of fur seals, kelp gulls and brown skua at several other sites. Cases have been confirmed 900 miles (1,500km) west of South Georgia, among southern fulmar on the Falkland Islands.

Dr Meagan Dewar, chair of the Antarctic Wildlife Health Network, told the Guardian that the situation among southern elephant seals was concerning. “At some sites we’ve had mass mortalities, where we are getting into the hundreds,” she said. “There is a likely chance it could be avian influenza.”

So far tests have confirmed bird flu deaths at eight sites across the Antarctic, and the disease is suspected with confirmation from tests still pending at 20 further sites where animals have died.

:snippity:

“If the virus does start to cause mass mortality events across penguin colonies, it could signal one of the largest ecological disasters of modern times,” researchers wrote in a pre-print research paper last month.

Many species in the Antarctic are found nowhere else, so the consequences for the region of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) spreading are unknown.

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research said recently: “Given the dense breeding colonies of wildlife in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions, HPAI is expected to have devastating impacts on the wildlife and to lead to catastrophic breeding failure and mortality events in the region.”

The virus has killed an estimated 20,000 sea lions in Chile and Peru. Dewar said: “If we start to get outbreaks similar to what we’ve seen in South America that could have very big impacts. Emperor penguins and chinstrap penguins have been taking significant declines, so if we get large outbreaks in those species, that could cause further pressure on those colonies.”
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‘Grief is a rational response’: the 21 US species declared extinct this year
Hawaii hardest hit by loss of eight birds, with an Ohio catfish, a Pacific fruit bat and eight freshwater mussels also disappearing

Maanvi Singh
Fri 29 Dec 2023 13.00 CET

The Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, a small black and yellow bird with glossy feathers and a haunting song, was the last surviving member of the Hawaiian honeyeaters. This year, it was officially declared extinct.

The ōʻō was one of 21 species that the US Fish and Wildlife Service removed from the endangered species list in 2023 because they had vanished from the wild. Gone is the little Mariana fruit bat – also known as the Guam flying fox – and the bridled white-eye, which was once one of the most common birds on that island. So too, are the Scioto madtom, a diminutive, whiskered catfish that lived in Ohio, and the Bachman’s warbler, which summered in the US south and wintered in Cuba. Eight freshwater mussels in the south-east are officially extinct, as are eight Hawaiian birds.

The delisting, which was finalised in November after two years of study and consideration, came as no surprise to biologists and conservationists. Many of these species had not been seen in decades. But the announcement was a sobering reminder that the climate crisis and habitat destruction are accelerating an extinction crisis that threatens 2 million species globally.

For the scientists and environmentalists who have been working to protect these species, the delisting has been a moment to mourn – and to galvanise. “It’s a horrible tragedy,” said the ecologist and author Carl Safina. “And I think it is a breach of our moral guardrails.”



https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -this-year
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Post by Volkonski »

Humans have altered the Earth so much that migratory animals are facing extinction

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/12/climate/ ... index.html
Of the 1,189 creatures listed by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, or CMS, more than one in five are threatened.

They include species from all sorts of animal groups — whales, sharks, elephants, wild cats, raptors, birds and insects, among others.

Some 44% of those species listed are undergoing population declines, the report said. Most alarming is the state of the world’s migratory fish: Nearly all, 97%, of those listed are threatened with extinction.

The report is the first inventory to assess the status of migratory species and how they are trying to survive in a world dramatically changed by humans. It found the two biggest threats were overexploitation and loss of habitat because of human activity, such as clearing land for farming, roads and infrastructure. Those activities also fragment migratory species’ pathways, sometimes making it impossible for them to complete their journeys.

Around 58% of the monitored locations recognized as important for migratory species are facing what the CMS says are unsustainable levels of pressure from humans.

Climate change and pollution are also major threats. Warmer temperatures not only force some species to travel farther, but can also lead animals to move at different times of year. That can mean missing out on prey or a mate for breeding.
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Extinction of Species

#75

Post by Volkonski »

Rare gray whale, extinct in the Atlantic for 200 years, spotted near Nantucket

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ra ... rcna142006
The whale was spotted 30 miles south of Nantucket on March 1, seen diving and resurfacing, appearing to feed, the aquarium said in a news release.

The aquarium’s aerial survey team circled the area of the whale for about 45 minutes and took photos, and later confirmed it was indeed a rare gray whale.

“My brain was trying to process what I was seeing, because this animal was something that should not really exist in these waters,” research technician Kate Laemmle, who was in the survey plane, said in a statement. “We were laughing because of how wild and exciting this was — to see an animal that disappeared from the Atlantic hundreds of years ago!”

Gray whales, which lack a dorsal fin, have mottled grey and white skin, a dorsal hump and pronounced ridges, are usually found in the North Pacific Ocean.

The species had disappeared from the Atlantic Ocean by the 18th century, in part due to whaling, the aquarium said. However, five have been observed in the Atlantic and Mediterranean waters in the last 15 years, including a sighting in December off the coast of Florida.

The aquarium said scientists believe the gray whale they spotted is the same one sighted in Florida late last year.

So, why are the sightings happening now? Scientists say climate change plays part.

"The Northwest Passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific through the Arctic Ocean in Canada, has regularly been ice-free in the summertime in recent years, partly due to rising global temperatures," the aquarium said.

With the sea ice that usually limits the range of gray whales gone, gray whales can "potentially travel the Passage in the summer, something that wouldn’t have been possible in the previous century," the release said.
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