A Series of Unfortunate Extinctions
Throughout the last 200 years, the earth has seen unprecedented changes to its human and wildlife population, its environmental balances, and its climate. The years following the second industrial revolution accelerated the rate of change like never before causing wildlife to shrink by 60% after 1970.
Looking back at the historical records of naturalists and adventurers one might begin to wonder if some animals were indeed citizens of our planet, or it is one of those brilliant inventions of a fiction writer. It is hard to imagine that just a few decades ago Mexico had seen its own grizzly bear, Tasmania hosted a dog-like tiger and the Bering Sea was home to a gigantic ten tons aquatic mammal — a Steller’s Sea Cow.
These examples of extinct species are both fascinating and educational. They contain crucial learnings that could aid our own survival. With all the micro and macro environments interconnected in one global and fragile network changes in balances far away from where you are now might bring about changes you would never expect.
Mexican Grizzly Bears
Some 70 years ago a Silver Bear roamed the northern territories of Mexico sometimes going into the states of New Mexico and Arizona in the USA. Smaller than their cousins from Canada and the US, Mexican Grizzly Bears were mainly feeding on plants, fruits, insects, and small mammals, and lived a solitary life in grasslands and mountain pine forests.
However, these gracious and calm creatures were not well understood by people at that time which led to a quick and blind wipeout of an entire species. Thinking it would protect the cattle, in the mid-20 century Mexican ranchers launched a campaign to kill all Mexican Grizzly Bears with the last grizzly bear seen in the region in 1968. This became an infamous example of trading survival of wildlife for money to ride a wave of meat demand.
Around the world places previously inhabited by bears now stand empty with just national symbols reminding about the presence of these majestic animals. Among these places are Egypt, Germany, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Netherlands, Portugal, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom.
Tasmanian Tiger
Black and white footage of a last known Tasmanian Tiger Benjamin from Hobart Zoo is a reminder that what we see today might not be available to witness tomorrow. Dog-like Tasmanian Tigers were once populous night hunters in both Australia and Tasmania who following tough competition with Dingo eventually settled and ruled Tasmania island.
Similar to Mexican Grizzly Bears, Tasmanian Tigers were perceived as a threat to sheep and chickens by colonizers who arrived from Europe. Ridiculously enough Tasmanian government offered a bounty for Tigers’ scalps in 1888 causing the whole population of species to go extinct by the mid-20 century. Some believe that people’s aggression against Tasmanian tigers was manipulated, as with this example of a possibly staged photo of one of Tasmanian Tigers.
Australia stands out as an example of a human impact. Since European colonization around 250 years ago, Australia lost some 100 animal and plant species. Similar to the last Tasmanian Tiger they will forever remain only in books and on archive records.
Though not everything might seem gloom and doom. Scientists and environmentalists hope that Tasmanian Tigers might have miraculously survived the eradication order and could still be hiding in the Tasmanian wilderness far from people and civilization.
Steller’s Sea Cow
Like many other wild species, Steller’s Sea Cow hasn’t had an opportunity to enjoy long and happy coexistence with humans. It took only 27 years from the moment Georg Steller added the Sea Cow to the list of species until Sea Cows became history.
Toothless gigantic mammals were awkward onshore but gracious in the water. Floating on the surface Sea Cows were feeding on seaweed and kelp reaching the length of a transit bus and weighing up to ten tons.
The slow giant mammal unable to submerge was too easy a target for harpooning from passing ships leading to wasteful killings for food and fur.
As a matter of fact, the Sea Cows population was on a decline years before they were hunted down. Unfortunately for us though, their prior decline was also caused by a human impact, just indirectly. One of Sea Cows’ primary food sources was kelp which ran low numbers caused by the unusual spread of sea urchins. The urchins spread in turn was caused by sea otters (who eat urchins) being hunted down by fur traders.
And once more, this example shows how interconnected the world is, where a seemingly small change can lead to a ripple effect across the globe and across the ecosystems.
Unfortunately, people’s greed and unsustainable living didn’t stop with Tasmanian Tigers, Sea Cows, and Mexican Grizzly Bears. Species direct and indirect eradication continues today causing wildlife to decline at rates never seen before. As a matter of example, Pangolins have been declared to be the most trafficked animal in the world, with approximately one pangolin poached every five minutes.
10,000 years ago wildlife mammals accounted for 99% of all mammals on the planet earth. Today, uncontrolled hunting, illegal poaching, deforestation, and unsustainable farming left us only 4% of all mammals to represent the variety and richness of the wildlife.
While we cannot go back and fix mistakes of the past we all can take steps today to help the planet heal. Fortunately for us, our planet is resilient to sustain the damages we made so far. With the right and united actions, there is hope that the animals at the edge of extinction will come back to their original numbers, nature will find ways to clear the water and freshen the air, and ecosystems will once again find their balances ensuring happy and long coexistence for all of us.
This article couldn’t have been possible without inspiration, support and illustrations by Alya.
