Wish you were here

(a small sampling)

I recently touched on the topic of mass extinctions in this post.

To repeat: Estimates vary, but perhaps as many as 50,000 animal and plant species become extinct each year. That’s about 137 per day and about 5.7 per hour. 

Then again, who knows how high the actual numbers are when they come from “experts”? 

Either way, human culture appears to be responsible for a startling loss of flora and fauna. For example, the continent of Africa was once home to the Atlas Bear, so named because it roamed the Atlas Mountains from Morocco to Libya (also once home to the now-extinct Barbary Lion and Barbary Leopard). 

Hunted for sport [sic] and often captured and used for the execution of criminals since the time of the Roman Empire's expansion into North Africa, the last Atlas Bear was believed to be shot and killed in the Tetouan Mountains in northern Morocco in 1870. 

Here’s a small sampling of some other now-bygone creatures: 

Sea Mink, Rodrigues Pigeon, Panay Giant Fruit Bat, Poko Noctuid Moth, Procellaris Grotis Noctuid Moth, Great Auk, Bubal Hartebeest, Mauritius Blue Pigeon, Egyptian Barbary Sheep, Amsterdam Island Duck, Cuban Red Macaw, Ascension Flightless Crake, Eastern Bettong. Réunion Flightless Ibis, Desert Rat-kangaroo, Eastern Elk, Longjaw Cisco, Deepwater Cisco, Lake Ontario Kiyi, Blackfin Cisco, Yellowfin Cutthroat Trout, Maravillas Red Shiner, Independence Valley Tui Chub, Pahranagat Spinedace, Phantom Shiner, Bluntnose Shiner, Las Vegas Dace, Grass Valley Speckled Dace, Clear Lake Splittail, Snake River Sucker, Harelip Sucker, and Tecopa Pupfish. 

Schomburgk's Deer. Kona Grosbeak, Ryukyu Pigeon, Bonin Wood Pigeon, Big Thicket Hog-nosed Skunk, White-footed Tree-rat, Carolina Parakeet, New Zealand Quail, Black-fronted Parakeet, Chatham Island Swan, Western quoll, Philippine Bare-backed Fruit Bat, King Island Emu, Falkland Island Wolf, Passenger Pigeon, Puerto Rican Shrew, Guam Flying Fox, Penasco Chipmunk, Pallid Beach Mouse, Atlantic Gray Whale, Kenai Peninsula Wolf, Newfoundland Wolf, Banks Island Wolf, Cascade Mountains Wolf, Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf, Mogollon Mountain Wolf, Texas Gray Wolf, Florida Red Wolf, California Grizzly Bear, Tacoma Pocket Gopher, Tennessee Riffleshell (mussel), Sampson's Pearlymussel (Wabash Riffleshell), and Syrian Wild Ass.

Burly Lesser Moa, Arabian Gazelle, Red Gazelle, Saudi Gazelle, Goff's Southeastern Pocket Gopher, Confused Moth, Steller's Sea Cow, Lesser Stick-nest Rat, Mauritius Grey Parrot, Bavarian Vole, Indian Seal, Black-footed Ferret, Lanai Thrush, New Zealand Greater Short-tailed Bat, Long-tailed Hopping-mouse, Nelson's Rice Rat, Chadwick Beach Cotton Mouse, Cape Warthog, Scioto Pigtoe (clam), Barbados Raccoon, Tahitian Sandpiper, Okinawa Flying Fox, Slender-billed Grackle, Dodo, Lesser Koa Finch, Greater Koa Finch, Mauritian Owl, White-faced Owl, Arizona Cotton Rat, Kansas Bog Lemming, Mexican Grizzly Bear, Japanese Sea Lion, and West African Black Rhino.

For a species designed to provide stewardship to the earth, we humans have a long way to go.

Today feels like a great day to start turning that around. 

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