ipostcapybaraswheneveriwantyourenotmymom
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Jul 5, 2018 11:50 AM
ipostcapybaraswheneveriwantyourenotmymom
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krotuskang
That hasst eagle was a monster
easytigger
Fun fact: we tried to bring back Aurochs. Turns out, they're holy shit dangerous, so now we're just letting them die. Look up Heck cattle.
swefur
The size comparison to the entire world is truly terrifying.
reykjavikparadise
Riiiiiiiiiiight just pick the cute animals and leave out the eradication of actual descrutive pests like the great plains locust in 1880
chewbabka
I am surprised a fish wouldn’t last in a desert.
Hutchy01
Let's try add Mosquitoes to this infographic
InvalidUserCreator
We lost wild ass, this is really bad!
pfsar
Soon there will be some pretty major species on this list that you’ll be able to say “I remember when those were still around”...
Greytrek90
One of the black rhino species is already on there. I don't want to think about seeing the white rhino, the African elephant, any giraffes..
BannedFrom12DifferentHotTopics
You know what? I’m all for animals but I’m really glad the Elephant Bird doesn’t exist anymore because that would be terrifying
Hungrypiemonger
there was one tortoise species that wasn't named until around 300 years after their discovery cus they were too busy eating them.
AxelBeingCivil
A huge number of bird and small animal species are threatened because people let their cats run loose. Don't let cats outside, people.
peachesforme
many of these that are extinct are because of introduction of cats to areas. dodo for an example
AxelBeingCivil
Indeed, though dodos were also deliberately hunted and killed and their habitat actively destroyed.
Halzjones
Don’t forget the Eastern Cougar, officially declared extinct in 2011.
ImNotReallyADoctor
I for one would be scared to see giant ass birds running around... they look like they would have an emu-type temperment too.. or cassowary
uhuhuuhuuuuAahAaaaaahAAAAAAAh
Didn't know a bird this big existed not that long ago!
cbale2000
In the relative span of history, still a pretty small impact.
SumnerK
What people always forget/ignore is that species go extinct/discovered ALL THE TIME. More are found every year than die off. It's life
InnsmouthTourist
And here I thought Madagascar was one of the safest places on the world. They close their borders when a guy in Russia sneezes
theitinerantnaturalist
The reason they’re so strict is BECAUSE of how much shit humans already have done.
Greytrek90
Probably because of this history - same with NZ.
ZimbabweDuBoise
If they were a little faster or better at hiding, we wouldn't be having this conversation now would we?
Kayback
How many species have died out without human interference? Like 90% of all those that have ever lived?
Flyndaran
How many people have died out without me murdering them? Your implication is a bit douchey.
Navrodel
Probably way more than that! However, as far as we can tell, no other organism has overrun so many other species.
Navrodel
We're almost a Geologically Significant extinction event, without any help from volcanic of meteoric forces!
Flyndaran
Not almost. We are the cause of a major global extinction event.
ajpimpsalll
way way WAY more than that. Hell, there are at least 5 prehistoric extinction events that killed 90%, and extinction happens all the time.
TheWhiteBarry
At least. But that doesn't make for a catchy headline. Meanwhile top comments are all ugh humans are the worst!
Sphinxycat
Not the laughing owl ffs.
SpaghettiHeresy
Question: Is it viable & ethical to clone from extinct animals' DNA to create new ones? Like from Jurrasic Park movie yada yada. :/
imuglyandimproudd
“Ethical” is such a bs word.
missindianajones
There was a group working on bringing the aurochs back. Last i heard they were halted on incubation stage.
Brute0808
There's several "backbreeding" groups working on quaggas and aurochs, but these will in the end "only" produce similar looking hybrids (1)
Brute0808
as the resulting offspring wont be anymore related to the extinct species than the modern breeds used to produce it is.
theitinerantnaturalist
If we killed them off, its ethical. Viability is more of an issue
GhostofBillyMays
Viable and ethical yes, just extremely difficult, passenger pigeon is in the works according to science.
SheTurnedMeIntoANewtButIGotBetter
Where do they carry passengers? In coconuts?
Robvp
African or European?
FWSBASH
I replied below this but thought I'd share here too. There is a TED talk that goes into detail about the passenger pigeon what to consider.
FWSBASH
https://www.ted.com/talks/stewart_brand_the_dawn_of_de_extinction_are_you_ready
Jasani
.
cyno01
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleistocene_Park At some point they want mammoths.
Brute0808
Depends. Jurassic Park wont happen, but bringing back extinct animals from more recent days has been proven as possible at least once (1)
Brute0808
in the case of the pyrenean ibex, where a clone was produced but died from birth defects shortly after. As for ethics, the question is (2)
Brute0808
Wether to use resources on cloning extinct animals that may have no home to go back to or to use it to preserve other endangered species.
LupusLilium
Viable probably, but I wouldn't think ethically. There's a good chance that some of the ones we drove into extinction were also trying to do
LupusLilium
the same to other species, plus, any chance for them to easily survive in the wild is gone. The world itself doesn't remember them.
LordKagrenac
They did this with the pyrenean ibex, but the clone died shortly after from lung failure I believe
upinthebutt
Aren’t they trying to do something like that with the woolly mammoth?
hayatheart
I’d say yes and yes, but genetic diversity would be a real concern in the new population. Also need to make sure we won’t kill them again.
peachesforme
i'm sure some rich trophy hunter would love to have an extinct animal taxidermied in their living room as a show of fake penis
FlyinDutchman88
I was interested in that as well!
FWSBASH
I love this question, there is a TED talk that talks about this exact issue. See reply:
FWSBASH
https://www.ted.com/talks/stewart_brand_the_dawn_of_de_extinction_are_you_ready
YourMomJokes
i just watched it. it's super possible. i remember talking with one of my professors about this (wooly mammoths) back in 2005.
FWSBASH
If you didn't watch it to summarize, it's possible however they would need to consider their impact on existing animals.
FWSBASH
An example of this is the reintroduction of wolves into YellowStone National Park.
FWSBASH
https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem
Flyndaran
I don't think so as they wouldn't have a natural environment to live in. They'd be made purely for shitty zoos and experimentation.
NexiKuro
It depends, if we manage to solve this whole global warming thing and want the earth back to how it was these techniques are gonna be useful
NeverEnoughPuppyLove
I think it really depends on the species. If it's a keystone sp., it could POSSIBLY have a beneficial effect on the proper ecosystem. 1/
NeverEnoughPuppyLove
But just bcuz they can doesn't mean it's terribly ethical to revive a species other than sheer preservation. As much as I would love to see2
NeverEnoughPuppyLove
The revival of extinct species, does not mean that science SHOULD...3/3
Gulanga
Never understood the motivation. You will spend enormous amounts of money on an animal that does not have a place any more. All you will do-
Gulanga
-is create expensive animals that noone will let free because poaching prizes will be insane. So it will suffer behind bars for gawkers. -
Gulanga
- I love animals, and especially extinct and cool ones but lets try and keep the ones we have from going extinct before recreating others.
RayGiIIette
If I'm not mistaken the last Thylacine died in captivity in the 50s, not from being shot.
RayGiIIette
Sorry, "Benjamin the Last CAPTIVE Thylacine died on September 7th 1936 in Hobart Zoo".
RayGiIIette
Anyones guess what happened to the exact last one.
bluemofia
The last of a species usually dies in captivity in modern times because people realized they fucked up, and attempts to preserve them.
bluemofia
This list isn't concerned about what happened to the last one, but the root cause of the extinction of the species as a whole.
RayGiIIette
Yep. A whole species wiped out because we thought they would kill livestock. Plot twist: They wouldn't.
bluemofia
People back in the day were ruthless. They were talking about the extinction of horses just to avoid having to deal with flies.
RayGiIIette
Indeed. They didn't understand the ramifications of what they did.
Teases
There's about a 30% chance thlyacines aren't extinct and there's a small population still alive.
RayGiIIette
No documented proof though. Unfortunately it's probably a bigfoot story at this point.
Teases
There's enough for the government to show interest and invest in trying to find proof. There was even someone from Imgur who may have have>>
Teases
>>caught a picture of one in his yard.
RayGiIIette
Got a source? For the image and governmental interest? Only thing I've seen was a guy wanting to clone one, but the DNA was decayed too much
pickleparty91
Are you telling me we went and fucked it up for the whole world and now nobody gets to ride elephant birds around town like horses?!?!
luvas
I mean isn't it possible to ride Ostriches the same way?
pickleparty91
But there smaller and it would be harder to stay on
Frogapus
We also.dont have Haast's eagle which was big enough to carry off small humans.
helagos
I feel like we're better off without giant murder birds... lol
pickleparty91
Kinda wish they were still around still
peachesforme
they were built for hunting moa. if they could have hunted anything else effectively enough they wouldn't have gone extinct
KarakLohr
Billions of years of evolution just to get rubbed out by some hairless apes. Penalties for contributing to the reduction of biodiversity 1/2
KarakLohr
need to be far more severe 2/2
NotADutchman
Don’t forget hairless apes are an evolutionary product as well. Where was Greenpeace when the dinosaurs bought it?
Melondwarf
Humans- World Champions at fucking things up since forever
Lionskull
serious question here: is it really so bad that some species went extinct? objectively speaking
pixarpizza
Objectively speaking, no, it isn’t. Extinction is natural. It’s bad that some went extinct because we destroyed their homes, though.
princessdogface
We are assholes.
SlowerSloth1012
I found this out working customer service. There isn’t a need to demonstrate hi much we fuck shit up in the environment to know this.
MetaSomma
Well, since civilization anyways
theitinerantnaturalist
Even before that. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ecog.01566
MetaSomma
Actually that roughly corresponds with my guesstimate. They say human-led extinctions may have started around 10k BCE, which is about the
MetaSomma
Time that the earliest civilizations started appearing. Basically when we shifted from being nomadic to agricultural/domestic, because then
MetaSomma
We settled into an area and exploited its resources for a long period of time, instead of just hunting/gathering what was around
theitinerantnaturalist
Actually the human-caused Pleistocene extinctions start at around 50k to 40k BC-when we landed in Australia.
MetaSomma
That long ago? I guess the isolated environment probably made it more sensitive?
ConnorShillady
I’m sure there are species that have gone extinct due to a species other than human
Spongybunny
We can also have a hand in that too though. We introduce a species to an area because we like it, then that new one kills off another.
shoebeedew
New Zealand is on a roll.
TheDogEnd
Multi-kill! Combo-kill! KILLING SPREE!!!
CAntthenuclearapocalypsecomesoicanjustdiealready
Europeans are the kings of local fauna destruction
NZSouthernMan
Moa and haast eagle were gone long before the Europeans showed up
CAntthenuclearapocalypsecomesoicanjustdiealready
The passenger pigeon wasn't
NZSouthernMan
Probably the most un-coolest bird to go extinct
Gaehhn
Depends on your definition of "local" we don't destroy lots of fauna in Europe.
CAntthenuclearapocalypsecomesoicanjustdiealready
Ask yourself why does Europe have so few carnivores?
Gaehhn
You mean large carnivores like bears and wolves? Because they ate our food. And, albeit rarely, attacked us and our children.
CAntthenuclearapocalypsecomesoicanjustdiealready
There are few large animals at all in Europe and Europeans destroy the environment wherever they go
votfgz
New Zealand and Madagascar are the last places settled late enough that initial megafauna extinction is on this timeline.
theitinerantnaturalist
Yep.
Nawoi
Good point. At least it was documented...
LumpWithaLeafHat
Isn't it thought that maybe the Tasmanian Tiger might still be around?
Setfox
Wishful thinking sadly. People claim to see them, but there's no clear photos or physical evidence.
LumpWithaLeafHat
There is one video out there that even a skeptic like me could be excited about
Setfox
Do you have a link to it?
BasileusVictrix
Fun Fact the Haast's Eagle was a major predator of the moa
CoryBernardi
Hey nz, Australia is partly to blame, like we just wiped out your cricket team. It's mass murder.
littlegingerone
Well being one of the last countries to be invaded by one of the most technically advanced countries that likes to kill things...
thrandAntharo
The moa and thus haast's eagle we're pretty much killed off before Europeans arrived.
sammysixshooter
Hold up, it was people in general not just one race
Rita41
elbowdeepinagoose
Well, because the animals are DELICIOUS!
v
AmaIthea
http://www.badassoftheweek.com/haasteagle.html
TheCattyDee
Rats!
upsidedownhead
And then they were eating each other. True as fuck.
KahnNZ
New Zealand had no mammals before people arrived, a lot of birds were wiped out due to rats, cats and dogs. Humans account for the rest.
vikingvampireangel
Arguably we account for the cats rats and dogs too
theDogter
Let's bring in it's natural predator. I'm sure it will just hunt the things we don't want.
FlyinDutchman88
But many islands have no mammals but it seems like New Zealand has had it the worst!
johnnyratbastard
There were a few species of bat, but yeah, no ground dwelling mammals.
upsidedownhead
Long pig?
ArtMadeofYourComment
moeojelly
great now Australia will steal that and claim it as theirs............
shoebeedew
Im keeping this forever!
cylogenix
this in itself should just be FP for the shear hell of it.
Bravacado
*sheer :)
cylogenix
I knew I spelt it wrong -.- *blames hot weather*
johnnyratbastard
Yeah. Way to be over-represented for something shitty fellow countrymen.
GhostofBillyMays
Carolina parakeet was killed off by peach and fruit farmers because they ate some. To make it sadder, they were easy to kill because they'd
owlest
that fucking sux i love parrots
GhostofBillyMays
2) fly down and land next to dead or wounded to check on others which in turn got them killed, so it's own kindness got it extincted.
GhostofBillyMays
Side note: I'm actually planning tattoo of them currently. Home state bird. Kind of mirrors my native roots here.
Retreat4Silver
iseeyoureyournuts
"He killed them with they love. He killed them with they love for each other."
DwithanE
Always upvote The Green Mile
Flyndaran
Haast's eagle evolved to quickly kill 6+ foot tall bipedal animals. I don't blame original Maori for "extincting" their asses.
Greytrek90
I was going to say, is the scale consistent across all of these? Because that is a FAR larger raptor than I could even imagine existing.
throughthelurkingglass
Didn't humans land in Australia and then 90% of the megafauna mysteriously disappear?
triflersNeedNot
Same with North America. Humans are a disease.
Tanzklaue
actually most extinctions prior to the 1500s are down to the harsh reality of the strongest survive.
Doumdidoum
Not really. In the New World, Tribes hunted megafauna to extinction. In the old, extensive agriculture and ivory/pelt trade destroyed them.
Tanzklaue
most megafauna died out when humanity was young still. it's natural selection, they were nit prepared for humans.
Doumdidoum
You should read Polybius. The extinction of the Syrian and North African elephants had nothing to do with natural selection.
Carefuler
I believe that's happened in most places.
AresTechnomancer
Well you can't blame them. If I saw a giant spider crawling around I'd probably make sure everything burned in holy fire
Brute0808
I dunno about the spiders, but there was the megalania... https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3b/d7/ed/3bd7eda41681900d761939082091509f.jpg
bumurutu
That is terrifying
Brute0808
Funny enough modern day komodo dragons are seen as descendants of the same species struggling from island dwarfism nowadays.
thefreestyler
A spider is not megafauna. Unless maybe you're thinking Shelob or something. Megafauna are animals like cows, horses, elephants etc.
Ackerbot3000
Sorry, but I think they're (jokingly) implying that the crawlies hid in the fauna and they burned the areas to kill it.
darkandstormynight
Fauna is creatures, flora is plant life.
Ackerbot3000
U right fam u right
Crockapowa
ohshit spiders arent animals confirmed here first
thefreestyler
I think you misunderstood sth
Spinosaur
Yeah, this is a 'modern' list. Humanity has been wiping out species since humanity has existed
RayVelvetThunderHolt
No mystery. The aboriginals used fire to separate young which they are because fuck giant wombats and Roos. No young = no survival
ButterfaceTaintClown
Citation needed
theitinerantnaturalist
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ecog.01566
uhuhuuhuuuuAahAaaaaahAAAAAAAh
These "omg spiders! Burn everything down!"-jokes are so overused, also unoriginal.
TheRealBatlord
*unaboriginal
Domehammer
New Zealand I think is only example of mega-fauna killed by humans and not climate change.
Domehammer
And by killed I mean driven to extinction. As most mega-fauna in europe and americas got fucked hard by climate change.
theitinerantnaturalist
Actually, most places outside Eurasia lost megafauna largely or entirely due to humans.
Flyndaran
Thousands of years later. It wasn't instant or even quick by any means. Things were damn near instant for some other human areas.
QuackQuackAttack
The Americas too. When people arrive they eat all the tasty fat animals
TemporaryUzername
"This is the first mammalian species made extinct due to climate change effects." BS. the climate has fluctuated vastly since earth existed.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
Yeah, they should have specified "anthropogenic climate change". The last glacial period killed countless species, and so did the end of it.
theitinerantnaturalist
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ecog.01566
theitinerantnaturalist
Most of the species killed off at the end of the last ice age made it through similar changes just fine. It was us that killed them off.
theitinerantnaturalist
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ecog.01566
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
No Mammalian species has been around long enough to go through several glacial and interglacial periods.
theitinerantnaturalist
....please look up Late Pleistocene climate change time intervals.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
The climate didn't change as drastically as it did between 16,000 BCE and 12,000 BCE, when it became 2°C warmer.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
Most people don't realize how radically 2° can change the environment. The last mammoths died of thirst when lakes dried out.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
Mammoths, for example, were around for ca. 5 million years. The predominant hypothesis is that c.c. killed them rather than human predation.
theitinerantnaturalist
Actually the climate changed back and forth, a LOT, within those 5 million years.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-24044215/climate-change-killed-off-mammoths And it ultimately drove mammoths to extinction.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
Our ancestors may have contributed to the extinction of some species, but most died due to their inability to adapt to the changing climate.
theitinerantnaturalist
It’s the reverse. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ecog.01566
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
Arrives at the conclusion that both human colonisation and climate change were important factors behind the ext. of megafauna (note that...
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
This is pretty alarming because human activities have greatly sped up climate change, giving other species even less time to adapt.
theitinerantnaturalist
Missing the point. The point is that natural climatic changes didn’t kill off Pleistocene megafauna, we did.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
And that point was, for the most part, complete bullshit, as I already mentioned with my example of mammoths.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
Humans were neither numerous enough nor widely distributed enough to kill off all megafauna that went exinct around this time.
TemporaryUzername
jury is still out on that one. we'll only truly find after the next wild fluctuation if it's really caused by what we hypothesize.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
Sorry, no. The debate around anthropogenic climate change has long been settled by scientific consensus in the face of overwhelming evidence
TemporaryUzername
No it hasn't. The same could be said for how we previously perceived things like Gravity and Space/Time with "overwhelming evidence".