First extinction of a large vertabrate in 50 years

A species of freshwater dolphin that lived in the Yangtze river in China is now thought to be extinct. This is very sad news and although i'm sure we've already caused many species of amphibians and insects to dissapear, this is a much more obvious example of the negative effect we have on this planet and its inhabitants. Very sad indeed.

news.bbc.co.uk...

no one interested eh? maybe the thread just got buried....
this, to me, is very sad. the first of many 'noticable' creatures which will never exist again.

I am afraid it is just another link on the long chain of human indulgence and people are getting desensitized.

I actually try not to look at these things as they make me very sad.

I heard the story on NPR yesterday and wondered if any of these dolphins existed in zoos across the world. Increasingly, the zoos are becoming archives and "last homes" for creatures that are going extinct in the wild.

That in itself is also a worrisome thought -- the genetic diversity of the species left (like the cheetahs) is becoming very limited and that is not necessarily a good thing.

I haven't found any mention of these dolphins in sea life parks and I suspect China was so disinterested in its ecology that there was no real effort (beyond that of some frantic biologists) to try and save them.

Speakeroftruth and I spoke about this 12/06

www.abovetopsecret.com...

You get what you want, rose and thorn.

The emperor wanted the worlds largest dam.
He sacrificed the worlds last Goddess of the Chang Jiang.

Three Gorges Dam

Sri Oracle

Very sad, purposeful, tyrannical even...

Sri

Originally posted by Byrd
I heard the story on NPR yesterday and wondered if any of these dolphins existed in zoos across the world. Increasingly, the zoos are becoming archives and "last homes" for creatures that are going extinct in the wild.

Nope

www.time.com...

A captive dolphin died of old age in a Chinese zoo in 2002

That was the only one I knew of.

Functionally Extinct wiki

Sri

Originally posted by Sri Oracle
Nope

www.time.com...

A captive dolphin died of old age in a Chinese zoo in 2002

That was the only one I knew of.

Functionally Extinct wiki

Sri

Not to sound morbid, but did they save Genetic material. It should be within the realm of possibility to clone then. Of course you do the the genetic diversity issue still.

Just curious, what was the last large verebrate to go extinct? Just can't seem to find it? Tasmanian Tiger?

A tiny bit of "good" news for a change , CBC is running a piece that does have a few "positives" from around the planet. A "drop in the bucket" compared to the "great-flood" of less than positive eco-health media Niagra. Their piece for those who have an interest, "Researchers report encouraging environmental news".

Cheers,

Vic

[edit on 10-8-2007 by V Kaminski]

Originally posted by V Kaminski
A tiny bit of "good" news for a change

,

Thanks, its eay to miss the few stories of hope amoungst the overwhelming majority to the contrary. they need to be focused on more.

And then theres always the chance a few species may be able one day to 'do a coelacanth'?

I wonder if there is a non-human gene bank? A latter day Noah's arc, as it were. If we could retrieve enough DNA from differing species, BEFORE the gene pool narrowed too much, there is every reason to think that many species could be restored at some point.

I ask here because Google is not cooperating with me today.

An alternative solution would be human population control and reducing consumption, but we won't be seeing that anytime soon. People generally change when they are forced to, and few have changed based on just a sense of empathy and stewardship for the ecosystem.

Dolphins, to me, are sentient, higher level beings and it is distressing to hear about the Yangtze's freshwater dolphin extinction, but I also see Yangtze river basin floods displace and kill 1000s a year...which are more of a concern to China.




[edit on 12-8-2007 by Regenmacher]

Originally posted by Chonx

Originally posted by V Kaminski
A tiny bit of "good" news for a change

,

Thanks, its eay to miss the few stories of hope amoungst the overwhelming majority to the contrary. they need to be focused on more.

And then theres always the chance a few species may be able one day to 'do a coelacanth'?

I do know that it is currently being discussed to take the Bald Eagle off the list as it is doing quite well now. I thought that was encouraging.

I saw a bald eagle two years ago on Chincoteague Island. What an amazing creature. So glad efforts were made.

Sooner or later, we will be forced to really buckle down and clean our mess up. Then, I think it will be possible to clone extinct animals and do some genetic tinkering to edit in some diversity to each clone.

It's sad that we will probably have to resort to these drastic steps, but, c'est la vie...