The Decline of Mammals?

Given the present circumstances, it is a valid question, isn't it?

Number of victims to unknown virus growing! State of emergency to be imposed in Ukraine?

And remember this other thread of mine from 18 months ago?

Originally posted by loam
While following the massive unexplained deaths of bats in the NE, I began to wonder what I'd find with respect to other unexplained mammal die-offs. Nearly all of the following examples were pulled from articles published within the last 90 days:

Hare-less: Yellowstone's Rabbits Have Vanished, Study Says

A new study by the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society found that jack rabbits living in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have apparently hopped into oblivion. The study, which appears in the journal Oryx, also speculates that the disappearance of jack rabbits may be having region-wide impacts on a variety of other prey species and their predators.

According to the study, historical records from more than 130 years ago indicate that white-tailed jack rabbits were once locally abundant in Greater Yellowstone, a 60,000 square kilometer (23,166 square mile) ecosystem that contains both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. However, the WCS study found that no jack rabbit sightings could be confirmed in Yellowstone since 1991 and only three in Grand Teton since 1978.

No one knows what caused the rabbits to disappear, according to the study's lead author, Dr. Joel Berger, a Wildlife Conservation Society conservationist, and professor at the University of Montana. "It could be disease, extreme weather, predation or other factors," Dr. Berger said. "Since the rabbits blipped off without knowledge, there has simply been no way to get at the underlying cause."


More...

The case of the missing Minnesota moose

Scientists say that the moose are dying from "tipover disease," less a diagnosis than a description of how moose simply weaken and crumple to the ground, often to be finished off by wolves or other predators. Minnesota moose seem to be dying when and where they shouldn't -- in the prime of life, or in the fall, when they should be fat, and amid plenty of food. The causes are still largely unknown.


Minnesota's moose are dying

"These are animals in the prime of life that just look like they laid down and died," said Mike Schrage, a wildlife biologist with the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe.

...

"The vast majority of them are dying from some unknown malady. We just have not been able to identify what that is," said Lenarz. "Some are dying from what's called brain worm. Some are probably dying from winter ticks. Some are dying from who-knows-what disease or parasites out there, but it isn't any single smoking gun."

More...

Local marine mammal mortality rate alarms fisheries officials

With the total number of dead, decomposing dolphins washing up on Southeast Texas shores increasing to 64 this month, National Marine Fisheries officials Wednesday have declared an "unusual mortality event" for the entire Texas coast.

Biologists looked back at other cases along the coastline, and found 45 more similar to those found on Jefferson and Galveston coasts, bringing the total to 109, said Blair Mase, marine fisheries Southeast Regional Marine Mammal Stranding coordinator.

Last year, an unusual mortality event for the north Texas coast was called after 68 dolphins washed up in March, according to Enterprise archives. A cause for the die-off wasn't found because many of the dolphins were so decomposed, according to the archives.

More...

Sea Otter Deaths in California Alarm Officials

An unusually high number of sea otter deaths this month off the California coast has state and federal wildlife officials worried that the sea otter population, in decline since the mid-1990's, may be experiencing troubles more serious than previously thought.

Six dead sea otters have washed ashore in the last several days, bringing to 45 the number of dead or stranded otters in California in April. That is more than double the average number for the month in the last decade, the officials said.

''We have had other times when mortality was high, but we attributed it to various things, and it tapered off,'' said Greg Sanders, the southern sea otter recovery coordinator for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. ''But at this point we are breaking all previous records and we have not found a pattern.''

More...

See also, Why are California sea otters dying?

Crystal River Colorado bighorns in trouble

Young bighorn sheep along the Crystal River near Redstone aren’t surviving to adulthood.

...

The population of about 100 adult sheep ranging from just south of Carbondale to Marble are reproducing, but 85 to 95 percent of the young aren’t surviving to adulthood, according to Colorado Division of Wildlife Officer John Groves.

“We’re not exactly sure what’s causing it,” Groves said, but bighorn lambs are dying off at about four to six weeks old.

More...

-----
See also, Disease claims Nev. bighorn sheep herd

There are of course these other mostly non-mammal die-offs also found in recent articles published over the last couple of years.

Chinook salmon vanish without a trace

Mystery Disease Killing Bats: Could Force Extinction

Mystery killer silencing honeybees

Rapid loss of aspen forests prompting research

Mystery over mass deaths of starfish

Mysterious American Eel Decline

The starvation of the grey whale

Dying salt marshes puzzle scientists

Bird toll mounts on Richardson Bay

Mystery virus taking toll on city crows

Makes you wonder...

Normal?

And this update on bats, from just yesterday...

By the end of the next year, nearly 95 percent of Pennsylvania’s hibernating bat species are expected to die...

Makes you wonder, huh?


[edit on 15-11-2009 by loam]

Thanks for posting. It's very troubling about what's happening. The part about the bat's in Pa got my attention, cause I didn't see hardly any bats here in NY. I know it's not mammal's but the thing that's still bugging me (excuse the pun ) but the disappearance of the honey bee's, whole hives just leaving or dieing. Something seems to be going on.

Its really quite sad to see all these animals dissapearing and dying off.

I consider it a tragedy when the planet loses one of its precious species

S and F

reply to post by OzWeatherman

Perhaps in the age of mega-fauna we could have had similar pictures of extinction, it is all not clear, however being at the top of the food-chain puts us in a unique position.

S&F

You're such a party kinda guy loam - dontcha think it's time to get serious tho?



...Odd that most people don't realize humans are threatened in this extinction event - not just animals, fish, frogs, birds, bees and whatnot.

But please, keep posting. It helps. I promise.

I am going to be star eyed one here for a min.

If we are lucky there not all dieing off. They could be getting taken away to another place. Weather that place is on earth is up in the air. That could be at least be going on with the missing ones.

We do need to figure out how and why there dieing out, for no resin.

reply to post by soficrow

Originally posted by soficrow
You're such a party kinda guy loam -

Why, thank ya!

Have some fun with this little gem I just ran across now from Time Magazine:

In a Malaria Hot Spot, Resistance to a Key Drug

For six decades, malaria drugs like chloroquine and mefloquine have fallen impotent in this Southeast Asian border area, allowing stronger strains to spread to Burma, India and Africa. But this time there's no new wonder drug waiting in the wings.

...

Modeling by the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit published in the Malaria Journal in February predicts that if nothing is done in the next two decades, "resistance to artemisinins will be approaching 100%." And if that happens, it won't be long until the resistant strain spreads from Cambodia's precious gem mines to Africa, putting half the world's population at risk of catching what would be an untreatable, deadly disease.

Having more fun?

Is anyone as disturbed as I am that nearly everything I have placed into this thread is caused by some unknown cause??????

[edit on 15-11-2009 by loam]

reply to post by soficrow


We may be mammals, but we are nowhere near extinction. Tis very sad that others are, and i think we should do all that we can to stop such things. But in the end, the majority of life on earth has and will always go extinct no matter what we do. Human ego isn't the only factor involved in the extinction of species...

Oh, and apparently not all of the peril need be infectious disease:

Are Algae Mass Murderers?

...decomposing algae on a French beach killed a horse and rendered its rider unconscious this past summer...

James Castle and John Rodgers of Clemson University think that such algal blooms—triggered by warming water or an increase in nutrients—might be behind the five largest mass extinctions in Earth's history.

[edit on 15-11-2009 by loam]

This is a really unsettling thread... thanks for compiling all of this information. I have been following the bat's White Nose Syndrome for the past couple of years, and I am really concerned (ie: panicked, actually) about it... and now all this... I wasn't aware of the other stories posted here.

this is the REAL ecological crisis ... not this global warming crap.

We've had a serious decline in rabbits, squirrels, and quail in my neck of the woods as well, but there has also been an increase in hawks, foxes, and coyotes. I wonder if there has been an increase in natural predators for the dwindling animal species in the Yellowstone area? I'm sure that's a heavy factor.

A big problem with much of this is that we have poor monitoring mechanisms in place.

Very often we are blind to an issue until it is catastrophically too late.

I'll provide additional disturbing examples through the course of this week.

[edit on 15-11-2009 by loam]

Originally posted by loam
Oh, and apparently not all of the peril need be infectious disease:

Are Algae Mass Murderers?

...decomposing algae on a French beach killed a horse and rendered its rider unconscious this past summer...

James Castle and John Rodgers of Clemson University think that such algal blooms—triggered by warming water or an increase in nutrients—might be behind the five largest mass extinctions in Earth's history.

[edit on 15-11-2009 by loam]

I didn't know that decomposing algae has the power to render a person unconscious. That freaks me out! Thanks for the info. I'll study that further.

Honestly, I think alot of the animal die-offs are caused by environmental pollution. The particulate matter found in just the air is alarming... no, well beyond that. It should've been alarming to people at the beginning of the industrial age. Humans are such filthy creatures... wasteful. We are scum, honestly. We overpopulate, destroy, and litter, and never thought about cleaning up after ourselves. We are 30 y/o's living in our parents' basement, and completely taking it for granted. We smoke inside, the place stinks, we throw our garbage in the corner, and when it gets bad enough we just throw a blanket on it and call it a bed.

Sorry for all the angst, but it makes me mad when I read one of these articles, and then to read this many in one setting, I just had to get it out and say it. We are ALL scum. It's time we grow up and clean up our messes. We have the technology, but instead we concentrate on a better way of destroying each other.

"Uniform hybrid species
For fresh-looking pest-proof food
An apple can sit on the shelf for years
When we irradiate the molecules

But where did the nutrition go?
And what's taken it's place?
Slipshod tampering with science
Out of control factory farm eugenics

Slaughterhouses in lowa
Filled with tumor-infested cows
Failed experiments hidden 'til sold
To your local school lunch program

Grade D, but edible
Our food, our life, our attitude
Suffocating in what we refuse to recycle
Time bombs fester in every town

Billions of dollars spent every year
Searching for a cure for cancer
Why not spend that money instead
To wipe out pollution that causes the cancer"

Jello Biafra and NoMeansNo - Too Many Sharks in the Gene Pool (1991)

Has anyone thought that besides normal human interference... that we have reached the threshold level talked about in biology class? Humans have lowered how many species and animals in general the world can sustain thanks to our ability to absorb resources like no other. Makes me wonder that possibly this is the point, where the curve goes back down. The point where everything has to level off, resulting in the death of various species... to be able to sustain the rest... just a theory though. Any thoughts?

Originally posted by Chance321
Thanks for posting. It's very troubling about what's happening. The part about the bat's in Pa got my attention, cause I didn't see hardly any bats here in NY. I know it's not mammal's but the thing that's still bugging me (excuse the pun

) but the disappearance of the honey bee's, whole hives just leaving or dieing. Something seems to be going on.

We have had also threads about birds migrating earlier, and many dying because they seem to get lost. Many of these animals have a magnetic compass in their system, and with the weakening of the magnetic field of the Earth, and the changes the Sun's activity has been undergoing this is affecting these animals. i am not saying all of them have been going through this, there could be other reasons, but it is happening at a time when the magnetic field of he Earth, and that of the Sun, as well as the overall activity of the Sun is fluctuating wildly.

Here is a study related to the OP showing how human impact on biodiversity is escalating human diseases..

www.miller-mccune.com...

If we arrogantly think that we are going to destroy nature and hide away unscathed in our little air conditioned buildings with all comfortable technology, we have another thought coming!


[edit on 15-11-2009 by whatsup]

Can you say canary in the coal mine. We still really don't know how the Megafauna died off (except for the excuse of humans killed off the animals). I don't think that humans killed these animals off, but I do think something made it possible for us little humans to be on top.

Holy cow that is scary.. I didn't know about a single one of those. I don't want any creature on Earth to go. Well, mosquitos. I can't say I wouldn't be happy to hear that mosquitos have gone extinct... sorry to any of you animals out there that happen to find them tasty..