All tag results for 'extinct'

Not us personally but humans in general.

A new study has found that the Sumatran tigers are getting closer to extinction because of human activities.

The problem is mainly

Tags: animals, danger, deforestation, extinct, humans, protect, protection, sad, species, study, threatened, tiger, tigers, wild

Omg!

That's horrible!

A man whose duty was to protect the endangered animals has been arrested in connection with the killing and horn poaching of two rhinos.

At South Africa's Kruger National Park the worker was among four people who were arrested for the recent rhino poaching.

The parks department said that the ranger who was arrested is just one of the many park rangers who are currently striking for higher pay.

There animals literally may be extinct soon and since the beginning of 2012, 80 rhinos have already been poached!

This really needs to stop or else our children's children may never get the chance to see a real live rhino!!

Tags: africa, animals, arrested, endangered, extinct, horrible, killing, poaching, protect, rhino, south africa

This may seem impossible but during a global warming event about 56 million years ago there was a huge release of carbon into the atmosphere and the oceans raised the average global temperature 10 degrees over the course of 175,000 years.

Mammals reacted to this increase in heat by shrinking in size generation after generation.

The earliest-known horse, Sifrihippus was a 12 pound little thing, about the size of a miniature schnauzer.

By the end of this period of extreme global warming the Sifrihippus had shrunk down to about 8.5 pounds and was about the size of a house cat.

A researcher said:

"This, for the first time, tells us that temperature is what's driving the body size evolution for these horses."

So many animals get smaller and evolve to cope with global warming. The problem is that the same amount of warming that happened over the course of 175,000 years could happen to us within a century or so!!

"While our study provides a measure of possible response to global warming — that is, getting smaller — in a sense that is the best-case scenario."

He continued to say that if animals can't evolve quickly enough (which would be very hard to do in only 100 or so years) they will most likely go extinct.

"It can only get worse, basically."

Well that's not very comforting news.

Maybe we should all take climate change a little more seriously.

Hybrids for everyone!

[Image courtesy Danielle Byerley/Florida Museum of Natural History.]

Tags: animals, cat, climate change, extinct, global warming, horse, horses, mammals, research, study

A giant tortoise who was thought to have been extinct for over 150 years may not actually be gone!

Researchers on the Galapagos islands, were looking at a close relative of the "extinct" Chelonoidis elephantopus and found that this relative was actually a hybrid of the two species.

So they began seriously investigating and found that 84 of tortoises showed that their parents had mated with the "extinct" tortoise.

One had done it apparently as recently as 15 years ago.

That means that the 900 pound, once thought extinct creatures could actually still be alive somewhere on the island.

Researchers estimate there could be as many as 38 "extinct" turtles, alive and well, somewhere on the island.

One of the researchers said:

"To our knowledge, this is the first report of the rediscovery of a species by way of tracking the genetic footprints left in the genomes of its hybrid offspring.

These findings breathe new life into the conservation prospects for members of this flagship group."

It's really great that the tortoise is back, but what we're really excited about are the other possibilities.

Does this open the door for dinosaurs maybe existing somewhere on an uncharted island?

Probably not, but we can dream, can't we?

[Image via WENN.]

Tags: crazy, extinct, galapagos, island, research, tortoise, turtle

With one conservationist group already declaring the Black Rhino extinct, it's truly a loss that the Denver Zoo had to euthanize the 9th oldest Black Rhino in the world.

George, the Rhino had been with them since 1984.

Zookeepers had been monitoring him for a while for various health reasons including diverticulitis, chronic diarrhea and continued weight loss.

They finally made the decision to euthanize him when he was no longer able to stand up in his indoor habitat.

After performing a necropsy they found that his spleen had ruptured.

It's so sad to see an endangered, possibly extinct animal have to die, but it's for the best, because his suffering is now over.

R.I.P. George.

Tags: black rhino, denver zoo, endangered, euthanize, extinct, george, rip, sad

The International Union for Conservation of Nature said that the Western Black Rhino is extinct, the Northern White Rhino of central Africa is "possibly extinct" in the wild and the Javan Rhino is "probably extinct" in Vietnam.

According to them, rhinos are dropping like flies.

Mostly due to poaching. Like how the last wild Javan Rhino was killed in Vietnam.

The group made a statement, giving a reason for the rapid decline in the rhino population:

"A lack of political support and willpower for conservation efforts in many rhino habitats, international organized crime groups targeting rhinos and increasing illegal demand for rhino horns and commercial poaching are the main threats faced by rhinos."

There is some opposition though. The World Wildlife Fund estimated that there were 4,240 black rhinos still alive.

Maybe the International Union for Conservation of Nature jumped the gun on this one.

At least we hope they did.

Save the rhinos!

[Image via AP Images.]

Tags: black rhino, endangered, extinct, rhino, sad, the international union for conservation of nature

Tiger Time is a conservation charity who's goal is to save the last of the wild tigers. There are only about 3,200 left.

The creator of Tiger Time said:

Tags: endangered, extinct, hunted, paul mccartney, poached, tiger, tiger time