Species Becoming Extinct As They Are Discovered In Amazon Rainforest

Here is a heavy case of irony to rain on our parade.

Wildlife experts say that new species being discovered in Peru’s Amazon rainforest are being destroyed at the same time!

The Amazon rainforest, which covers 60 percent of Peru, is a hotbed of bioactivity and is home to thousands of different species of plants and animals, more of which being discovered everyday.

Unfortunately, Peru’s beautiful rainforest habitat is also threatened by heavy resource extraction, which is killing off some of those 1,200 species discovered in the last 10 years in the Amazon.

Paradoxically, it appears many of the species being discovered are found during the very activities that threaten the Amazon the most.

WWF Peru’s Amazon program director Michael Valqui says:

“Most of these discoveries don’t happen during scientific expeditions, which are often costly. They most often come when workers are digging exploration sites for oil, mining or lumber companies. This type of discovery is also simultaneously endangering the species that is being discovered in its one and only habitat.”

Valqui uses the Lima gecko to illustrate his point of the complex relationship between threat and conservation. The gecko finds its habitat in the darkest corners of the huacas, pre-Hispanic burial grounds or ritual sites that dot Lima and the coast, of which he says:

“Archeologists’ maintenance work, crucial for conservation, is exactly what’s destroying the gecko’s habitat.”

It seems like the best thing for us to do is to just let life be life and leave the rainforest alone if we truly want every animal to thrive in its natural habitat. However, that is easier said then done since we are not only in a constant search for sustainable resources found in the rainforest, but also new species for scientific study.

Looks like we can’t have our cake and eat it too.

[Image via AP Images.]