The Unseen Extinction Wiping Out the World’s Wildlife

Researchers find that species we ignore, such as snails, are disappearing at a rapid pace—a sign that a mass extinction is upon us.

For years now, conservationists have warned that Earth is in the middle of the “sixth great extinction,” with dozens of species going extinct every day owing to habitat loss, pollution, climate change, and other factors.

But here’s even worse news: That may be just the tip of the iceberg.

According to new research, previous estimates may seriously underestimate the number of species that we’re losing. A paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that we may have already lost 130,000 species, or a staggering 7 percent of the world’s total biodiversity.

How could we have lost so many species without noticing?

It’s simple: The authors say most of these extinctions are not big, noticeable creatures such as rhinos and tigers. Instead they’re tiny insects and other invertebrates that don’t get much attention. These species tend to have very small ranges with specific habitat needs and aren’t often well studied. Of the estimated 1.4 million invertebrates worldwide, fewer than 16,000 have been evaluated for their extinction risk by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List. Of that number, nearly a third are listed as “data deficient,” meaning we don’t know enough about them to say if they’re at risk.

By contrast, every single known bird species appears on the Red List. Of the more than 15,000 birds and mammals listed, fewer than 6 percent are ranked as data deficient.

So, Why You Should Care? The authors of the new paper say that focusing on larger, more easily studied species means we’re not getting a true picture of the extent of the sixth great extinction. Thus we may be losing species that could be important to human health even before we discover them. Snails and other invertebrates form an important part of the food web for all manner of animals, so their extinctions can have a cascading effect on biodiversity.

RELATED: What One Wolf’s Extraordinary Journey Means for the Future of Wildlife in America

To close that knowledge gap, the researchers took a random sampling of 200 land snail species around the world and then looked at the scientific record to see what we know about them. They didn’t find much. Snails haven’t been studied in some parts of the globe for decades, and some entire genus groups have never been studied at all. The researchers write that a full 84.5 percent of their 200 random species would be considered “data deficient” if they were added to the Red List today.

Even that doesn’t tell the full picture. Of the 200 species examined, 79 had not been observed in more than five decades. One example was a Hawaiian species known as the Amastrid land snail. Amateur snail-shell collectors have wiped out many of Hawaii’s snails, probably including this one. However, because no formal scientific studies have gone looking for it, it can’t yet be officially declared extinct.

Another example came from Mexico, where a species known only as Eucalodium moussonianum hasn’t been seen since 1872. Is it extinct? The original scientific description doesn’t mention the snail’s distribution or habitat, and no one has looked for it since.

Chances are high that these two species—and many others—are gone. “Mollusks are the species group most affected by extinction,” said the study’s lead author, Claire Régnier of Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. The most common factors for their extinction include habitat loss, water pollution, and invasive species.

We do know of many other mollusk species extinctions because the animals leave their shells behind when they die. That’s not the case for most other invertebrates, Régnier said. The paper extrapolates this mollusk extinction risk to all other invertebrates because, as Régnier said, “they share the same characteristics as mollusks regarding their causes of extinction: size, restricted range, rarity, and specific habitat requirements.”

Régnier said the purpose of the paper is not to criticize the current ways that we look at endangered species and extinction risk but to “suggest an alternative methodology which would give us a more global idea of our current losses.”

That might not be enough to stop the sixth great extinction anytime soon, but it might help us to understand it and start to take action.

John R. Platt covers the environment, technology, philanthropy, and more for Scientific American, Conservation, Lion, and other publications.

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Well we may think that the military are good with camo, but it does cost quite a bit to even get anywhere near to good. Here is some that comes free of charge; can you see them ? – Enjoy ! – SAV.

Above – Excellent

Above – Good try but could do better

Very good – well planned and executed !

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Victory! Captive Chimps Listed as Endangered

by Alicia Graef  June 15, 2015

In a victory for chimpanzees, wildlife officials have announced that both wild and captive chimpanzees will be protected equally as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Even though wild and captive chimpanzees are obviously members of the same species, until now they were protected differently depending on where they lived.

Populations of wild chimpanzees, who once numbered in the millions, have severely declined over the years and they continue to face a number of threats ranging from habitat loss and fragmentation to disease and poaching for meat and the pet trade.

They were protected in the wild as endangered under the ESA in 1990, but their captive counterparts were listed as threatened, which exempted them from the same protection that their free-living relatives received.

In 2010, a status review was prompted by a petition filed by several organizations seeking to have captive chimpanzees reclassified. In response, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) just announced it has finalized a rule that will upgrade them to endangered ending the unique “split-listing” that has divided them.

Now advocates for this species are applauding the change and are hopeful that it will bring much needed awareness to their plight, in addition to restricting actions that harm them.

“This change shows that many people are finally beginning to understand that it is not appropriate to subject our closest relatives to disrespectful, stressful or harmful procedures, whether as pets, in advertising or other forms of entertainment, or medical research. That we are beginning to realize our responsibilities towards these sentient, sapient beings, and that the government is listening,” said Jane Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, which was one of the co-petitioners.

Less protection for captive chimpanzees has allowed us to continue to exploit them in entertainment, as pets and in biomedical research.

Their continued uses have made it seem like they weren’t in trouble, and even though some believed increasing numbers in captivity would help, many others believe it has only backfired.

“At the time we thought it was important to encourage breeding of captive chimps to expand their numbers,” FWS Director Dan Ashe told the New York Times.” But we expanded a culture of treating these animals as a commodity for research, sale, import and export, and entertainment. That has undermined the conservation of chimpanzees in the wild.”

While the change won’t end private ownership, it will impact how chimpanzees are used and treated by requiring permits for interstate sales and the import and export into and out of the U.S., in addition to requiring permits for anything that could constitute “take” under the ESA, which means anything that could cause them stress, harm or death.

When it comes to research, permits would only be issued for projects that are intended to directly benefit chimps, such as habitat restoration, researching wild chimps to contribute to improved management or recovery or studying diseases that specifically affect them.

While the agency says it will now focus efforts on protecting chimpanzees in the wild, the Humane Society of the United States, another one of the co-petitioners, says it is now going to work on creating more sanctuary space for more than 700 publicly and privately owned chimpanzees who are waiting to be retired from research facilities.

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