VIETNAMESE JAVAN RHINO
The subspecies of Javan rhino went extinct in Vietman leaving an only population of less than 60 rhinos on the island of Java in Indonesia.
The subspecies was thought to be extinct in mainland Asia until one rhino was killed by hunters in the Cat Tien region of Vietnam in 1988 leading to the discovery of a small population that nows numbered 8 in 2007.
Since the mid-1990s, habitat protection programs were set up to protect the population and its food sources lead to the establishment of the Cat Tien National Park. But it is still extremely difficult to protect the species when in April of 2010, locals have found a rhino carcass. It had a bullet in its leg and its horn removed. There are no scientific evidence to conclude that rhino horn helped cure cancer.
From October 2009 to March 2010, the World Wildlife Fund conducted a field survey locating rhino dung to determine the population status. All of the dung samples were confirmed to the same rhino that was found dead shortly after the survey was finished.
The subspecies was thought to be extinct in mainland Asia until one rhino was killed by hunters in the Cat Tien region of Vietnam in 1988 leading to the discovery of a small population that nows numbered 8 in 2007.
Since the mid-1990s, habitat protection programs were set up to protect the population and its food sources lead to the establishment of the Cat Tien National Park. But it is still extremely difficult to protect the species when in April of 2010, locals have found a rhino carcass. It had a bullet in its leg and its horn removed. There are no scientific evidence to conclude that rhino horn helped cure cancer.
From October 2009 to March 2010, the World Wildlife Fund conducted a field survey locating rhino dung to determine the population status. All of the dung samples were confirmed to the same rhino that was found dead shortly after the survey was finished.
AUROCHS
Aurochs are an extinct species of wild cattle that are the ancestors of domestic cattle that once roamed Europe, Asia, and North Africa.
During the Pliocene epoch, open grassland expanded due to colder climates leading to the evolution of aurrochs. Three subspecies were recognized including the Eurasian, Indian, and North African in which the formal survived in recent times. Their horns were huge measuring up to to at least 2 feet. They were the largest herbivores during the post glacial period in Europe weighing from 1,500 to 3,300 pounds. The domestication from auroch to cattle occur independently in the Near East and the Indian subcontinent between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago due to archaeological evidence leading to the rise of the common cattle we know today and the zebu, a Southeast subspecie. Due to a growing human population, the auroch's habitat became more fragmented limiting them to remote floodplain forests with little competion from domestic cattle and hunting pressure. Aurochs have disappeared from southern Greece in the 5th century and were restricted to Poland, Lithuania, Moldavia, Transylvania, and East Prussia in the 13th century. They were hunted by nobles and eventually only to royal households. Due to the decline of the population, gamekeepers provided open fields for them to graze in hopes of increasing the population. Poaching is punishable by death. There were only 38 known animals in a royal survey in 1564. The last female died from natursl causes in 1627 in the Jaktorow Forest of Poland. |
The aurochs were the ancestors of taurine and zebu cattle
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CARIBBEAN MONK SEAL
The seal was a sub-tropical pinniped that existed in the West Indies for thousands of years and were well known by natives. It was the only pinniped to live in the tropical waters of the Americas. The monk seal was first recorded by Christopher Columbus in modern scientific terms in 1493.
They can grow up to 8 feet and can weigh from 375 to 600 pounds. They live in social groups usually with 20 to 40 individuals and preyed on fish and crustaceans. Their main predator are sharks, however due to their physical hinderance on land, lack of fear of humans, non-aggressiveness, and curiosity, they were easily hunted by humans.
They were extensively hunted for their meat, oil, fur hides, and to be put on display in museums and zoos by arriving Spaniards in the 1600s. The reefs were overfished leaving the seals to die of starvation. Seal sighting are becoming more rare throughout the first half of the 20th century.
The last recorded Caribbean monk seal in the U.S. was killed in 1922 and the very last seal was killed in the Pedros Cays in 1939. Unconfirmed sightings of them were common in Haiti and Jamaica and hadn't been seen alive since the 1950s. They were listed as endangered on the Endangered Species Act on March 11, 1967 and then protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972 before being delisted off in 2008 when they were declared extinct.
They can grow up to 8 feet and can weigh from 375 to 600 pounds. They live in social groups usually with 20 to 40 individuals and preyed on fish and crustaceans. Their main predator are sharks, however due to their physical hinderance on land, lack of fear of humans, non-aggressiveness, and curiosity, they were easily hunted by humans.
They were extensively hunted for their meat, oil, fur hides, and to be put on display in museums and zoos by arriving Spaniards in the 1600s. The reefs were overfished leaving the seals to die of starvation. Seal sighting are becoming more rare throughout the first half of the 20th century.
The last recorded Caribbean monk seal in the U.S. was killed in 1922 and the very last seal was killed in the Pedros Cays in 1939. Unconfirmed sightings of them were common in Haiti and Jamaica and hadn't been seen alive since the 1950s. They were listed as endangered on the Endangered Species Act on March 11, 1967 and then protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972 before being delisted off in 2008 when they were declared extinct.
PASSENGER PIGEON
The passenger pigeon was probably the most abundant bird in North America in the 1800s numbering around 3 to 5 billion. They mainly inhabited mixed hardwood forest of eastern North America and bred mostly around the Great Lakes. They were found east of the Rocky Mountains, from the Great Plains to the Atlantic coast and were constantly migrating in search of food and shelter. They were kept out of the western part of North America because of competition from the band-tailed pigeons.
Nesting flocks depend on a diet of beeches and oaks to support them. Their diet depend on the season, so in the summer they mainly ate berries and other soft fruits and also ate small invertebrates. They take advantage of farm grains, mostly buckwheat. The majority of the seasons, they diet on beechnuts, acorns, and chestnuts. These are nomadic birds migrating frequently in search of food and shelter. The flocks were often dense and blackened the skies and are estimated to fly 62mph during migration. In 1866 in southern Ontario, one flock numbering at least 3.5 billion birds was a mile wide and 300 miles long and took about 14 hours to pass. After European colonization, they were hunted intensively. They were often hunted during migration where hunters can shoot them easily since the flocks were so dense. Hunting pigeons was a popular sport for young men. During competions, the pigeons were so numerous, that 30,000 birds had to be killed to claim the prize. Railroads had opened many opportunities for hunters and many methods were devised to hunt them including nets, food, and decoys. Passenger pigeons slowly moved westward to avoid the hunting pressure and by the 1850s, they dropped from the billions to the millions. In the 1870s, their decline was more noticable. The last large nesting site was in Petoskey, Michigan when in 1878, 50,000 birds were killed each day for almost 5 months. By the time of the last nesting site, laws were passed to protect them but proved uneffective. Large public protests in the 1870s were against trap-shooting after the birds were poorly treated before hunting competitions. In 1895, the last nest and egg were collected near Minneapolis. The second last confirmed wild individual was shot by a boy in Pike County, Ohio on March 24, 1900 and was named Buttons. The Cincinatti Zoo had more than 20 individuals and tried to breed them. Charles Otis Whitman, a bird collector, gave the zoo a female named Martha. By 1909, she and two males were the only known survivors. In April, one of the males have died followed by another male, George on July 10. Martha became a celebrity due to her being the only passenger pigeon alive. She died on September 1, 1914 from old age. |
Martha, the last passenger pigeon ever
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