Close, but not gone...

This is the Hawaiian Crow, known in Hawaii as the 'alala, after the cry of a yound child, the sound of its song. The Hawaiin Crow has suffered all of the same devestation of the honeycreepers in this small island community, labeled the bird extinction capitol of the world. The crow, in 2002 had just two individuals in the wild, while some are being bred in captivity. The captive released birds have not survived, but go figure, they're being released into the same environment that is killing them, the environment has to change first congressman. There are 48 individuals in captivity, making it extremely rare, even for a small island bird. If you have anything to pray about in your religion, add this little crow to your prayers, but it needs more now than a miracle....

It's happened sooner than you think in our past...

The honeycreepers are a group of amazing birds, with a large number of species indigenious to Hawaii. These birds are not well known, and neither is their tragedy. Pictured here are a few of the species existing today. In ordrer, they are the Akiapolaau, Akohekohe, Apapane, 'I'iwi, and the KauaiAmakihi. They are splendid birds, and they are growing lonely amond their kind. Why
do I say so? Because 13 species of Hawaiin honeycreeper, are extinct, most in the last 30 years. Disease that came from immigrant mosquitoes delt a horrible death toll on the birds, and habitat loss shredded the world they had evolved to live in, and ferral pigs and mice have decimated them as well. Many factors are against these beauties. Such that all but one of the species below are now extinct.
Nothing but bodies will you see of these poor birds, other than a few saved photographs that were taken when someone actually might have cared. But the saddest of the honeycreeper extinctions is of late. And the honeycreepers show how blind a country can be to its vanishing backyard. The United States has done nothing governmentally for the honeycreepers, which echoes in the story of the Po'o-uli. This bird was only discovered in 1973 on the island of Maui on the Ko'olau reserve. Less then 200 were reported. Disease and habitat loss had taken a severe toll on a species we had no clue of. By 1995 there were five left, possibly seven, and by 1997 only three remained located. One was captured and introduced into the range of another, hoping for mating, but the individual returned to its original range. In 2002 one of the remaining individuals was captured and brought to the San Diego Zoo, in the hopes of establishing a breeding program. The other two, have not been seen since, and given their age, probably never will. The captured individual was old as well, and on November 28, 2004, one year ago next week. The species, is today, labeled extinct. Just one year ago, one more species was gone. Did you hearit die? Do you hear them die? Because they wrack my brain with their screams and death moans of pain, that no one else hears.

And behold, the things we will never see, and yet are not dreams....

There are some things that are not so radically different. Not dinosaurs or mammoths, but animals that look so familiar to the things we see every day, but each with their own charasmatic flair, of things we don't see everyday. And yet, we will never see these things again. What really gets to me is not the older ones, the thylacines and the dodos that I could never have seen given the time of my birth, but the species I never got to see alive, since the day I was born, such as the Dusky seaside sparrow, or the pyrenean goat. It's sad to say that we will never see xerces butterflies, or glimpse passenger pigeons. Think of the elk, or deer, or turkeys, or pigeons. Think of you seeing them, these amazing animals, and then think of your kids never having the chance. This is what has happened to us, in our ignorant lifetimes. Maybe by now, reading this blog, you realize the shithole this world is in. Maybe by now you realize that bad things are happening, and are not stopping. Will you try to stop them? Because I cannot do it alone. And neither can other scientists, writers, and entrepreneurs trying to right now.
It can seem sometimes that it's all Europeans and white people that have destroyed the ecosystems of this world. But the truth is, in places like Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii, Europeans already had a really good start. Why? The polynesians. The polynesians were one of the most devastating cultures to hit the pacific, killing off almost all of the megafauna, and introducing their own domesticated breeds with them as they traveled hundreds of years before any white man ever came to the pacific islands. Among the most magnificent of the tragedies of the polynesians were the moas. Great birds, like an ostrich or an emu, but brown to grey, and shaggy. They had no wings or arm bones left, massive legs, and little heads on long necks. The smallest were a little bigger than a turkey. The largest, when fully extended at the neck, were up to 13 feet tall. That is double the hieght of a tall man. THe last of about eleven species of moa existed just long enough for white men to recount great sightings of the birds, and several mummified carcasses have been found dating 500 years or so old, placing them with the first white comers. but no photos have ever been taken. No mounted specimens in a British museum. Nothing but bones, a few feathers, and stories from an ancient tribe.

History, indeed repeats itself...

This is the Heath Hen, a type of prairie chicken that lived in the Northeastern United states. It gathered every year to mate in leks, a little patch of grass to compete for females. The birds were overkilled by pilgrims and settlers, and were depleating rapidly by the revolutionary and civil wars. Conservationists began an interest, including John Audubon, when the birds were reported to only survive on Martha's vineyard, a tiny island off of cape cod. THere were about 50 left. The island was protected, and the population sprouted a comeback, 2,000 individuals strong by 1915, one year before the extinction of passenger pigeons and five before the carolina parakeet, shown left. THen disaster struck, fires burned the leks, and a surge in goshawks caused over predation, then domestic turkeys brought disease that swept across the island. By 1927 there were 13 left. Mostly males. THe last of which was sighted in 1932. Today a subspecies of the heath hen, once roaming a million acres in texas, the attwater's prairie chicken, is extremely endangered. There are perhaps 300 individuals surviving, only 60 or so in the wild. The wild population is being stimulated by captive bred birds, and it declines 50% in the wild every year. It survives on two wild life refuges that make up 1% of it's original habitat. It seems this ghost of a former new england game bird, will be a ghost again someday, unless much work to save it, and it's habitat, is put into higher action. You can adopt attwater's prairie chickens for $25, just google "adopting attwater's prairie chickens", and you can help out in preserving this world we've done so much to destroy.

Do reptiles cry?

This is lonesome George. He is, as you can plainly see, a Galapapos tortoise. And as can be guessed by his name, he is lonely. Particularly lonely, for George, despite hopes of finding females on his home island still, is the very last Pinta island tortoise, one of the surviving 11 subspecies of Galapagos tortoise, of the original 14. But it truth, only 10 subspecies survive. Why? Lonesome George is extinct. He is very much alive, but he is more extinct than a museum specimen. He will never be able to mate with a pure female, only try to hybridize with another subspecies, which is attempting to be done, but the pinta subspecies is gone forever. George is better as a living photograph than he is for producing a species. So say hello to Lonesome George, and then say goodbye to his kind.

Have fun on vacation!

The next time you ride the rides at Disney World, everyone's favorite theme Park, maybe you'll feel some remorse. Just another reminder of tragedy. A subspecies of the Seaside Sparrow, known as the Dusky Seaside Sparrow, once lived in Florida. But many things were against this little bird. Disney World took away habitat, the space program disrupted nature around it, and finally a mosquito control project flooded the forest where it nested, wiping out every nest of the now rare species in one year. Five were left. All male. No females survived. They were brought to Disney World, where in June of 1987 the last Dusky Seaside Sparrow died of old age, barely clinging to existence, to the sounds of thrilled screams and laughter of amusement rides in the air......

It hasn't ended yet.....

The Pyrenean Ibex was a subspecies of the Spanish Goat. It once held a vast range, but over kill would reduce it to one National Park by the turn of the last century. And poaching still ensued after the species was protected in 1973. In 1999, there was one individual left, her picture is here. Just one. The species was extinct as it was. Just one. Do you know what just one is? It is hopeless. It is without fate. And it lives as a relic, as if trying to show the world as long as it can, that it's kind was once here. The animal was captured in 1999 and a tissue sample was taken to clone the animal in case of the worst. And on January 6th, 2000, the new millenium, a new start for mankind, the worst came true. A land slide felled a tree, that crushed the skull of her. And she was found, not just dead, but extinct. The biggest conservation failure of our century. What a way to kick off another thousand years of the degredation of earth. And without male tissue, a true cloned species may be very impossible.