First the Climate, then People:
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Pets and Animals
TaraDeS — 1 year ago(June 08, 2024 10:38 AM)
First the Climate, then People:
Why the Woolly Rhinoceros died out
Humans were not to blame for the extinction of the woolly rhinoceros.
Researchers agreed on this for a long time.
A new study now contradicts this assumption.
A new study by scientists from Denmark and Australia says that in addition to climate change, humans were also responsible for the extinction of the woolly rhinoceros. Previously researchers believed that the hunt for the giant shaggy animal wasn't the cause of the disappearance of the megafauna species. Lead author Damien Fordham from the University of Adelaide's Environmental Institute explained why his team was able to come to a different conclusion:
"Using computer models, fossils and ancient DNA, we've traced the 52,000-year population history of the woolly rhinoceros across Eurasia at a resolution previously impossible."
Lessons from the Past for Species Conservation today
30,000 years ago cooling temperatures during the Ice Age and low, sustained hunting by humans combined to cause the woolly rhinoceros to retreat to more southern regions. There the animals were trapped in isolated and rapidly deteriorating habitats.
"As the earth thawed and temperatures rose, woolly rhinoceros populations were unable to colonize important new habitats that opened up in northern Eurasia, causing them to destabilize and collapse, leading to their extinction."
The high-resolution data made it easier to explain the interactions between rhinos and humans than in previous studies. The findings can also be transferred to the here and now.
While in the late Pleistocen (when the woolly rhinoceros died out) 61 species of large herbivores weighing over a ton still roamed the earth, today only 8, five of them are rhinos.
"Our results show how climate change and human activities can lead to the extinction of megafauna,"
said co-author David Nogues-Bravo from the University of Copenhagen.
"By studying past extinctions we can learn, how to protect Earth's remaining large animals."
https://www.mdr.de/wissen/archaeologie-fruehgeschichte/warum-das-wollnashorn-ausstarb-100.html
June 05, 2024
Cordial thanks to Denmark
and Australia 
for this great study!
The complete study is here:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2316419121
June 03, 2024 -
Wu Ming — 1 year ago(January 30, 2025 12:47 AM)
From the article in my OP:
"As the earth thawed and temperatures rose, woolly rhinoceros populations were unable to colonize important new habitats that opened up in northern Eurasia, causing them to destabilize and collapse, leading to their extinction."
Spotted Hyena seen in Egypt for the first Time in 5,000 Years
This is roughly 310 miles north of the known range of Spotted Hyenas in Sudan.
Researchers speculate that a rare weather phenomena opened up a migration corridor
that allowed the predator to go beyond its usual hunting grounds.
Stock photo of a Spotted Hyena crossing a trackway.
The Spotted Hyena’s cadaver in the Elba Protected Area in southeastern Egypt.
….
….
https://www.newsweek.com/spotted-hyena-egypt-sighting-ecology-climate-2019166
January 22, 2025 [not verbatim transferred]
Sorry, I didn't find any good video about it.
Annoying AI productions currently flood YT:
"5,000-Year-Old Hyena Spotted In Egypt"
Yah, the true miracle was, that such
mummy hyena
ran around.
And someone
spotted
her! -
Wu Ming — 1 year ago(March 15, 2025 08:33 PM)
"We saw off the Branch we are sitting on"
We still mistakenly believe we can subdue nature.
That's what botanists Sarah Darwin and Johannes Vogel say.
Perhaps extinct species can help us in the future.
Natural history museums could become more of a venue for political debate on conservation.
Pictured: The Natural History Museum in London.
A natural scientist and great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin and the Director General of the Natural History Museum in Berlin: Sarah Darwin and her husband Johannes Vogel are the dream couple of natural history researchers. That's what journalist Boris Herrmann of the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
(SZ) writes.
Over the past few months, he had several extensive conversations with the two botanists, sometimes on the Galapagos Islands, sometimes at the Berlin Natural History Museum, and sometimes at their home in Essex, eastern England. The topic: Climate change, species extinction, and saving the world.
The result is the book
"Das Parlament der Natur"
(The Parliament of Nature).
Darwin and Vogel provide insight into a world that is probably relatively unfamiliar to most people in everyday life: The significance of biodiversity and species extinction on this planet, viewed over a period of hundreds of millions of years, and the role (small and large) that humans play in this development.
"Das Parlament der Natur"
(The Parliament of Nature)
In an interview with the
STANDARD
, Darwin and Vogel explain why humans still mistakenly see themselves as the pinnacle of creation, what we can learn from species that already became extinct, and how the extinction of species on this planet may still be able to be stopped.
….
….
A few thousand years ago, humans accounted for only a few percent of the total biomass of all mammals, now they account for about 32%. Today, domestic animals account for circa 60% of the total biomass.
Wild animals, which once comprised 99% of life on Earth, now account for only 4% percent.
The collections of many extinct species in museums show us, how dramatic the changes caused by humans are.
….
….
Wolves are one of the key species, without them biodiversity would collapse in many places.
But they're always a controversial topic, especially among farmers.
….
….
From collections and specimens in natural history museums like here in Vienna,
past developments can be described and new solutions for the future can be found.
….
….
https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000260678/naturforscher-wir-saegen-an-dem-ast-auf-dem-wir-sitzen
March 13, 2025
Red List of Threatened Species
More than 46,300 species are threatened with extinction.
That is 28% of all assessed species.
https://www.iucnredlist.org/
41% Amphibians
26% Mammals
34% Conifers
12% Birds
37% Sharks & Rays
44% Reef Corals
28% Selected Crustaceans
21% Reptiles
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