Another Animal Species Wiped out by Mankind. This Needs to Stop!

As if there wasn’t enough tragedy happening around the world on a daily basis, I came across an article that had me shed tears: the stunning blue ‘Macaw’ species of birds that inspired the movie “Rio” are now officially extinct.

Take a good look at these little cuties, because this is the last time we’ll ever see them again. 

Many royal families took a fond interest in their beautiful blue feathers, which led to their being hunted, stuffed, or plucked in large quantities throughout the 20th century.

Their homes were destroyed by deforestation, and the number of birds in captivity has gradually gotten smaller. These adorable blue birds have now been wiped out completely.

Sadly, this isn’t the first tragic extinction we’ve heard of. 

In 2007, the baiji dolphin, a freshwater cetacean endemic to the Yangtze, was officially declared "functionally extinct".

It was the first cetacean to be extinct as a result of human activity, and the first large vertebrate in the world to go extinct in 50 years.

Against all hope, this set off a chain of unfortunate events that led to more extinctions of beautiful species. The Yangtze finless porpoise, the only viviparous mammal in China's freshwater waters, is also facing a crisis of declining numbers.

Some of the dead porpoises have been cut in half by a ship's propeller. Some of those tragic dissections left their stomach empty - a ship's propeller can kill a finless porpoise pretty quickly. Severe water pollution and fish pollution also threaten the health of finless porpoises.

Between 1991 and 2012, the population of finless porpoises in the Yangtze river declined by 5-10% annually.

In 1991, there were more than 2,700 porpoises in the entire Yangtze river basin；

In 2006, there were nearly 1,800 left.

In 2012, approximately 1,045 were recorded；

In 2017, ONLY 1,012；

Then what… 2020 = 0 left??

There are only about 1,012 fewer than giant pandas.

If you think these beautiful creatures can’t feel pain, think again… Not only are they capable of having emotions, but they can sure as hell show them, as captured in this traumatic photo of an animal shedding a tear. 

It's likely that in the near future, we'll never see that smile again.

The damage isn’t specific to the Yangtze river. It’s everywhere.

The emotional documentary “The Cove” reveals a very, very dark side of Japan’s dolphin hunt business, which brutally murders herds of dolphins for profits.

They cut the dolphins' skin with sharp blades and pierce their bodies.

They corner dolphins to leave them with no other options but to meet a tragic fate.

How many dolphins have been killed and how much blood was shed to make the deep blue sea red? Even hours after the massacre, the bay was still red.

As the largest mammal on land, the African elephant lives as long as humans and has no natural enemies.

But human demand for ivory is responsible for the deaths of up to 30,000 African elephants a year, with one dying every 15 minutes from illegal hunting.

There were around 1,300,000 elephants in Africa alone in 1979, compared with about 415,000 today.

Since December 31st last year, China has fully implemented a ban on ivory trade which has helped shrink the illegal ivory trade market, but it still remains relatively active in some major cities.

Don't think that ivory bracelets or pendants aren’t important. 

These accessories (or so-called “crafts”) have been made with death and blood.

For people, teething means growth.

For objects, teething means death.

These areas of the world are relatively easy to get to by curious travelers and hunters, but what about other remote regions like the Arctic glacier? 

Are those habitats safer? 

You would think they are, but sadly, there seems to be no escape from death no matter where animals live and breed.

This photo of a polar bear mother holding her baby in her arms confirms it, as she drifts on a small, melted block of ice. GuideinChina has previously reported on this story, which you can read more about by clicking this link: Dead Baby Orca, Homeless Polar Bears, and Other Summer Tragedies

The Arctic sea ice has shrunk by 50 percent due to global warming and is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Walruses are also taking a big hit, with dozens huddling together to survive.

On the other side of the planet, penguins are no better off than polar bears as many of them are starving to death.

The Antarctic Peninsula is warming five times faster than the global average, while signs of warming in the southern ocean extend as far as 3,000 meters below the surface.

Not just global warming, the pollution of the sea is always threatening their lives.

More than 300 million tons of plastic are produced and consumed almost every year, and thousands of tons are dumped into the blue sea every year.

The GiC team has also published an article that details this tragedy, which you can read more about here: The Salt Lake is So Beautiful, But Now We Don't Deserve It!

Despite our best efforts, it seems more and more difficult for humans to reverse these situations that surfaced because of our own doing.

Unlike us, these creatures cannot escape. They don’t hold passports; they can’t flee and travel some place safer than their home, which we continue to neglect and destroy. Now more than ever, we must all realize that this planet earth we call home is one that is shared between humans and animals, not dominated by one kind over another.

It’s time to pay closer attention to our surroundings, because your next pile of plastic trash is very likely to kill a family of sea animals - if not many. 

Be mindful. Be respectful. Be “human”. 

Source: insdaily

Editor: Crystal Huang

Co-editor: Ed Bellin

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