More than 500 species of animals have not been seen in the past 50 years, a study has found.
According to one of the co-authors, Professor Arne Mooers, from Simon Fraser University, there is a strong possibility that some of them may still exist in poor habitats that are hard to reach.
But some species are probably extinct.
We found that more than 500 species had not been seen in 50 years, he says. This is double the number of species declared extinct since 1500. There is a large list of species that we do not know if they even exist..
The researchers analyzed information on 32,802 species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. They identified 562 to be erased.
The study was published this month in the journal Animal Care.
Prof Mooers explained that they used a computer program that could scan the IUCN database.
The criteria used to declare a species extinct are the records of the detection of the species, including the date of its last detection.
This has revealed to us a large number of clues to the disappearance of a speciesemphasized by Professor Mooers.
In Canada, there is no doubt that this is the case with the Eskimo curlew, a bird whose nesting area is located in the northernmost part of the tundra and where it winters in Argentina, Professor Mooers mentions. But, he added, the last member of this species seen was shot in Barbados in 1963.
This is our most popular species that is likely to be extinct. This is one of the saddest caseshe says.
The authors of the study point out that some extinct species have lived in tropical countries versus Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil.
Professor Mooers indicated that 75 of the 562 species on the list have been declared extinct. According to’IUCNa species is extinct when there is no doubt that the last individual is deadwhich can be difficult to verify, he acknowledges.
Little ray of hope
Extinction means that the last individual of the species is extinct. As a species approaches this stage, individuals become rare until only a few remain, then only one, and finally zero.
If a species is endangered and lives in a hard -to -reach habitat like the tundra or tropical islands, you can’t really make observations, he added. These species may be extinct, they may not.
Professor Mooers remains hopeful that some of these species are not yet completely extinct.
He gave the example of the ivory-billed woodpecker, which scientists thought had been extinct since 1944. Birds of this species were recently observed in Louisiana.
The researcher said he was surprised when he learned that the list contained more than 500 species. However, he was happy to know that some of them had been re -observed.
People were shocked when they learned that a species was extinct, Professor Mooers believes.
We know that people really don’t like the loss of species they know so well. They even mourn for the golden toad, a species they have never seen before and will never see again.
Source: Radio-Canada
