These personal portraits of extinct species may well make you cry
Lost Animals, Disappearing Worlds: Stories of Extinction
Barbara Allen
Reaktion Books, $49.99
If you care about animal extinction then reading this book could cause you to weep. For author Barbara Allen, writing Lost Animals, Disappearing Worlds was an upsetting experience. 'I wrote this book accompanied by many tears. I could not stay dry-eyed reading about the slaughter of the great auk, the seemingly endless shootings of the passenger pigeon, the destruction of habitat.'
Indeed, feelings of grief and outrage are unavoidable when reading about how these species, along with others such as the dodo and thylacine, have disappeared due to human encroachment, exploitation and sheer viciousness.
Human beings are both the kindest and cruellest species, and this dichotomy is expressed no more plainly than in the way we treat other animals. So many of the 31 species described by Allen in this book were lost due to the destructive aspect of our nature.
Allen includes contemporary expressions of self-satisfaction, even glee at the wholesale slaughter of vulnerable species, as if animals that could be killed without effort somehow did not deserve to live. Species that evolved on remote islands, such as the dodo, were easy prey for the humans who circumnavigated the globe in the age of exploration. 'Having never encountered humans before,' she writes, 'some of the creatures did not realise the danger they posed. Many colonists labelled such behaviour, this absence of fear, as evidence of them being 'stupid'.'
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A 1909 report commenting on a thylacine kept at London Zoo stated that these animals evidently were 'untameable' yet not intelligent enough to 'know what they fear'. Allen describes how the last, neglected thylacine in captivity died in 1936 from exposure and malnutrition in a freezing cold concrete enclosure at Hobart Zoo. The thylacine was not recognised by the Tasmanian government as a threatened species until 1966.
A not dissimilar story of neglect relates to the Yangtze River dolphin, which was declared functionally extinct in 2006. According to Allen, it was 'lack of money, poor planning, ignorance, incompetence and, saddest of all, apathy' that drove the decline of the world's only known fresh water dolphin.
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9 News
a day ago
- 9 News
Tassie tigers and toad war: De-extinction giant's Aussie projects
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here Once-extinct alpha predators prowl their old Tasmanian bushland haunts again. Others blithely munch on hapless cane toads without so much as a stomach-ache to show for it, thanks to a DNA tweak. The toads themselves are dwindling, along with other invasive pests - new genetics introduced into wild populations are curbing their breeding. It's a future that's not quite here yet, but the shadow of it is looming, as one of the world's biggest names in de-extinction turns its eyes to Australia in a major way. Colossal Biosciences, most famed for their projects to resurrect the woolly mammoth, and recreating the "dire wolves" made famous in Game of Thrones , have announced the establishment of Colossal Australia, expanding a long-standing partnership with the University of Melbourne. Colossal Australia is working to resurrect the Tasmanian tiger. (Nine) And joining the company full-time is Australian Professor Andrew Pask, who will step into the international role of chief biology officer, as well as overseeing Colossal Australia. Pask said a greater focus on de-extinction in Australia, along with other environmental preservation techniques, was of particular importance. "We have the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world," he told Colossal co-founder Ben Lamm with Professor Andrew Pask. (Colossal) Pask, a long-time leader in the de-extinction field, currently leads the Thylacine Integrated Genomic Restoration Research Lab (TIGGR) at the University of Melbourne. Colossal has previously been a partial funder of the lab, but now, TIGGR will become part of Colossal Australia. Among other things, it's at the heart of the company's plan to resurrect the thylacine - the Tasmanian tiger - which died out in 1936. Colossal made headlines when it revealed it had recreated the "direwolf". (Supplied) "We're currently in the (gene) editing phase for the Tasmanian tiger," Pask said. He forecast it would be about six to eight years before that phase of the project was completed. Concurrently, the lab is also developing breeding technology, from artificial wombs to ways to induce a "heat" phase in a prospective surrogate animal, which can be used for conservation projects around the country. "We work with a lot of other organisations and we share a lot of our technology with them," Pask said. Colossal is also working on a solution to the seemingly unstoppable menace of the cane toad, a species introduced to Australia in the 1930s. Cane toads were introduced to Australia in the 1930s. (Jodi Rowley/Australian Museum) Cane toads produce a toxin which is extremely poisonous and routinely kills animals who eat them, including native mammals and reptiles. One of these would-be predators could soon have the upper hand. The northern quoll was forecast to be extinct within 10 years, in part because too many are dying from eating toads. Looking to the toad's native predators in South America for answers, Pask said they spotted a tiny difference in a single part of their DNA that could be mimicked by gene editing in Australian animals. "One single nucleotide in a three-billion-letter DNA code, that's all you have to change," he said. The northern quoll is facing extinction. (Getty Images/iStockphoto) Colossal is currently working with regulatory bodies on the conditions of releasing the gene-modified quolls into the wild, which would be a world first. "It hasn't been done before, so there's a lot to work through. With the gene change, the quolls are considered GMOs (genetically modified organisms), which means you can let them go but you can't eat them," he said. Australia's Gene Technology Regulator offers licences for releasing GMO animals into the environment. But there are other issues to work through - for example, as GMOs, the new quolls don't technically benefit from the environmental protections and conservation status of their natural-born cousins. "It's such a beautiful example of how we can use these de-extinction technologies to confront these issues," he said. "The quolls aren't just protected from the toads, they're then helping getting rid of the pest animal." Other project priorities for Colossal Australia include pushing ahead on bird genomics, which Pask said was "really far behind" compared to mammals, and which would have obvious applications for Australia's dwindling rare birds. And Pask also suggested gene modification could be used to curb invasive pest species such as rabbits, by introducing animals that spread infertility genes. "I'm thrilled to help lead this team at the forefront of de-extinction research, not just to bring back lost species, but to apply those technologies in real-time to save those still with us," he said. science environment animals wildlife Australia national World CONTACT US Auto news: Honda here to stay in Australia, announces growth plans.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
These personal portraits of extinct species may well make you cry
ENVIRONMENT Lost Animals, Disappearing Worlds: Stories of Extinction Barbara Allen Reaktion Books, $49.99 If you care about animal extinction then reading this book could cause you to weep. For author Barbara Allen, writing Lost Animals, Disappearing Worlds was an upsetting experience. 'I wrote this book accompanied by many tears. I could not stay dry-eyed reading about the slaughter of the great auk, the seemingly endless shootings of the passenger pigeon, the destruction of habitat.' Indeed, feelings of grief and outrage are unavoidable when reading about how these species, along with others such as the dodo and thylacine, have disappeared due to human encroachment, exploitation and sheer viciousness. Human beings are both the kindest and cruellest species, and this dichotomy is expressed no more plainly than in the way we treat other animals. So many of the 31 species described by Allen in this book were lost due to the destructive aspect of our nature. Allen includes contemporary expressions of self-satisfaction, even glee at the wholesale slaughter of vulnerable species, as if animals that could be killed without effort somehow did not deserve to live. Species that evolved on remote islands, such as the dodo, were easy prey for the humans who circumnavigated the globe in the age of exploration. 'Having never encountered humans before,' she writes, 'some of the creatures did not realise the danger they posed. Many colonists labelled such behaviour, this absence of fear, as evidence of them being 'stupid'.' Loading A 1909 report commenting on a thylacine kept at London Zoo stated that these animals evidently were 'untameable' yet not intelligent enough to 'know what they fear'. Allen describes how the last, neglected thylacine in captivity died in 1936 from exposure and malnutrition in a freezing cold concrete enclosure at Hobart Zoo. The thylacine was not recognised by the Tasmanian government as a threatened species until 1966. A not dissimilar story of neglect relates to the Yangtze River dolphin, which was declared functionally extinct in 2006. According to Allen, it was 'lack of money, poor planning, ignorance, incompetence and, saddest of all, apathy' that drove the decline of the world's only known fresh water dolphin.
The Age
2 days ago
- The Age
These personal portraits of extinct species may well make you cry
ENVIRONMENT Lost Animals, Disappearing Worlds: Stories of Extinction Barbara Allen Reaktion Books, $49.99 If you care about animal extinction then reading this book could cause you to weep. For author Barbara Allen, writing Lost Animals, Disappearing Worlds was an upsetting experience. 'I wrote this book accompanied by many tears. I could not stay dry-eyed reading about the slaughter of the great auk, the seemingly endless shootings of the passenger pigeon, the destruction of habitat.' Indeed, feelings of grief and outrage are unavoidable when reading about how these species, along with others such as the dodo and thylacine, have disappeared due to human encroachment, exploitation and sheer viciousness. Human beings are both the kindest and cruellest species, and this dichotomy is expressed no more plainly than in the way we treat other animals. So many of the 31 species described by Allen in this book were lost due to the destructive aspect of our nature. Allen includes contemporary expressions of self-satisfaction, even glee at the wholesale slaughter of vulnerable species, as if animals that could be killed without effort somehow did not deserve to live. Species that evolved on remote islands, such as the dodo, were easy prey for the humans who circumnavigated the globe in the age of exploration. 'Having never encountered humans before,' she writes, 'some of the creatures did not realise the danger they posed. Many colonists labelled such behaviour, this absence of fear, as evidence of them being 'stupid'.' Loading A 1909 report commenting on a thylacine kept at London Zoo stated that these animals evidently were 'untameable' yet not intelligent enough to 'know what they fear'. Allen describes how the last, neglected thylacine in captivity died in 1936 from exposure and malnutrition in a freezing cold concrete enclosure at Hobart Zoo. The thylacine was not recognised by the Tasmanian government as a threatened species until 1966. A not dissimilar story of neglect relates to the Yangtze River dolphin, which was declared functionally extinct in 2006. According to Allen, it was 'lack of money, poor planning, ignorance, incompetence and, saddest of all, apathy' that drove the decline of the world's only known fresh water dolphin.
