Every year on April 8, the International Day for the Protection of Rare Animals is observed. In 1946, biologist Julian Huxley co-founded the International Union for Conservation of Nature with UNESCO, and three years later the organization drew up a list of 13 species of birds and 14 species of mammals, rating them as "endangered." As of 2020, the number of endangered species on this list has exceeded 37,000, and more than 900 species have become extinct worldwide.
There is a view that the current rate of species extinction is 1,000 times faster than before the existence of humans. Although death is a necessary part of the life cycle for every species, extinction undoubtedly means the end of the cycle. Imagine a day when swallows stop visiting, birdsong can no longer be heard outside the window, the poetry of the living world fades, and the disappearing species cannot speak for themselves. This prompted British artist Beatrice Forshall to document the disappearing species with prints. In the process of creation, she was also fascinated by the life forms and mysteries of these species, which are beautiful that none of us have seen before in the urban jungle for a long time.
Faucher said in the foreword that what sets humans apart from other species is our ability to imagine the future and turn ideas into reality, and the key is how we imagine a possible future. If we still want a world with clean air, clear waters, vast seas, and wilderness, then the story is written by each and every one of us.
The following is an excerpt from Disappearing Species, with permission from the publisher. Space is limited, the content is deleted from the original text, and the prints and pictures in the text are provided by the publishing house.
"Disappearing Species", illustrated by Beatrice Fauccher, translated by Chen Yang, Fang Cun|Social Science Academic Press, February 2023.
Northern jumping penguins
Why is this creature so attractive? On land, it stands upright and walks slowly in a dragging gait, and like all penguins, it wears the black and white formal clothes commonly worn by European men in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The crest of the northern jumping penguin (also known as the northern subspecies of the crested yellow-browed penguin) is the longest of all crested penguins. Their crowns are a bright yellow like daylight, contrasting with the black feathers on their face and head. Such exaggerated decoration makes their "dressing" inadvertently show a bit of pride.
Northern rockhopper penguins breed on two extremely remote island groups: Tristan-da Cunha in the South Atlantic, the Nightingale Islands and Gough Island; St. Paul's Island and Amsterdam Island in the Southern Indian Ocean. They spend thousands of kilometres at sea for five months just to return to their breeding grounds in August. They swim at great speed to the islands, jumping on or being thrown onto rocks by huge waves, and in most cases landing on their stomachs. They stand up, balance with flippers and large soles at the ends of small short legs, jump from rock to rock, and eventually come to their nesting ground. On the island of São Paulo, their nesting grounds reach an altitude of 170 meters. At the beginning of their disembarkation, they may be swept back into the water or fall again and again from the steep slopes they are climbing. But these little creatures won't be deterred by towering rock walls or rough waves, and their determination is heroic.
In the cause of co-raising cubs, penguins have shown great dedication. A month after the male penguins arrive on the island, the female penguins will lay two eggs. Until then, neither parent will eat. After laying the eggs, they take turns sitting on the eggs, and the one who goes out to feed is gone for weeks. As soon as the little penguin is born, it is wrapped in a down "coat". When the little penguins are big enough to curl up in or snuggle up in their parents' arms, they stay with other little penguins, at which point the penguin parents are free to feed.
From the 90s of the 20th century to the present, the number of northern jumping penguins has decreased sharply. One reason is the increase in interregional shipping volumes, and the risk of oil spills. In 2011, the cargo ship Ms. Oliva, carrying 65,000 tonnes of soybeans, ran aground and broke up while sailing to the Nightingale Islands, resulting in a 1,500-tonne oil spill. Tristan da Cunha Islanders sailed more than 30 kilometers in small boats and managed to save 4,000 northern rockhopper penguins and put them in local swimming pools to care for. It is unknown how many other birds have lost their lives and how much pollution affects species reproduction.
Sinai blue-gray butterfly
The Sinai blue-grey butterfly is one of the smallest butterflies in the world, smaller than your thumb fingernail: the wing length is only 7.5 mm. Their body surface is covered with a fine layer of blue hairs. The wings are also blue: when the wings are retracted, they are as pale as the sky near the horizon, but when the wings are spread, they are a striking blue, and the two wings reflect each other, making each other's blue appear more and more colorful. When they fly, it is like a small piece of blue sky falling into the mortal world, trying to find a home in the grass. The wings are also scattered with black spots, about the size of their black eyes.
Whether male or female, once the Sinai blue-gray butterfly emerges from the cocoon, it manages to climb the thyme branches to dry its wings, and then begins courting and mating. The day after mating, the female lays 20-30 eggs on the buds. Adults feed on nectar. After a few days, the eggs hatch and the larvae feed on leaves and flowers.
The survival of the Sinai blue-gray butterfly is entirely dependent on Sinai thyme, a round shrub with light blue-green leaves. They are not good at flying and basically do not travel more than 230 meters. Thyme fields are often separated by a certain distance, so if a thyme field withers and dies, many of the blue-gray butterflies that depend on it are likely to disappear with it. With the exception of a few communities in Palestine and Saudi Arabia, Sinai thyme grows in only a small area near the monastery, and only 33 of the 50 thyme fields contain Sinai blue-grey butterflies. Sinai thyme is overharvested for its medicinal properties. In 1998, a protected area was established around the monastery to include many thyme fields, however, this did not protect them from the effects of climate change.
The region is becoming increasingly arid. Climate change may alter the flowering period, so that butterfly larvae that hatch at the end of the flowering period will lack food and therefore have a lower chance of survival. Temperatures are rising, and for this mountain plant and other threatened species, such as Sinai roses, Sinai primroses and Sinai rough sacchars, it may not be long before the weather becomes unbearably hot. Over the centuries, we managed to preserve the monastery and its library to this day. It would be great if the Sinai blue-gray butterfly could continue to pass on its genes from generation to generation.
Puerto Rican Amazon parrot
It is looking at you with one eye and the other in the opposite direction. Therefore, it can both see what you see and at the same time keep an eye on you. Its eyes are so beautiful: the huge black pupil is surrounded by a narrow yellow iris, and the outer circle of white skin is shaped like an almond; Actually, it's shaped a lot like a human eye. This one-eyed gaze – a gaze that doesn't blink for a long time – contains a hint of a smile, a tiny smile.
Despite its inflexible beak, this parrot can make many different expressions: wary, angry, doubtful, expectant, interested, and even show humorous curiosity, as if wanting to talk to someone. They use their beaks to forage, climb trees, and crack nuts. The plumage of this parrot is a rich green color, shining with a rainbow-like color, and gradually transitioning to blue like electroplating. The feathers near the tail are almost yellow, as if the painter has run out of paint.
Now it turns its head and both eyes are fixed on you, as if asking for your opinion. Then, it took a step to the side, made a fancy gesture like a magician's cloak, spread its wings and raised it high, revealing blue feathers, the color of the sea near the island and the cloudless tropical sky. It flapped its wings a few more times, then flew up, drawing a streamlined trajectory supported by warm air.
The Puerto Rican Amazon parrot often prey on invasive species such as the roof rat and the Indian little mongoose, but the main reason for their decline is habitat loss. After 1650, Puerto Rico's population began to grow rapidly. Bird-inhabited forests were cleared to become plantations of sugar cane, citrus fruits and coffee. Today, the bird's range is only 0.2% of what it once was. Captivity has allowed their numbers to recover, but parrots bred in captivity learn a different "dialect", which makes it more difficult for them to integrate into wild parrot populations.
wandering albatross
They rarely flap their wings, they like to soar. They are drifters who travel against the wind, spending their lives in the skies of the Southern Ocean and in eternal sports. The Southern Ocean is one of the roughest waters on the planet – driven by winds of nearly 130 kilometers per hour and the world's most powerful current, the westerly wind. It's a ruthless land with terrifying waves up to 24 metres high, but for wandering albatrosses, it's home.
At the age of 2, drifting albatrosses leave land and fly into the air, and do not set foot on solid ground again until 5 or even 10 years later. With a wingspan of over 3.5 meters, it is the largest of all birds. It can fly in the air for days without flapping its wings. When flying, its heart rate is almost as slow as when sleeping. In search of food, it can fly 800 kilometers in a day.
After 10 years at sea, the albatross will return to the place where it was born in search of its kind. Relying on its sense of smell and Earth's magnetic field, it can find one of four islands in the Southern Ocean. The largest gathering point is located on the steep windward slopes of South Georgia, one of the most off-the-beaten-path places on the planet. Since 2012, the waters around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands have been designated as marine protected areas.
On land, the wide wings become a burden, and the wandering albatross can only waddle awkwardly. It takes a long time for them to find a partner, but once they do, they stay together for life. They courtship with dance: bowing their heads, shaking their heads quickly back and forth, flapping their beaks, flapping their wings, and bending their wings into arches, as if to embrace each other. They raise their beaks towards the sky and call each other. Each couple has their own unique dance, and once every two years, they return here to dance during the breeding season; Throughout their lives, they will constantly modify their dances to enrich their movements. They are very emotional, will sit side by side, snuggle each other for warmth, gently comb each other's feathers with their mouths, and touch each other affectionately.
They nest in dense grass with dirt and grass, laying an egg in the nest with reddish spots on the surface of the white eggshell. For two and a half months, they change shifts every three weeks, taking turns keeping the eggs warm. After the chicks break their shells, the adults take care of the chicks for the next 9 months, longer than any other seabird. Adults travel long distances to feed their chicks, even as far as Brazil. They leave their chicks alone in their nests for weeks, traversing the mist, rain and snow of the polar regions. For adult birds, the threat of starvation is always present. If one of them fails to return to the nest, the chicks will not survive.
Countless seabirds are killed each year by hooks and lines. A single fishing line alone can be more than 100 kilometers long, with thousands of steel hooks with bait hanging from it. Drifting albatrosses that dive into the water to feed on bait are immediately hooked, dragged into the sea and drowned; The same goes for turtles, sharks and dolphins. Some fishing bodies have begun to take action, such as fishing at night, switching to heavier lines, or using brightly colored streamers to scare away birds. Algae-coated plastic waste smells like albatross' prey, so they feed the plastic to their chicks, which starve to death, filling their bellies with plastic bags, bottle caps, toothbrushes, toys, light bulbs, lighters, gloves and plastic wrap.
Today, storms are getting stronger, and the sea breeze on which albatrosses depend sometimes overturns the vegetation supporting their nests, blowing away eggs or chicks. Albatrosses mature and nurse their chicks very slowly, and even if we give them a chance, it will take a long time for albatross populations to recover. Today, all but two of the 21 species of albatross are at risk of extinction.
Long-tailed mayflies
One day in mid-June, before twilight, the shadows stretched long and the light brushed through every tip of grass. Straight reeds and nettles grow along the riverbank, and wicker hangs above the water. Here the air condenses and the river flows slowly. The warm, quiet and clear water makes this an ideal place.
For this moment, the nymphs of mayflies have been waiting for 3 years. In clayy riverbeds covered with roots and dead leaves, they bury themselves in U-shaped tunnels, carefully avoiding fish and frogs during the day and coming out at night to feed on diatoms. Today, they will emerge from the water – first males, and after half an hour females. They first empty their internal organs and fill the abdominal cavity with air so that they can float to the surface. Some nymphs tried to swim back to safety in the riverbed, only to be pulled back to the surface. Most likely to survive are those nymphs that do not hesitate, they go upstream and swim towards the light. They emerge from the water and finally arrive at their destination: a whole new world, warm and bright. They spread their wings and flutter back and forth in the air, a new element, making them easy prey for fish, dragonflies and aquatic beetles.
Some long-tailed floaters seek hiding places on the shore. The reproductive organs, legs and tail are still growing, but they can no longer eat or drink. They begin to feather. The freshly molted body was wrinkled, shiny, light yellow, and as delicate as a new leaf. They twist their bodies and struggle out of their tulle-like skin: heads, antennae, torso, and finally forked tailwhiskers. The long-tailed mayfly can reach a length of 12 cm, making it the longest in Europe. The wrinkled wings gradually open, and unlike other insects, their wings cannot be folded back, but can only be raised vertically like sails, which look like the seeds of a hanging suzuki. They only have a few hours to find a mate.
Millions of long-tailed mayflies gather and fly in the twilight, their figures everywhere in the air. As they turn, dive, circle and spin, long tail whiskers whisk across the river, and the flapping sound of those tiny wings is clearly audible from 50 meters away. Some mayflies do not fly high and glide diagonally upwards as lightly as a skater. They begin courtship, a dance that hovers in the air. There is not much time left for them. Fish jump out of the water with their mouths wide open and splash; Various birds – swallows, wagtails and terns – flap their wings and peck at mayflies. When the sky faded, the bats joined the predator.
Once mating, the male mayfly falls to the surface, stretches his wings and tail whiskers, and allows himself to be swept away by the water or eaten by fish. Females fly with about 9,000 eggs to safety 10 kilometers upstream and carefully lay their eggs on the surface.
In the past, this phenomenon was seen in many rivers across Europe. Before the beginning of the 20th century, long-tailed mayflies were so numerous that they were even used as fertilizer. As dams are built, rivers are pumped away, and agricultural activities become more intensive, the long-tailed mayfly slowly disappears from view. In the range of the long-tailed mayfly, they can now be found in only a very small part of the area, mainly along the Tisza River in Central Europe.
Mayflies are very sensitive to their living environment, and they cannot survive in contaminated water. Agrochemicals are reducing their numbers. The disappearance of mayflies means that the water we drink, bathe and swim in may not be as clean as it seems.
Great curlew
Flocks of birds land along the distant coastline. Yellow quay cranes sweep by, resembling giant metal models of birds. Silver-white and clear blue waters swell beneath them, dazzling with sparkling light. From the ground, the wings on the sides of the light tawny bodies of these small birds form a pair of inverted V-shapes, like arrows representing direction and speed. Flocks of birds hover in the air: hundreds of birds fly in the same direction at the same angle. They tighten their legs, tilt their wings, flap their wings to beat the air, and wrestle with the air.
This is the Yellow Sea, located between China and the Korean Peninsula. The intertidal tidal tidal flats along the Yellow Sea coast are a resting ground for the great curlew, and rivers from inland bring mineral-rich sediments that allow molluscs, crabs and worms to thrive on the tidal flats. The loud whistle of ships, the sonorous sound of metal clashing, the noise of engines, and the shouts of humans all echo on the water. Sandpipers fly into the air when frightened, but doing so is undoubtedly draining the energy they have stored up for the 12,000-kilometre migration from wintering grounds off the coast of Australia to breeding grounds in Siberia. They don't glide, flap their wings every inch they advance, burn fat and muscle, and even shrink the size of their digestive and reproductive organs.
The great curlew can predict weather changes and choose the time to go. They use Earth's magnetic field and the starry sky to navigate, but light pollution makes it increasingly difficult for them to see the stars. Year after year, great curlew chicks trek alone without parental guidance, first to the Yellow Sea, where they rest, and then to their wintering grounds in southern Queensland.
During its 20-year life, the great curlew flew 30,000 kilometers a year, enough to fly enough to reach the moon. Their twice-yearly migration is part of one of the world's major migratory bird migration routes, which are the migration routes of about 50 million birds. These migrations are extraordinary journeys. For wading birds trudging along this route, the intertidal tidal mudflats of the Yellow Sea are the perfect place to take a break and regain their strength. However, these tidal flats, like tropical rainforests, are being rapidly destroyed, and birds are suffering with them.
The coastal areas of the Yellow Sea are home to more than 300 million people. High walls separate the mudflats from the sea, and people fill them in with rubble to build airports, roads, houses and hotels on them. In an ill-advised project, South Korea built the world's longest seawall, encroached on more than 40,000 hectares of tidal flats, and destroyed 400 square kilometers of river estuaries around Sin Manjin. 300,000 shorebirds can no longer rest here, and most of them have died.
Building dikes along rivers that flow into the Yellow Sea intercepts sediment, which is home to many of the creatures that birds feed on. In addition, rising sea levels have inundated large areas of tidal flats, making it impossible for birds to land. They arrive in spring and autumn, only to find that the tidal flats are gone, and they may not have the strength to look for other feeding grounds. Many migratory birds thus die of starvation.
According to rough estimates, about 70% of the intertidal tidal flats in the Yellow Sea have been damaged since 1950. Along with the tidal flats are the population of wetland birds. The red-bellied sandpiper decreased by 58 per cent, the curlew and sandpiper by 78 per cent, and the great curlew and spot-tailed sandpiper by 80 per cent. There are now fewer than 200 pairs of cute spoon-billed sandpipers left.
Collared lemur
Collared lemurs live in matrilineal societies. Female-collared lemurs nest in tree holes before giving birth. Collared lemurs choose nesting sites based on the ease of foraging and the distance from other lemur mothers' nests, and they are the only primates known to practice this practice. Because in relatively isolated nests, the survival rate of pups is low. After a few weeks, the collared lemur moves with its cubs to another tree and moves to other nests during its foraging. It moves from tree to tree, possibly as many as 40 times, with a large range of movement.
This is why logging poses such a serious threat to collared lemurs. For decades, humans have been plundering wood resources, especially mahogany, in the Malagasy jungles to meet the demand for furniture. When trees are cut down as timber and transported out of the forest, loggers also hunt lemurs for food. Even in national parks, illegal logging occurs. It is estimated that the largest volume of all species subject to illegal trade is rosewood.
Mining activities are also a major threat. In one area, clearings cleared for sapphire mining more than tripled. If we didn't buy gemstones, Malagasy people wouldn't have uprooted trees in search of them.
Like loggers, miners hunt lemurs to improve their food. Lake Arautra lemurs live in the reeds of Lake Arautra and are the only primates that inhabit wetlands, they are hunted for food, bought and sold as pets, and driven to hunters by hunting dogs and fire. Their habitat has been transformed into rice paddies, which also poses a threat to their survival. Since humans came to Madagascar, 17 species of lemurs have gone extinct.
Legend has it that there was once a pair of big lemur brothers. One of them left the lemur herd and became a man, a farmer; The other remains in the jungle as a lemur. It is said that lemurs sing every morning to mourn the brother who set out on the path of humanity. As the days passed, fires burned the jungle and smoke rose. Viewed from the air, the forest fire forms jagged edges, like pages torn from a book, the dividing line between life and death. Without the root system of plants and trees, the soil is washed away by water. The fragmented remnants of the charred forest, piles of char stretching endlessly, all tell the same story. Only in the farthest distance, you can vaguely see the silhouette of one or two trees.
Some primates, such as the collared lemur, live only in Madagascar and the nearby Comoros Islands, and 90% of them are now at risk of extinction. Originally, the naturalist Carl Linnaeus gave the lemurs the Latin name "lemures," which in Latin means "soul, ghost."
Amur Falcon
The Heilongjiang River (Amur River) forms the hundreds of kilometers of the border between China and Russia. The river runs through a vast forest, and this beautiful falcon, which resembles a pigeon, is named after the river. They nest and breed in this area during May and June.
The Amur Falcon is unique in that they migrate the longest distance of any bird of prey, accumulating up to 22,000 kilometers in a year. It is believed that they feed on yellow dragonflies when flying across the ocean, which in turn have the longest migration route of all insects, and the migration route coincides with the Amur falcon. To find the warm south and the swarming swarms of African insects, the Amur falcon must leave its breeding grounds and travel through China, India and the Indian Ocean — and how they first discovered this remains unsolved.
Along the way, migrating Amur falcons enter Naga territory as they fly over the border between Myanmar and northern India. Not so long ago, the Naga people maintained a tradition of hunting wild animals. They have a deep affection for nature, but gradually, their attitude changes. Hunting went from a necessity to fill one's stomach to a commercial activity.
At first, the Naga shot Amur falcons with shotguns, but they soon realized that fishing nets were more efficient, catching a full 12,000 a day. Amur falcons with broken or dislocated wings are brought back to the village in sacks and, more commonly, chained to long sticks and fluttered in the wind, skinned, skewed or smoked.
In 2012, a team of Naga journalist Barno M. The environmental team led by Bano Haralu heard about what was happening here. Her reporting shocked the animal protection community. With the support of village elders and fines imposed on hunting, by the following year, not a single Amur falcon had been hunted near the Duoyang River reservoir. Nagaland is one of the poorest and most backward regions in India, with the highest unemployment rate among Indian states. Hunting – especially the capture of Amur falcons falling from the sky – once contributed greatly to the economy of the Naga people. However, in just one year, they have become staunch environmentalists. By 2020, many Naga villages had established protected areas, and villagers voluntarily ceded land for public projects. But in the Mediterranean, countless migratory birds are still caught or shot in nets each year.
Andean condors
The condor is an affectionate social animal that practices monogamy for life. Breeding couples need to find a sheltered, sunny, and easily foraging nesting spot. They usually lay an egg every other year. The couple take turns keeping the eggs warm, and after the eggs hatch, they spend months teaching the chicks to fly, teaching it to look for hot air currents and food. Condor do not mature sexually until they are at least 6 years old, and may live to be 50 years old in the wild. They have once been seen from Tierra del Fuego to the western highlands of northern South America.
Simon and Garfunkel, inspired by the Andean condors, covered the song "El Cóndor Pasa", originally written by Daniel Robles and Julio Baudouin in 1913. Until then, the condor had been an image in Andean folklore – to this day, it is still seen as a messenger between the gods and mortals on earth.
Vultures are among the most threatened birds worldwide. The Andean condor has no natural predators, but it faces a ruthless competitor. Human development continues to encroach on their habitat. Less than 1% of livestock deaths are caused by Andean condors, yet farmers place poisoned bait in their carcasses to poison them. Even if not poisoned, animal carcasses that accumulate large amounts of pesticides can be harmful to condors. The breeding rate of condors is slow and cannot keep up with such rhythms. In Africa, vultures face similar threats. Poachers poison them for fear that the scavenger birds will reveal their location. It is rumored that the brains of vultures can foresee the future and are very popular with gamblers, and many vultures are brutally killed because of this.
Today, "Song of the Mountain Eagle" is known as Peru's "second national anthem". In the play, the song is played in the last scene with the appearance of the condor, symbolizing freedom and the hope of a better life.
Original author/[English] Beatrice Fauccher
Excerpt / Shen Lu
Editor/Zhang Jin
Introduction proofreading / Wang Xin