【Case Library】#它们濒临灭绝! #
【Case Name】The Christmas Island bat made its last desperate sound, and was declared extinct 8 years later
【Number】CBCGDF-SPECIES-EN002
【Species】Pipistrellus murrayi
The Territory of Christmas Island in Australia
(Above: A 2017 NewScientist report on Christmas Island bats.) Bat Photography: Lindy Lumsden/IUCN)
【Species and habitat】
Australia is a very biodiverse island nation, which is related to the australian continent's earlier historical "isolation". But as the Planet enters the Anthropocene, its rich biodiversity has been declining over the past few decades, especially as mammalian extinction rates have been among the highest in the world. The Territory of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean in northwestern Australia is a volcanic island whose geographical isolation from its surroundings contributes to the region's unique biodiversity.
It is close to the island of Java and has a population of about 1,000. The largest port, Called Flying Fish Cove, is the main and only port inhabited by the island's population. One of the island's endemic bats is the earlier known extinction mammal species in the current sixth "mass extinction".
The Pipistrellus murrayi , hereinafter referred to as the Christmas Island bat , is a bat found only on Christmas Island in Australia. They are small, weighing only 3 to 4.5 grams, which means that they weigh less than 10% of an egg. They love to eat insects, inhabit tree holes and decaying vegetation, and are only a group of about 50. Historically, they were widely distributed on Christmas Island, and after the mid-1980s, their populations were still relatively abundant.
But since 1990, their populations have declined dramatically. It didn't last long: from 1994 to 2006, populations fell by more than 80 percent. Since 1994, 100 of the species have been reported to exist. There were 54 more in 2006. In January 2009, scientists speculated that there might be only 20 of them.
The last Christmas Island bat was detected in August 2009. Later, despite the great efforts made by humans in the search for this species (including the use of modern technology), no major discoveries have been made.
Climate data on the habitat of the Christmas Island bat. Source: Australian Meteorological Service.
【Main characters】
(1) Lindy Lumsden, a well-known bat conservationist. Many of the pictures of such bats that we see today, as well as information about the species, come from her. She is 65 years old. A former technical officer at the Museum of Victoria in Australia, she initially worked with a wildlife survey team to conduct mammal surveys across Victoria, informing the government's land-use planning decisions. From 1991 to 1994, Lindy conducted a major project to protect insectivore bats in the remaining vegetation in the countryside of northern Victoria, and in 1994 and 1998, he conducted several surveys on the living conditions and habitats of bats on Christmas Island. From 1995 to 2000, she was involved in a larger collaborative project in Victoria to investigate the factors affecting vertebrate fauna and the process of extinction. At this time, Lumsdenn was also conducting research on bats in Victoria and throughout Australia, including Christmas Island. Bats are a little-known native animal. She has long been committed to changing attitudes towards bats, and because of her tireless efforts to advocate for bat conservation through public engagement, she has brought about significant changes, and even a new bat discovered in 2014 bears her name (Ozimops lumsdenae).
(2) Tara Martin, lead author of the Australian National Science Agency and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). In a 2012 interview with Mongabay, he described the baby bat this way: "A bat consumes as many insects as it does every night. He attributed the failure to salvage the species to the Australian government's inaction: "The failure to face uncertainty, the lack of courageous decision-making, and the lack of responsibility for delaying decision-making has led to the failure of species conservation." He has a point on how to save endangered species: "Leadership is a key factor in the recovery of many endangered species in the world. Without a 'champion' to sustain the government's pressure to act, species will continue to fall from the cracks (toward extinction)," he explains, explaining that such 'leaders' need not necessarily be individuals, but also an organization or team, "monitoring (endangered species) must be linked to decision-making, institutions must be accountable for those decisions, and decisions must be made before key opportunities and species disappear forever." ”
【Brief analysis of the reason】
However, no one knows the exact cause of their extinction. But based on the IUCN press release and other news, the Green Committee summarized 4 possibilities:
◇ The reason for the extinction of this bat may be related to invasive predator species. It has been pointed out that possible such as feral cats and common wolf snakes threaten their survival.
The cause of extinction may also be related to the "yellow crazy ant". "Yellow Mad Ants" are known as one of the number one killers of the ecological environment (some provinces in southern China also have their footprints of invasion). Previous studies have confirmed that this invasive ant causes serious damage to the biodiversity of the whole island of Christmas Island, such as endangering the red land crab - secreting formic acid to attack the eyes of the red land crab, blinding them, and then the opponent is left with a dead end.
The third may be an unknown disease. But no scientist has ever documented their strange diseases. Unfortunately, today we have no way of knowing, because they are long gone.
◇ Poisoning with Fipronil, the insecticide used to control the yellow mad ant, may also be the cause of the decline of this bat.
Source: IUCN Red List
【Opinion Enumeration: Rashomon】
Whose fault is it that the Christmas Island bats are extinct? One argument is that wild-caught + captive should not be taken in captivity; the other is that Australian authorities are moving too slowly and lacking leadership, resulting in missed last chances.
As mentioned earlier, Lindy Lumsden's work included not only investigating the conservation requirements of bats in Victoria's agricultural landscape, but also a restoration plan for Christmas Island bats.
In January 2009, an expedition found only four of these bats in a nest. At the time, Lumsden had made a proposal to "implement an immediate captive breeding program" — to collect the last 20 bats from the wild and breed them in captivity to prevent them from extinction. She warned in February 2009: "If the current rate of decline continues, the Christmas Island bat could become extinct in 6 months!" By September of that year, sure enough, Lumsden's original foresight was a slur. Eight conservation workers spent four weeks on Christmas Island and were unable to catch a single bat.
But this practice was quickly questioned and criticized. The plan was later described by some as "futile." The reason is simple: because it is almost impossible to catch and breed bats from the wild. Another conservationist, John Platt, commented in May 2009: "Bats have proven to be almost impossible to catch and even more difficult to survive. Only two bats were captured at the time, but one of them was dead. ”
But another report from Monggabay in 2012 expressed a different view, arguing that the Australian government's slow action was the main reason for the failure of conservation: "But the Australian government hesitated and instead set up a committee to consider the options." Months of precious time passed. Although scientists called for government support in early 2009, the Australian government announced until July 1, 2009, that it would try to rescue bats by imprisoning the last remaining bats, and in early August 2009, the Australian government, with the help of volunteers from the Australian Bat Society and bat conservation researchers, approved the capture of bats to establish a captive breeding program.
No matter how the parties maneuvered and struggled, the results were still regrettable and ended in failure. As a result, August 27, 2009, became the last day that the species was recorded. On that day (another version is August 26), researchers and volunteers recorded the last echo localization call of this native bat, which became a loud noise. Since then, there has been no news.
Years later, in September 2017, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) officially declared that the Christmas Island bat was extinct. By this time, it was eight years later.
Time flies, even if the species are gone, life is no more, in the places where they have lived, there are still endless mourning and thinking of human beings. There is an artist in Singapore named Cho Yan Fai, who has a work called "In Memory of the Christmas Island Voldemort Bat" (2016), which is a solar ultrasonic echo locator. I saw a picture of this work, which was originally used to detect the whereabouts of the Voldemort bat on Christmas Island. But with the extinction of species, the instrument has become unusable. The artist uses this silent way of recording to mourn the extinct species.
The location of Christmas Island on the globe. Photo/ CBCGDF
Distribution map. Source: IUCN Red List (2017)
【Green Society BASE Small Editor Observation】
Humans still know very little about bats, bats are always wild animals in urgent need of protection, the vast majority of people do not actually understand that bats in the process of natural operation, play an important role in protecting the environment. Sadly, after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, some people even proposed that bats should be "ecologically killed". Humans lack the awe of bats and other creatures, there are about 1400 species of bats in the world, and no bat in China has been included in the "List of Wild Animals under National Key Protection in China", but in fact, bats are indispensable to maintaining the health of the ecosystem. Habitat loss and destruction, tourism development, human disturbance at hibernation sites, growing urbanization and epidemic diseases (such as white nose syndrome, etc.) ... Bats are being cut off from their back roads, putting them in increasing danger.
The Christmas Island bat is the first mammal in Australia to be declared extinct in the past 50 years. As we know, Australia is a country with a very rich biodiversity, so this declaration of extinction also has far-reaching implications and significance. The United Nations also commemorated 2011 as the International Year of the Bat. This example in the article is still taken out by many people to reflect on our problems in nature conservation. That year, one researcher exclaimed: "There is almost no historical data on the richness or status of most Australian bat species, and these data continue to affect the effective protection of bats today!" (Pennay et al., 2011)
Above: Craig Hilton Taylor, head of the IUCN Red List. I took this photo in March 2016
Craig Hilton Taylor, head of the IUCN Red List, once said: "It's hard to determine when a species is completely extinct. This sentence is not difficult to understand: the work of nature conservation must always be carried out in advance, and it will be very difficult to make up for it!
If you think that the bats on Christmas Island are too far away from us, take an example that is close in time and space, the international academic journal "Holistic Environmental Science" published a study earlier this year, and the "king of Freshwater fish in China" Yangtze River white sturgeon declared extinction. This news was once a blockbuster before the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, as early as 2003, it was difficult for Chinese people to find the white sturgeon, and the species was predicted to leave us forever in 2005-2010. However, from the last time it was discovered, to the time it was declared extinct, we forgot about the white sturgeon for more than a decade!
It can be seen that people are always aware of hindsight.
It is better to make up for the dead sheep than to plan ahead. In the face of the protection of biodiversity, this truth needs to be remembered by more people. And how should we mainstream the concept and conservation of biodiversity into society? How can we make people aware of the existential threats that many species are facing, so that they can protect them as early and proactively as possible?
In this regard, the Green Committee has held a discussion with Ms. Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Anderson said that the issue of biodiversity conservation is much more complex than climate change. People tend to pay attention to climate change issues that are closely related to them, but it is difficult to actively pay attention to an unknown species on a distant island that is about to leave us and seems to have nothing to do with them. The way in which mr. Zhang Xinsheng, President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), explained biodiversity also impressed me even more. When I accompanied Dr. Rene Castro, Assistant Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and Dr. Kent Nnadozie, Secretary-General of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, to visit Chairman Zhang Xinsheng last year, the Chairman used the most ordinary coffee as an example in the talks: "A cup of delicious coffee in our hands needs more than 20 species to support. "This also shows that as biological and environmental protection workers, to protect and transmit biodiversity and its concepts, it is more necessary to learn from the perspective of the public and learn to borrow their eyes to help them understand and protect the world of rich species."
【Future Outlook】
How can measurable, understandable, appealing and cohesive goals be established for biodiversity conservation? Species extinctions can undoubtedly be an important record indicator of biodiversity loss. (Extended reading: Make the number of species go extinct less than 20 per year?!) Scientists propose new nature conservation)
Notably, in a June 2020 article in the journal Science, a team of researchers, including scientists from University College London, proposed a quantifiable short-term goal of limiting the annual extinction of all of the following species to less than 20 over the next 100 years, including all fungi, plants, invertebrates and vertebrates living in marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. The author hopes that there will be quantitative indicators on controlling the number of species extinctions in the upcoming Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
#They're endangered#Case Library
CBCGDF-SPECIES-EN002 Christmas Island bats make their last desperate sound before being declared extinct 8 years later (2009)
CBCGDF-SPECIES-EN001 China's largest bat colony is on the verge of extinction, 6 years after tourism development (2006)
Text | Linda School | Yao Jiahui
Review | China Green Development Council Working Committee on Ethics in Biology and Science (BASE)
| Angel