Endling

Humans and rhinoceros have coexisted in Africa for thousands of years, but have only recently begun a massive decline. How did the Northern White Rhino go from a population that was steady enough to be hunted by the likes of Teddy Roosevelt in 1910 to only 2 110 years later? Find out in this episode. 

Donate to Ol Pejeta Conservancy: https://donate.olpejetaconservancy.org/

Books: 

Dodging Extinction: Power, Food, Money, and the Future of Life on Earth by Anthony D. Barnosky

https://books.google.ca/books?id=SlXOAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

The Fateful Journey: The Expedition of Alexine Tinne and Theodor von Hueglin in Sudan (1863-1864: https://southsudanmuseumnetwork.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/willink.pdf

Sources: 

Ami Vitale's article about Sudan: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/09/life-changing-lessons-of-the-last-male-northern-white-rhino/#close

Boyle's article for Discover Magazine 2019: https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-quixotic-quest-to-birth-a-baby-northern-white-rhino

Burchell's Original Specimens of White Rhinos: http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/130/1300833513.pdf

Moodley et al 2018: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6235034/

Rookmaaker and Antoine 2013: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pierre-Olivier_Antoine/publication/260366379_New_maps_representing_the_historical_and_recent_distribution_of_the_African_species_of_rhinoceros_Diceros_bicornis_Ceratotherium_simum_and_Ceratotherium_cottoni/links/5bd142a045851537f598fd6c/New-maps-representing-the-historical-and-recent-distribution-of-the-African-species-of-rhinoceros-Diceros-bicornis-Ceratotherium-simum-and-Ceratotherium-cottoni.pdf

Lang 1923: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1373564.pdf

Lang 1924: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1373284.pdf

Last Chance to Survive Project: 

https://web.archive.org/web/20141024083005/http://www.zoodvurkralove.cz/content/image.php?uid=528e2c5e8e7fd

Hillman-Smith et al 2009: http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/124/1245681966.pdf

Sydney 1965: http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/137/1378891562.pdf?view

Vigne et al 2007:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277032098_Increased_demand_for_rhino_horn_in_Yemen_threatens_eastern_Africa's_rhinos

Vahala et al 1993: https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-1090.1993.tb03509.x

Wei-Haas for Nat Geo 2015: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/07/150729-rhinos-death-animals-science-endangered-species/#close

Operation Rhino: https://blog.londolozi.com/2018/12/01/operation-rhino/

https://planetrhino.tcu.edu/african-rhino-history/

https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/endangered_species/rhinoceros/african_rhinos/white_rhinoceros/

https://africanrockart.britishmuseum.org/thematic/rhinos-in-rock-art/

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Ceratotherium_simum/

http://connecticut.news12.com/story/42133815/africas-endangered-wildlife-at-risk-as-tourism-dries-up

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_white_rhinoceros

https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino-species/white-rhino/scientists-have-successfully-created-northern-white-rhino-embryos/

https://www.olpejetaconservancy.org/wildlife/rhinos/northern-white-rhinos/

Hey, everyone! I figured everyone might need some uplifting news this month, so this one is just all good news dealing with wildlife conservation. If you are interested in purchasing a sticker for the podcast, please reach out on Twitter or Instagram (@endlingpodcast) or by email ([email protected]). The art was done by my friend Wes, who can be found on Instagram as @artandanimals_wesjames. Please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe. Thanks!

Sources: 

Rigid Cactus Corals: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/22/us/florida-aquarium-first-reproduce-ridhed-cactus-coral-trnd/index.html

Wolves in France: https://www.newsweek.com/wolf-northern-france-100-years-1498914

Trail Cam Photos by Céline David Desjardins

Norfolk Island Owl: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-17/norfolk-island-morepork-owl-new-generation/12150012

Indochinese Tigers: 

https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/photos-of-wild-tiger-cubs-in-thailand-rekindles-hope-for-species/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320719313813?via=ihub#!

NeMO-Net: 

https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/nasa-wants-gamers-to-help-it-map-the-oceans-coral-reefs/

http://nemonet.info/

Wildverse: 

https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/05/internet-of-elephants-launches-wildeverse-an-ar-game-about-endangered-animals-and-conservation/

https://www.wildeversegame.com/

St. Helena is a tiny volcanic island off of the coast of southwestern Africa. This small island was completely uninhabited when it was discovered in 1502, but was covered in plants whose closest cousins were thousands of miles away. On this episode, I cover the St. Helena Olive, one of what was likely the rarest plants on earth before its disappearance in 2003.

Sources:

Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens, and the Origins of Environmentalism (1600 - 1860) by Richard Grove

Icones Plantarum, Or Figures, With Brief Descriptive Characters and Remarks, Of New and Rare Plants Selected from the Kew Herbarium by Joseph Dalton Hooker (finished by his son, William Jackson Hooker)

https://sthelena.se/index/olive/

http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:717646-1#image-gallery

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena

The radio announcement of the death of the St. Helena Olive: 

https://sainthelenaisland.info/endemics.htm

Information about the Millennium Forest Project: 

https://sainthelenaisland.info/millenniumforest.htm

Grove, R. (1993) Conserving Eden: https://sci-hub.tw/10.1017/S0010417500018399

Cronk (1989) The past and present vegetation of St Helena 

More information about George Benjamin: http://sthelenaonline.org/george-benjamin-the-man-who-saved-the-st-helena-ebony/

https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/37598/67372241#text-fields

Just a quick update about some wildlife news this month that you may have missed with all of the news about coronavirus/COVID-19. There's good news about wildlife trafficking and not so good news about your cat. Hear all about it on this episode!

Sources: 

https://www.traffic.org/news/airasia-adds-momentum-to-the-effort-to-combat-wildlife-trafficking/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/world/europe/south-africa-rhino-poaching-leroy-bruwer.html

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/18/billion-dollar-wildlife-industry-in-vietnam-under-assault-as-law-drafted-to-halt-trading

https://www.inverse.com/science/should-you-let-your-cat-go-outside-gps-study-reveals-deadly-consequences

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/badger-cull-vaccine-bovine-tuberculosis-btb-cattle-wildlife-dairy-a9378026.html

https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/animals/aussies-tell-of-frightening-big-cat-sightings-across-the-country/news-story/6f84a564199e5fb85f33cd78900957fc

TRAFFIC Online Course: https://www.traffic.org/news/behaviour-change-for-conservation-online-course-launched-on-world-wildlife-day/

In this episode, I cover the Spix's Macaw. This bird is most well known from its portrayal in the movie Rio, but there is much more to it's story than most people know. This little blue macaw is a symbol of perseverance in a quiet corner of Brazil. Will these blue macaws ever fly in the caatinga again? What happened to the last birds? Find out in this episode!

Sources:

Spix's Macaw the Race to Save the World's Rarest Bird by Tony Juniper: 

https://www.tonyjuniper.com/content/spix%E2%80%99s-macaw

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/12/25/a-rare-bird-flies-home-for-good/c7c523eb-1809-42b3-a9dd-0b028c59c3e3/

http://blog.funtimebirdy.com/2014/07/23/presley-the-spix-macaw-passes-away-he-inspired-the-rio-movies/

https://www.icmbio.gov.br/portal/ultimas-noticias/20-geral/10944-enfim-a-joia-da-caatinga-retorna-ao-lar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spix's_macaw

https://www.spixs-macaw.org/

Donate to help the recovery of the Spix: 

https://www.act-parrots.org/donate/?lang=en

In this episode, I cover a few pieces of conservation news that came out over the past month. I also talk about what one of the best band names ever might be. Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe! Thanks!

Sources: 

China's Wildlife Trading Ban: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00499-2

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-wildlife/china-bans-trade-consumption-of-wild-animals-due-to-coronavirus-idUSKCN20J069

Antarctic Penguin Colonies:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/10/world/chinstrap-penguin-decline-scli-intl-scn/index.html

Abstract: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00300-019-02613-1

46k Year Old Siberian Bird:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/21/europe/frozen-bird-ice-age-scli-intl-scn/index.html

Article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-0806-7

Mountain Gorillas: 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51425617?fbclid=IwAR31EPYCanQnuGPZjK3HfEii-pjeRD6qim4PV6lGS-WJACHmn222osnqosM

Albatross: 

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/410160/international-agreement-to-protect-albatross-from-extinction

Bighorn Sheep Release in Nevada: 

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/410160/international-agreement-to-protect-albatross-from-extinction

Cocaine Hippos: 

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-02-09/uc-san-diego-biologist-colombia-cocaine-hippos-pablo-escobar

Abstract: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ecy.2991

In this episode, I cover the great auk- the penguin of the north. But was it a penguin as its coloration would suggest or something totally different? What happened to this giant bird? Were these animals killed off completely by humans, or were their populations already on the way out? The range of the great auk stretched from Europe to the shores of eastern Canada, so where did they go? Find out in this episode! 

Sources:

Razorbill Vocalizations by Stanislas Wroza: https://www.xeno-canto.org/contributor/SDPCHKOHRH

Live Cam on Eldey Island: http://www.gannetlive.com/

Funk Island Videos: http://www.funkisland.ca/videos/

Bengston 1984: https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v101n01/p0001-p0012.pdf

Groot 2004: https://research.vu.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/2073867/fulltextgreatauk.pdf

Thomas et al 2017: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5485528/

Moum et al 2002: https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/19/9/1434/996658

Greive 1885: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/great-auk-or-garefowl/3CC16685E4263C92292EC8055C9453E1

Newton, A. 1861: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1861.tb08857.x

Montevecchi and Kirk 1996: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240792777_Great_Auk_Pinguinus_impennis

Morris, Reverend Francis O. (1864). A History of British Birds. 6. Groombridge and Sons, Paternoster Way, London. pp. 56–58.

Harris & J. R. G. Hislop. 1978. The food of young Puffins Fratercula arctica. J. Zool. 185: 213-236.

OLSON, S. L., C. C. SWIFT, & C. MOKHIBER. 1979. An attempt to determine the prey of the Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis). Auk 96: 790-792.

Serjeantson D. 2001. The great auk and the gannet: a prehistoric perspective on the extinction of the great auk. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 11: 43–55

Books: 

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

The Great Auk by Errol Fuller

The Great Auk (Gone Forever) by Emily Crawford

Ancient People of Port Au Choix: the Excavation of an Archaic Indian Cemetary in Newfoundland by James A. Tuck

Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World by James Greenway

Hope is the Thing With Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds by Christopher Cokinos

Other Links:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-great-auks-went-extinct-penguin

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/with-crush-fisherman-boot-the-last-great-auks-died-180951982/

Surprise! A month end round up of some of the good and not so good news coming out of wildlife conservation and extinction. This is a much more informal episode, where you can listen to me cheer on a tortoise that saved his whole species (Go Diego!), nerd out about how cool pine trees are, and get really excited about some brand new bird species. 

If you are an environmental scientist and are publishing some work in February that you would like people to hear about, please reach out to me at [email protected]. I would love to hear from you! Additionally, if you'd like to be interviewed for this podcast about your work, please reach out!

Sources: 

Dungesness Crabs: https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/27/us/pacific-ocean-acidification-crabs-dissolving-shells-scn-trnd/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1RHJmZec97NtPx7VgZHhPcyppdpkuQzjd1PMzB2f6JXoJ1U9stqTfpCnQ

Bednaršek et al 2020: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720301200#!

Wollemi Pines: https://www.gazettenet.com/Australia-firefighters-save-world-s-only-rare-dinosaur-trees-32055091

Australian Bushfires: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/20/more-than-100-threatened-species-australian-bushfires-towards-extinction

Española Tortoise: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/13/tortoise-saves-species-sex-drive-galapagos-

Galapagos Conservancy Donations: https://galapagos.bsd.net/page/contribute/support

Giant Sequoias: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/18/beetles-and-fire-kill-dozens-of-california-indestructible-giant-sequoia-trees-aoe

New Songbirds: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/09/flycatchers-and-fantails-new-songbird-species-discovered-on-tiny-islands-indonesia-aoe

Rheindt et al 2020: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6474/167

Albatrosses as Secret Spies: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/albatrosses-outfitted-with-gps-detect-illegal-fishing-vessels-180974054/

Weimerskirch et al: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/01/21/1915499117.short

Wollemi Pine cover art provided by: David Stang Location taken: United States Botanic Garden. Names: Wollemia nobilis W.G. Jones, et al., Australianwollemia, Australski stribor, Cây thông Wollemi, Dižā volēmija, Pin de Wollemi, Pino Wollemi, Sárkán.

In this episode, I cover the thylacine- Tasmania's most famous extinct animal. Were these animals killed off completely by humans, or were there other factors at play? Thylacines were the dominant carnivore within Tasmania until European settlers arrived and began to kill them to protect their sheep. But, were these animals killed off completely by humans, or were there other factors at play? 

Sources: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2656.12029

https://web.archive.org/web/20090205080536/http://www.bio.usyd.edu.au/staff/swroe/Lost.pdf

http://rw.thylacine.psu.edu/papers/johnson2003.pdf

https://parks.tas.gov.au/discovery-and-learning/wildlife/tasmanian-tiger

https://publications.rzsnsw.org.au/doi/pdf/10.7882/AZ.2012.008

http://prism.scholarslab.org/prisms/25099fc8-a7f0-11e3-bbb5-e2ab703590ac/visualize?locale=en

https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/return-of-the-living-thylacine

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0034877

Dr. Michael Archer's TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_archer_how_we_ll_resurrect_the_gastric_brooding_frog_the_tasmanian_tiger?language=en

Allison Reid's Interview from 1996: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAGRCnZ4K10&feature=emb_logo

In this introductory episode, I cover why I was inspired to start this podcast. This podcast will cover recent extinction events that have happened since humans came onto the scene. Oftentimes, recent extinctions are only covered by people posting about it on social media, but I hope to tell the full life histories of these creatures and talk about the conservation efforts that were in place before they slipped away. Join me on January 25th, 2020 for Episode 1 of Season 1 - The Thylacine