Jon asked me to do a bit of a blog so why not? I am happy to share.I live in North Queensland, Australia. One of my many interests is the creatures that are hidden. I am especially interested in why they remain hidden, when so many others have been collected and either put in zoos or stuffed.
Framed in my kitchen window and just 4km away is Mt Fisher; just a big hilly area, actually. On it lived what has just become a hidden creature - the white lemuroid ringtail possum. These creatures are temperature- and hence altitude-dependent. So now that climate change has started to bite, this unlucky creature has had to move uphill.
Which is too bad because Mt Fisher is not especially high. So alas the white lemuroid ringtail possum seems to have run out of places to climb to. None have been seen since 2005, last I heard. Perhaps there is still a pocket of them up there. At least they did not try to capture the last pair and pen them in.
Maybe the very last of them is dying alone as I write this. I am not going to go in there to bother them, to say sorry on behalf of humanity. They would not understand and nor do I. We all took part in their extinction, each time we left a light on, or drove or flew somewhere for no special reason, and the killing is going to go on and on until we all can change our ways. And that is indeed a hard call. I am reminded of that bind every time I look out of my kitchen window and reach for my coal-powered electric jug...
Vale white lemuroid ringtail possum!
(Picture on left courtesy Google Earth. Mt Fisher is the forested area in the top left of the frame. My home is in the extreme bottom right hand corner.
Scientific American says: Hemibelideus lemuroides—may have become the first mammal to disappear because of climate change, according to an Australian researcher.
Read on..
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