It is rare indeed for the precise date of extinction of a species or subspecies to be known, but there are a few notable examples. 1 September 1914 marked the death of the world's last known passenger pigeon Ectopistes migratorius (in Cincinnati Zoo); 21 February 1918 saw the death of the last verified Carolina parakeet Conuropsis carolinensis (also, remarkably, in Cincinnati Zoo); and on 7 September 1936 the last confirmed specimen of the Tasmanian wolf Thylacinus cynocephalus died (in Hobart Zoo). Now, tragically, we can add another black day to that list - 24 June 2012, the day when Lonesome George, the world's only known surviving Pinta Island giant tortoise, died. He was approximately 100 years old, and, with ironic inevitability, he was alone when death finally releaased him from decades of isolation from any other member of his subspecies.Read on...
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In November Sahar Dimus, our guide on four CFZ Sumatra expeditions, died of liver failure leaving a widow Lucy and four Children. On the 2nd November, Dezyama D. Sangma, wife of our friend and colleague Dipu Marak, our collaborator on the 2010 Indian expedition died, leaving her grieving husband and two small children.
1 comment:
Notice how this story was not covered on the news programes? They spend hours spunting on about trivial. infantle rubbish like football, the olympics and z-grade 'stars' but a creature forced into extinction by humanity isn't eben mentioned.
What a sick set of priorities people have.
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