The Extinctions We Watched Happen

An audio detector recorded the final echolocation call of the Christmas Island pipistrelle on August 26, 2009, and no further calls were detected afterward. The species was a microbat whose population had been declining for decades, with estimates in 2006 suggesting only a few dozen remained. A captive-breeding rescue was authorized in mid-2009, but by the time crews arrived only one bat was found, and four weeks of trapping failed to capture it. The IUCN declared the species extinct in 2017. The extinction was driven by invasive species, including yellow crazy ants, feral cats, and an introduced wolf snake, alongside a slow government response.

"On August 26, 2009, an Australian biologist's audio detector picked up a single bat working its way through the rainforest canopy on Christmas Island. The recording captured the last echolocation call of the Christmas Island pipistrelle. After that night, no detector ever heard another."

"Since 2000, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has formally moved dozens of species into its Extinct or Extinct in the Wild categories, and hundreds more sit one rung above, in Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct). The species described below are not the longest list. They are the clearest cases of losses that played out as they were documented, with causes nobody had to guess at."

"The Christmas Island pipistrelle was a microbat the size of a thumb. Its population had been collapsing for two decades when, in 2006, scientists estimated only a few dozen remained. The Australian government authorized a captive-breeding rescue in mid-2009. By the time crews reached the island, only one bat could be found. Four weeks of trapping failed to catch it. The IUCN declared the species extinct in 2017."

"The cause was not climate change or habitat loss in the usual sense. It was a cascade of invasive species, including yellow crazy ants, feral cats, and an introduced wolf snake, combined with a slow government response. The pipistrelle is the kind of extinction that makes the policy lesson uncomfortably clear, showing that the science was correct and that a rescue plan existed, but that the action came roughly two years too late."

Read at Earth911