Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Wish you were here (a reprise)

Estimates vary, but roughly 50,000 animal and plant species become extinct each year. That’s over 130 per day. Here’s a fun game to improve your math and reading skills (both come in handy when taking tests like the SATs): Time yourself as you read the list of extinct animals below and calculate how many other species—that were still around when you began reading—have become history while you read. (Liberals are advised to read as quickly as possible so less species are gone by the time they’re done.)

Sea Mink, Rodrigues Pigeon, Panay Giant Fruit Bat, Poko Noctuid Moth, Procellaris Grotis Noctuid Moth, Great Auk, Bubal Hartebeest, Mauritius Blue Pigeon, Egyptian Barbary Sheep, Amesterdam Island Duck, Cuban Red Macaw, Ascension Flightless Crake, Eastern Bettong. Réunion Flightless Ibis, Desert Rat-kangaroo, Eastern Elk, Longjaw Cisco, Deepwater Cisco, Lake Ontario Kiyi, Blackfin Cisco, Yellowfin Cutthroat Trout, Maravillas Red Shiner, Independence Valley Tui Chub, Pahranagat Spinedace, Phantom Shiner, Las Vegas Dace, Grass Valley Speckled Dace, Clear Lake Splittail, Snake River Sucker, Harelip Sucker, Tecopa Pupfish. Schomburgk’s Deer. Kona Grosbeak, Ryukyu Pigeon, Big Thicket Hog-nosed Skunk, White-footed Tree-rat, Carolina Parakeet, New Zealand Quail, Black-fronted Parakeet, Chatham Island Swan, Western quoll, Brawny Great Moa, Philippine Bare-backed Fruit Bat, King Island Emu, Falkland Island Wolf, Passenger Pigeon, Puerto Rican Shrew, Guam Flying Fox, Penasco Chipmunk, Pallid Beach Mouse, Atlantic Gray Whale, Kenai Peninsula Wolf, Newfoundland Wolf, Banks Island Wolf, Cascade Mountains Wolf, Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf, Mogollon Mountain Wolf, Texas Gray Wolf, Florida Red Wolf, California Grizzly Bear, Tacoma Pocket Gopher, Round combshell (clam), Tennessee Riffleshell (mussel), Syrian Wild Ass, Burly Lesser Moa, Arabian Gazelle, Red Gazelle, Saudi Gazelle, Goff’s Southeastern Pocket Gopher, Confused Moth, Steller’s Sea Cow, Lesser Stick-nest Rat, Mauritius Grey Parrot, Bavarian Vole, Indian Seal, Black-footed Ferret, Lanai Thrush, New Zealand Greater Short-tailed Bat, Long-tailed Hopping-mouse, Nelson’s Rice Rat, Chadwick Beach Cotton Mouse, Cape Warthog, Scioto Pigtoe (clam), Barbados Raccoon, Tahitian Sandpiper, Okinawa Flying Fox, Slender-billed Grackle, Dodo, Lesser Koa Finch, Greater Koa Finch, Mauritian Owl, White-faced Owl, Arizona Cotton Rat, Blue Pike, Kansas Bog Lemming, Mexican Grizzly Bear, Japanese Sea Lion, and West African Black Rhino (declared extinct in July 2006).

Kurt Vonnegut sez: “Humans are a mistake. We have destroyed our entire planet.”

(List of extinctions)

(Extinction blog)

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Extinction poem