News Giraffes put on extinction watch list

[auntiehill]

From AP Wire:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The giraffe, the tallest land animal, is now at risk of extinction, biologists say.

Because the giraffe population has shrunk nearly 40 percent in just 30 years, scientists put it on the official watch list of threatened and endangered species worldwide, calling it "vulnerable." That's two steps up the danger ladder from its previous designation of being a species of least concern. In 1985, there were between 151,000 and 163,000 giraffes but in 2015 the number was down to 97,562, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

At a biodiversity meeting Wednesday in Mexico, the IUCN increased the threat level for 35 species and lowered the threat level for seven species on its "Red List" of threatened species, considered by scientists the official list of what animals and plants are in danger of disappearing. The giraffe is the only mammal whose status changed on the list this year. Scientists blame habitat loss.

While everyone worries about elephants, Earth has four times as many pachyderms as giraffes, said Julian Fennessy and Noelle Kumpel, co-chairs of the specialty group of biologists that put the giraffe on the IUCN Red List. They both called what's happening to giraffes a "silent extinction."

Read entire article HERE.

Whenever I read things like this, it breaks my heart a little. Will giraffes even exist outside of zoos when my youngest niece is my age? Will polar bears, tigers or great river otters? Why aren't stories like this bigger news? Is it because people simply don't care?

 

[Tosk]

Why aren't stories like this bigger news? Is it because people simply don't care?

If they're anything like me, it's certainly not for lack of caring. Beyond donating (which I'll admit I haven't done for a while now) it feels like too big a problem for those like me to be able to do something.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Unfortunately, that's true. What can we do but donate money and sign petitions and hope that the relevant organizations can do something? It's utterly horrible what's happening to the biosphere, but most people are more invested in acting like twelve-year-olds and fighting over trivia than saving the world.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

It's all part of the larger anthropogenic extinction crisis, which is likely to continue to its inevitable conclusion sooner or later.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

It's all part of the larger anthropogenic extinction crisis, which is likely to continue to its inevitable conclusion sooner or later.

Yup. Large animals are always the most vulnerable to extinction, too. Every extinction event/period we've had has taken its worst toll on larger creatures. This human-driven one is, unfortunately, no different in that regard.

 

[Leviathan]

Evolution has flipped thanks to humans. The tastiest animals are now the most populous, while Giraffe tastes terrible and is dying out.

The first species to sweat BBQ sauce will likely overpopulate Earth.

 

[auntiehill]

Unfortunately, that's true. What can we do but donate money and sign petitions and hope that the relevant organizations can do something? It's utterly horrible what's happening to the biosphere, but most people are more invested in acting like twelve-year-olds and fighting over trivia than saving the world.

Sad but true. We are a powerful but very stupid and destructive species.

 

[BillJ]

Someone is rewriting the timeline to save our grandkids from Archer's horrendous giraffe speech.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Evolution has flipped thanks to humans. The tastiest animals are now the most populous, while Giraffe tastes terrible and is dying out.

The first species to sweat BBQ sauce will likely overpopulate Earth.

Apparently, giraffe is reckoned to taste better than beef steak or venison:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/54988/what-11-popular-zoo-animals-taste

Human flesh tastes like veal or pork, apparently, according to various sources:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s.../what-does-human-meat-taste-like-9748706.html

 

[Leviathan]

Apparently, giraffe is reckoned to taste better than beef steak or venison:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/54988/what-11-popular-zoo-animals-taste

Human flesh tastes like veal or pork, apparently, according to various sources:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s.../what-does-human-meat-taste-like-9748706.html

...what wine goes with Human? They're a dark meat, so my thought is red.

 

[Trekker4747]

Someone is rewriting the timeline to save our grandkids from Archer's horrendous giraffe speech.

It was a gazelle speech, FWIW.

 

[Random_Spock]

...what wine goes with Human? They're a dark meat, so my thought is red.

That made me think of this. Or this. Or even this.

As for giraffes, damn... . I love them. Humans can be really, really dumb.

 

[scotpens]

Human flesh tastes like veal or pork, apparently, according to various sources:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s.../what-does-human-meat-taste-like-9748706.html

Didn't we already do the cannibalism thread?

 

[RJDiogenes]

Sad but true. We are a powerful but very stupid and destructive species.

It's amazing that the same species that can produce such tender hearts and great minds can also produce such brutes and morons.

 

[SPCTRE]

 

[Robert Maxwell]

In our post-apocalyptic future, mecha-dinosaurs wait tables for giant humans?

 

[Owain Taggart]

Oh no, not the giraffe! The giraffe has always been one of my favourite animals. One can't look at it without curiosity for their purpose on Earth.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Their purpose is the same as anything else: to survive, or die trying.

 

[feek61]

The tastiest animals are now the most populous, while Giraffe tastes terrible

I don't know, Giraffe taste a little like tough chicken but much harder to get. It's good grilled too!

 

[auntiehill]

The Houston Zoo has a great giraffe enclosure, with a webcam.
You can click the drop-down menu and pan around. Right now, they're all at the feeding platform; guests can walk right up and feed special leaves or lettuce to the giraffes. They're such beautiful animals; I used to love to take my nephew there to see them.