ANOTHER NEAR EXTINCTION

Here is a recent news story about the world-famous Komodo dragons on their way out as a result of environmental changes and loss of habitat. Sound familiar?

Komodo Dragons Are Now Endangered and ‘Moving Toward Extinction’

A top conservation organization updated the status of the fierce giant lizards on its Red List of threatened species.

By Marion Renault

Sept. 8, 2021 | nytimes.com

The Komodo dragon has earned its status as a reptilian icon.

The carnivorous lizard can grow up to 10 feet long and is equipped with a forked tongue, serrated teeth, armored scales and venom-laced saliva. The dragons can detect flesh from miles away while hunting an impressive array of prey, including deer, boars, horses, water buffalo — and one another. Females are even known to eat their own offspring.

“It’s got this fearsome reputation,” said Craig Hilton-Taylor, a biologist with the International Union for Conservation of Nature. “It’s like seeing your storybooks come alive.”

But now, the world’s largest living lizard has moved one step closer to being wiped out in the wild.

Komodo dragons, previously considered a “vulnerable” species, were reclassified last weekend as “endangered” by the conservation organization.

“It’s had a genuine change in status, a deterioration,” said Mr. Hilton-Taylor, head of the international group’s Red List unit, which assesses the conservation risk of 138,000 species and counting. “It’s moving toward extinction.”

The new label is intended to spur international policymakers and conservation groups to strengthen and expand protections for the giant lizard in its natural habitats. That may be especially necessary among a population of the dragons that live in areas that are not protected and that are more vulnerable to activities such as illegal hunting and habitat clearance.

“It rings the alarm bells more loudly,” said Andrew Terry, a conservation director at the Zoological Society of London. “It increases the urgency to act.”

Komodo dragons are native to Indonesia and found in the country’s Komodo National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site that includes the namesake island and a number of other islands. A more poorly understood population of the species also lives on Flores, a larger, neighboring island.

While experts consider the national park’s Komodo dragon population to be stable and well-protected, the species still faces mounting obstacles to its long-term survival. Komodo dragons are particularly vulnerable to environmental changes because they inhabit a limited belt of land between the islands’ coasts and steep forested hills.

“They’re quite tight, in terms of where they can live,” said Gerardo Garcia, a conservation biologist at the Chester Zoo in England who has spent almost a decade working with Komodo dragon protection efforts in Indonesia.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature warns that suitable Komodo dragon habitat is expected to shrink by at least 30 percent in the next 45 years. Factors driving this habitat loss include the rising temperatures and sea levels associated with climate change. But outside of the dragons’ park safe haven, urbanization and agricultural clearing are also factors. On Flores, residents compete with the dragons for deer and boars as well, and consider the carnivorous lizards a threat to cattle, goats and other livestock.

“These animals get persecuted,” Dr. Garcia said. Despite their global charisma, he said, “they do not have a magic shield.”

Their ranks have already experienced a steep decline. About 25 years ago, somewhere from 5,000 to 8,000 Komodo dragons roamed the Earth. Today, the I.U.C.N. estimates that there are just 1,380 adult Komodo dragons and another 2,000 juveniles left in the wild. “The real concern is what’s going to happen in the future,” Mr. Hilton-Taylor said.

Other reptilian species — many of which are also isolated on islands — are vulnerable to the same threats. “It’s a flagship for the state of reptiles worldwide,” Dr. Terry said.

If Komodo dragons drop past a critically endangered status, they could become what’s known as “extinct in the wild,” and survive only in captivity. “I think that would be an awful indictment,” he said. “Nobody working in a zoo is happy to see a species only existing in a zoo.”

Dr. Garcia likened the recent reclassification to entering an emergency room. “If we don’t react quickly, we’re going to have very few animals,” he said. “That means you go to intensive care.”

At that point, the only hope for Komodo dragons would be a precarious one: a captive breeding program and attempted transplants to limited and fragmented wild habitats. But experts say it hasn’t come to that — yet.

“This is the last chance,” Dr. Garcia said. “We still have a bit of time.”

BONUS!

Another example of how fucked up stupid some people are, here is the tragic story of an endangered Malayan tiger that had to be shot because of some idiotic moron's actions. The tragedy here is that the animal had to be killed.

Tiger shot dead after grabbing man's arm, dragging it, zoo says

An eight-year-old Malayan tiger in a Naples, Florida zoo was shot to death after grabbing the arm of a cleaner and dragging it into the tiger's enclosure Wednesday evening, the zoo says.

The man, who is in his twenties, was airlifted to a hospital and was in serious condition, reports CBS Fort Meyers, Florida affiliate WINK-TV.

The Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens says it was closed for the day when the man, who works for a third-party cleaning service, "entered an unauthorized area near a tiger that was inside its enclosure. The cleaning company is responsible for cleaning restrooms and the gift shop, not the animal enclosures."

According to the zoo, the man was either petting or feeding the tiger, named Eko, "both of which are unauthorized and dangerous activities."

The zoo said early reports were that Eko grabbed the man's arm "and pulled it into the enclosure" after the man "traversed an initial fence barrier and put his arm through the fencing" of the enclosure.

Deputies were called 6:26 p.m. The first one "kicked the enclosure and tried to get the tiger to release the man's arm from its mouth but the deputy was forced to shoot the animal," the zoo said.

It added that Eko came to the Naples Zoo from one in Seattle in December 2019.

The zoo says Malayan tigers are critically endangered, with only about 200 left in the wild, WINK reports.

Have a nice apocalypse . . .