by Mickey Z.
 Estimates vary, but roughly 50,000 animal and plant species become extinct
each year. That¹s over 130 per day, about 6 per hour.
Here¹s 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
below and calculate how many species that were still around when you began
reading have since become history. (Liberals are advised to read quickly so
less species are gone by the time they¹re 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, Alvord Cutthroat Trout,
Maravillas Red Shiner, Independence Valley Tui Chub, Pahranagat Spinedace,
Phantom Shiner, Bluntnose 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, Bonin Wood Pigeon,
Big Thicket Hog-nosed Skunk, Rabbit-eared Tree-rat, White-footed Tree-rat,
Carolina Parakeet, New Zealand Quail, Raiatea Parakeet, 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, Southern Rocky Mountain Wolf, Florida Red
Wolf, Texas Red Wolf, California Grizzly Bear, Tacoma Pocket Gopher, Round
combshell (clam), Tennessee Riffleshell (mussel), Sampson's Pearlymussel
(Wabash Riffleshell), 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, Pemberton's Deer 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: http://extinctanimals.petermaas.nl
Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.
{youtube}89poKFtxDIM{/youtube}
Inspired by m3ttt's video added to youtube - October 04, 2006
Video added by Publisher - to display where and when Mickey's influence for this article was rooted.
He claims to never have read the article in Exterminating Angel Press - despite being accused of plagiarism in the comment below. A four month old video at Youtube (see above) made by a friend was his inspiration. The image, which happens to be also of a Dodo in this article (as is the EAP article) was added by Atlantic Free Press - not the writer.
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