The page cannot be found

This strange looking creature, with its immensely long and delicate snout is the gharial (Gavialis gangeticus). Until very recently it thrived throughout the Indian sub-continent but now it numbers less than a few hundred in the wild. It seems destined for extinction, like so many other species. Will it be just another victim of what may be seen in the future as the sixth mass extinction event in the history of our planet? Is there a future for the gharial on earth, our ark in space?

The answer is only a tentative maybe. Once it flourished and could be found in all of the major rivers of India and Pakistan. The Indus, which has its source in Tibet and flows through Pakistan and Northern India had gharials along almost its entire length. Now, in this vast river not a single one may be found.

Fifteen species, fifteen multiple choice questions. Yet how many of each species do you think still exists in the wild? 

If the answer you choose goes GREEN, then you got it right.  If it goes RED then you got it wrong.  You will also see how many others chose the different answers (in terms of a percentage).



Would you like to do another quiz?

If this quiz has left you a little depressed (the numbers of some of the species are of massive concern to everyone, after all, then try a quiz which, it is hoped, can only raise the spirits.  Fifteen big cats and wild cats are involved - but can you guess the species? Click here or on the picture to do the quiz.

Image Credits
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

You may not have heard of the Quagga and you might suspect that it never really existed. However, it did but the last of its kind died in the 19th century. It joined an ever growing list of animals made extinct by our direct intervention in its habitat.

This animation by Olga and Tatiana Poliektovs re-introduces us to the quagga and some of his friends by way of a little boy having an adventure with his camera in his woods. He manages to capture a picture of these shy animals but when he shows it to his mother the animals have all disappeared from the picture. Take a look at the animation: it may make you sad but hopefully it will encourage you to help those species that we still can save!

The Galapagos were discovered by Europeans in 1535 and it took just half a millennium to virtually wipe out a species that had been walking the Earth for millions of years. Out of the more than quarter million roaming the islands in the sixteenth century, by the 1970s only a few thousand specimens of the ten surviving sub-species (referred to as races by tortoise experts) were living on the islands.

One race (Chelonoidis nigra porteri), found on the island of Espanola was down to just 14 individual animals. There was no time for anything other than drastic action. All individuals plus one from San Diego Zoo in California were collected and taken to Santa Cruz island. There a breeding and repatriation program began with the 12 females and 3 males representing the last best hope for their race. This interventionist approach has resulted in Espanola now being home to over a thousand giant tortoises.

This is a rough cut of a proposed documentary by David Mrazek but you can see from this fifteen minutes or so that the finished product is going to be something really special. It tells the story of the demise of the great American species the Passenger Pigeon, the numbers of which went from the billion to none by the early twentieth century.

It details not only how the destruction of the species was speeded up by what amounted to industrialised harvest but warns that we are still doing the same thing to the planet – and depriving future generations of possibly countless species.

The documentary points out that at least our ancestors had the benefit of ignorance (with which I disagree a little it has to be said – that is letting them off the hook too easily!) yet that is something we most certainly do not have.

This documentary is already extremely well put together and I really look forward to seeing the complete version. The story of the Passenger Pigeon is tragic – if you have never heard of it you really should watch this eye opening film.

Once one of the most numerous horned animals in North Africa, the Scimitar Oryx has now been classified as extinct in the wild. A pale antelope with a ruddy chest this almost horse-like mammal would perhaps be unremarkable save for one thing – it’s majestic and incredibly long curved horns. For this reason it was hunted almost to extinction.

Its name too comes from its horns – they are shaped very much like a scimitar, a relatively light weight sword which originated in the Middle East. When they numbered in their millions the animals would have formed mixed gender herds of up to seventy or so. When it was time for them to follow their yearly migration they would come together in groups that numbered in their thousands. Can you imagine what a magnificent sight that would have been?

The male and the female of the species both possess the remarkable scimitar horns. The male can reach 125 cm in height and weigh in at an impressive 200kg. The color of its coat is so light so it can reflect the heat of the sun in dessert conditions. Their territories used to cover an incredible 3000 square kilometers and the Oryx would know every part of their journey, avoiding unfavorable locations.

The horns can grow up to 175cm, which is an incredible length considering the height of the species. When mating season begins the males will partake in spectacular fights – and they really mean it too. Horns are often broken and sometimes one of the combatants might die. It is thought that perhaps a one horned oryx who had lost the other in a fight may have contributed to the myth of the unicorn.

The Scimitar Oryx looks a little delicate, but it is a hardy species that in the wild inhabited desert and step where their diet consisted of grasses, leaves and – when they could get it – fruit. They have specially adapted kidneys which mean that they can live without drinking any water for weeks at a time. This is also due to the fact that they can change their body temperature at will and so avoid losing water through perspiration.
They can certainly cope with extreme conditions. At 42-45 degrees centigrade most other animals would expire but the Scimitar Oryx can still survive. One thing which helps is a habit they have formed of licking dew off each other’s coats at night. When water is around they are voracious – after giving birth the female can easily consume twenty percent of her body weight in water.

There were serious droughts in the early twentieth century and the numbers declined drastically as the animals continued to be hunted by desert nomad tribes who were also struggling to survive. However, two things contributed to the downfall of this swift and gregarious animal – the development of the gun and motor vehicles.

Where they once occupied the whole of the Sahara region and numbered in the very least in their hundreds of thousands, today they are restricted to zoos and sanctuaries. There has not been a single substantiated Scimitar Oryx sighting in the wild for almost twenty years.

So, how many of these remarkable animals are left today? After a captive breeding programme began in the 1960s their numbers have risen. It is thought that around five thousand exist altogether. There are hopes that someday the Scimitar Oryx can be reintroduced in to the wild in Tunisia where there is a herd that is protected within a fenced preserve.

The Sahara Conservation Fund is researching the full reintroduction of the species in to all of its previous range. Although there are many issues to be overcome, such a geographical bottlenecks, genetics and husbandry there may well be hope for this most enigmatic antelope of the desert.