Washington: Human-caused climate change has wiped out the first species of mammal, according to Australian researchers.
The Bramble Cay melomys was native to the Great Barrier Reef and lived on a tiny island in the eastern Torres Strait off the coast of Queensland. Scientists from the University of Queensland and the Queensland Government led a survey in March 2014 that failed to find any evidence of the Bramble Cay melomys in their last known environment. The animals were last seen in 2009, according to records.
The study, first reported by the Guardian, concluded the habitat was destroyed following rising sea levels, resulting in the loss of 97 per cent of the animals’ habitat.
“The key factor responsible for the death of the Bramble Cay melomys is almost certainly high tides and surging seawater, which has traveled inland across the island,” Luke Leung, a scientist from the University of Queensland who was an author of a report on the species’ apparent disappearance, told the Irish Times.
“The seawater has destroyed the animal’s habitat and food source. This is the first documented extinction of a mammal because of climate change,” he said.
Climate change plays a huge role in the possible extinction of certain species of animals.
The WWF’s most recent State of the Planet Report in 2014 found that the largest reduction of species is in the tropics, where 63 per cent of wildlife has declined since 1970.
The worst affected areas it found were central and South America, with a regional decline of 83 per cent. Species in Australia and New Zealand are also considered to be highly at risk as they have a high level of animals that are not found anywhere else in the world.
Australia’s white lemuroid ringtail possum is also threatened by climate change. The species is vulnerable to temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, and would not be able to survive in this heat for more than four or five hours.
Professor Adrian M Lister, a researcher at the Natural History Museum’s Earth Sciences department, told The Independent that extinction from climate change is just the tip of the iceberg.
“Habitats are being threatened and are disappearing due to drought and rising temperatures and sea levels caused by climate change.”
Ecologist John White said species that are restricted to small islands like the melomys will be the first one to be wiped out due to climate change, adding this is just the first but certainly not the last.
