Another species declared extinct in Australia

It’s official: the only Aussie geek is no more.

The latest edition of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, the world’s most comprehensive global list extinction risk, is announced Christmas Island Sly has become extinct.

The news may not seem important. After all, most Australians know nothing about shrews and may even be unaware of this species being considered one of our native fauna.

but the sly one extinction The number of Australian mammals extinct since 1788 has increased to 39. This is far more than any other country. These losses represent approximately 10% of all AustraliaLand mammal species before colonization. This is a condemnable record of destroying an extraordinary legacy.

So, what are the sly ones?

Shrews are small, long-nosed, insect-eating mammals, with many species widely distributed in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. on the mainland AustraliaSimilar roles are filled by unrelated smaller marsupials such as dunnarts, antechinus, planigales and ningouis, which themselves do not loom large on our national consciousness.

Many people may know about tricksters courtesy of Shakespeare. Combining misogyny and zoophobia (an intense fear of animals), they used the name of this unflattering animal to describe their sharp, always complaining, grating caricatures of women. The offensive word has stuck for ages, causing sympathy and interest towards the animal to disappear.

History of Australia’s Sly

It must have been a harrowing journey. Thousands of years ago, a small family of shrews (or a pregnant female) arrived on a raft of floating vegetation from the islands of what is now Indonesia. Randomly, they landed on the deserted Christmas IslandNow an Australian territory about 1,500 kilometers west of the mainland. These lucky or careless pioneers gave rise to Australia’s only intelligent species.

For many years, Christmas Island prospered. When European naturalists first visited Christmas Island in the 1890s, at the time of its settlement, they commented: “[…] This small animal is extremely common throughout the island, and at night its shrill scream, like the scream of a bat, can be heard everywhere.

After this change came rapidly. In 1900, black rats were accidentally introduced into hay bales. Worse, these mice were infected with trypanosomes, a cellular parasite. These trypanosomes spread rapidly among the island’s two species of native rats (and possibly shrews).

Christmas Island’s long isolation had strained its native mammals, leaving them with no resistance to new diseases. Within a year, island residents began seeing numerous dying rats stumbling across the forest floor.

By the time naturalists next visited the island in 1908, two species of native rats and the Christmas Island shrew were extinct. Subsequently, many other endemic animals were also lost or suffered severe declines due to the introduction of cats and invasive species of ants, snails, plants, giant centipedes, birds and snakes.

It’s a pattern that has occurred repeatedly in islands around the world. The arrival of plants and animals has distorted the island’s ecosystem and as a result, endemic island species represent a disproportionately high number of the world’s extinct species.

Challenge extinction?

But the sly one remained alive. After not being seen for more than 50 years, two survivors were captured in the 1950s as bulldozers cleared a section of the rainforest for mining. The moles were abandoned and their discovery was not reported until many years later.

Then, nothing for the next 30 years. In December 1984, biologists Hugh Yorkston and Jeff Tranter were clearing a rainforest track and came across a live female shrew in a clump of fallen birds’ nest ferns. They kept the mole in a terrarium for 12-18 months and diligently caught locusts to feed it.

At the time, he did not consider this to be the last opportunity to preserve the species through a captive breeding program. When, by extraordinary coincidence, a male shrew was found alive just a few months later in March 1985, it was placed in a separate terrarium. The female was submissive but the male was aggressive. This also seemed unhealthy.

Whatever the reason, there was no introduction, no climax and no child-child. The male died about three weeks after being captured while the female remained alone.

no fool left

Since 1984, no sightings have been recorded. This means that only four Christmas Island shrews have been reported in 120 years.

Almost no information has been published on the biology of this species, apart from a sentence written by naturalist Charles Andrews in 1900: “[…] “It lives in holes in rocks and tree roots, and feeds mainly on beetles.”

There are some pictures. However, hints of the nature of the last known shrew can be seen in a beautiful sketch by park ranger, naturalist and artist Max Orchard.

About the author

In the nearly 40 years since the death of the last known individual, two recovery plans have been compiled, outlining the actions needed to conserve the species. Targeted searches have been conducted. But no clever person has come forward to benefit from those schemes.

The clearest evidence of their extinction is the absence of any straw in the stomach contents of hundreds of feral cats killed over the past few decades.

While the shrew apparently survived until the 1980s, the decade saw the arrival of another threat, the Asian wolf snake. This snake rapidly spread throughout the island, possibly causing the extinction of the island’s endemic microbat, the Christmas Island pipistrelle, and most of the endemic lizards in 2009. The arrival of the serpent probably also marked the death knell for any remaining shrews.

We must do more to prevent extinction

Extinction can be difficult to prove, especially for a mysterious species like the shrew. There is risk in declaring a species extinct while it is still alive. This misclassification has been termed the “Romeo error”, where formal recognition of a species as extinct may result in withdrawal of funding or protection, and therefore increase the likelihood of actual extinction.

In 2022, the Australian government, through then-Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, admirably promised to prevent any further extinctions. Although formal recognition of the shrew’s extinction today comes after that pledge, the last shrew probably died out only one to two decades ago.

The loss of the shrew is a reminder of the enormity of the challenge of preventing further extinctions, the diverse ways in which these losses occur, the need to seize opportunities to protect rare species, and the importance of a national and political commitment to prevent extinctions.

I hope the Christmas Island shoe has not become extinct; After all, it has rejected previous calls for its abolition. Perhaps somewhere, there’s a little secret family of tricksters hanging out, remaining elusive, secure in the knowledge of their existence and waiting to prove the pessimists wrong.

Hugh Yorkston, Jeff Tranter and Paul Meek contributed to this article.