What the data tells us

Notable Species

We are entering a sixth mass extinction. This is the stark warning from scientists across the world, alarmed by our planets crumbling ecosystems and overwhelmed by the speed at which species numbers are falling into decline. They report that the current rate of extinction could be up to 1,000 times higher than natural background rates. Events like this have happened before. The last mass extinction was around 66 million years ago, when an asteroid wiped out about 75% of life on earth, including the dinosaurs. This time the finger points accusingly at us as the primary cause. Homo Sapiens enjoys a time of unparalleled growth, a global population doubled since 1970, while the rest of the natural world moves closer to the brink, their numbers halved in the last forty years.

While we battle to save Black Rhinos, Hawksbill Turtles and Mountain Gorillas, what can we learn from those that have already gone? What can the legacy of Schomburgk's Deer, the Paradise Parrot and Lonesome George teach us about the nature of extinction in the time of humans? Can we identify the destructive forces of the past century, and how do they compare to the challenges that lie ahead?

This data visualization looks to explore and answer these questions, offering a reflection on over a century of extinction. Let’s conjure these lost creatures back into our minds for a moment to try and understand what took them past that most final of thresholds.

The most comprehensive source for this information is the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). For the past 50 years, the IUCN has been promoting the conservation of animals through their pioneering research, and categorizing every species studied to determine their relative risk of extinction, from ‘Least Concern’ all the way through to the already ‘Extinct’. It is through their work that this visualization navigates the topic of extinction.

It is not an enviable task and presents a hugely challenging thing to quantify. Firstly, it is estimated that our planet could contain close to a trillion species, and that we are likely to have identified as little as one-thousandth of 1 percent. Secondly, it’s a complex and intensive process to evaluate the threats affecting a species, nevermind the scope and severity of those threats. The scale of our biosphere alone means there are innumerable animals both extant and extinct, still yet to be categorized. Finally for the sake of easy comprehension, this project deals with only with the Chordata phylum (animals with a notochord), which includes mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. Spare a brief thought for the plants and molluscs that didn’t make the cut.

Of the 46,092 Chordates that the IUCN have studied, 362 of those are listed as extinct. Out of those, many fall outside of the criteria for this project, because they have an Effective Extinction Date1 (EED) before 1900. Others have too much ambiguity around the EED1, or are too lacking in reliable information about the threats affecting them, and so are impossible to place within the structure of the data visualization. 120 animals remain, and these lost species form the data set. What will they reveal?

Threat Impact

Animal Identi�cation

More impactful Less impactfulScope/Severitynot available

What species went extinct?

Where were they located?

Which threats were most impactful?

Threat Categories

Residential and Commercial Development

Agriculture and Aquaculture

Energy Production and Mining

Biological Resource Use

Human Intrusions and Disturbance

Natural Systems Modi�cations

Pollution

Geological Events

Climate Change and Severe Weather

Problem and Invasive Species, Genes and Disease

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

The IUCN uses 11 broad themes to define the threats that a species might face, which are then broken down into more specific categories. For the purposes of this data visualization, only the overarching themes have been visualized. One of the themes, transportation and service corridors, does not effect any of the species featured, so has been removed. The remaining themes are as follows:

Around the timeline, the animals are shown by both their common and scientific names. Occasionally an animal doesn’t have a common name, so only the scientific one is given. Located in a diamond shaped box next to each species name is their genus.

Once the IUCN decides that something poses a threat to a species, they look to define both the scope and severity of that threat. Does it affect the whole population, a majority or a minority? Does the threat cause very rapid declines, slow and significant declines, or is the effect negligible?

With these questions answered, we can start to see a quantifiable value for how impactful a threat is, or in this case was, to a species. Where both scope and severity data is available, the threat has been given a score which correlates to one of the circles shown below. The bigger the circle, the more damaging the threat was to the species. If a threat was listed but lacked scope and/or severity, a different icon is used, depicting the impact without quantifying it.

Pinta Island Tortoise

These Galapagos giants once thrived, until they were hunted to extinction. Then in 1971 one was found still alive. Over the following years, scientists worked tirelessly to mate him with other tortoises and save the species. Sadly, all efforts failed and Lonesome George, the last of his kind, died in 2012.

The species were located globally, but higher concentrations were found in the following places...

Thylacine

This dog like marsupial once lived across Australia, but was eventually limited to Tasmania. Amongst other threats, it was heavily persecuted for hunting livestock, with even the Tasmanian government calling for their skins. It was declared extinct in 1936, although unverified sightings continue to this day.

Wake Rail

This flightless bird once lived on a tiny atoll in the pacific ocean. During WWII, it was occupied by the US, before the Japanese took control. In 1944, the US cut off the Japanese food supply, forcing them to eat whatever they could find on the island. One year later, the Wake Rail was extinct.

Passenger Pigeon

In the 1800s this bird had a population of at least three billion. A century later, over hunting and habitat destruction made the species extinct. Huge public interest following the loss saw it form a key part of the conservation movement, and become an important lesson about our role in extinction.

Understanding the data visualization

120 extinct animals are plotted on a circular timeline based on their Effective Extinction Date1 (EED) that runs clockwise from 1900 to the present day. The threats affecting each species are plotted on the 10 concentric circles. The colour defines the threat type, while the size depicts how impactful it was.

A B F RM

Amphibians Birds Fish Mammals Reptiles

Birds51

Mammals28

Fish24

Amphibians11

Reptiles6

92 species were affected by invasive species and disease

The most destructive threat overall was competition with, and predation by, invasive species. The main culprits were the black rat, the brown tree snake and domesticated cats and dogs, introduced into delicate island ecosystems both inadvertently and intentionally by humans.

49 species were affected by biological resource use

This threat has various subcategories, but the main manifestation is hunting, either for food, sport or as a persecution measure. Species such as the Saudi Gazelle, the Caribbean Monk Seal and the Japanese Sea Lion all became extinct due to over hunting.

35 species were affected by agriculture and aquaculture

Over the last century, numerous species have fallen into decline and out of existence due to habitat destruction caused by agricultural expansion. As our population increases, so will the global appetite, which is likely to result in irreversible damage to our planet.

32 species were affected by natural systems modi�cations

This refers to two overarching issues; fire and water. When dams are built and lakes are drained, it can have catastrophic consequences for species with a limited range. When fires are lit to clear land, or ecosystems that rely on natural fires have them suppressed, the results can be just as fatal.

24 were from mainland USA

19 were from Australia

13 were from Hawaii

09 were from New Zealand

05 from French Polynesia

04 each from Galapagos & Guam

1 The Effective Extinction Date (EED) is the last reliable record of collection or observation.* These entries had a some ambiguity around EED. The most common issue was only the decade being specified. For example ‘1930s’, ‘early 1930s’ or ‘late 1930s’. In each case a mid point has been taken.

All animal data from...IUCN 2017. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2017-3. www.iucnredlist.org

Additional research from...The Sixth Extinction. - petermaas.nl/extinctWikipedia. - www.wikipedia.orgScientific American. - www.scientificamerican.comThe Conversation. - theconversation.comNational Science Foundation. - www.nsf.gov

Images from...Biodiversity Heritage Librarywww.biodiversitylibrary.orgThe British Library - www.bl.ukWikipedia. - www.wikipedia.orgAll images public domain or Creative Commons

Footnotes

Sources

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