We all know about the existence of the Red Book. It includes rare and endangered species of flora and fauna. However, few people know that there is also a Black Book of animals and plants. It contains a list of extinct and irretrievably extinct species.
Introduction
The idea of creating the Red Book of Animals and Plants appeared in the middle of the last century. And already in 1966, the first copy of the publication was published, which included a description of more than a hundred species of mammals, 200 species of birds, and more than 25 thousand plants. Thus, scientists tried to draw public attention to the problem of the disappearance of some representatives of the flora and fauna of our planet. However, such a move did not help much in resolving this issue. So, every year the Red Book is steadily replenished with new species names. Few people know that there are also black pages of the Red Book. The animals and plants listed on them are irretrievably extinct. Unfortunately, in the overwhelming majority of cases, this happened as a result of an unreasonable and barbaric attitude.man to the nature of our planet. The Red and Black Book of Animals today serve not so much as a signal, but as a cry for help to all people of the Earth in connection with the need to stop using natural resources solely for their own purposes. In addition, they carry information about the importance of a more attentive attitude to the beautiful world around us, inhabited by a huge number of amazing and unique creatures. The Black Book of Animals today covers the period from 1500 to the present day. Flipping through the pages of this publication, we can find with horror that during this time about a thousand species of animals have completely died out, not to mention plants. Unfortunately, most of them became directly or indirectly human victims.
Black book of animals: list
Since it will be quite problematic to cover all the species that have disappeared from our planet without a trace in one article, we will have to dwell on some of them. We propose to consider extinct representatives of the fauna that lived on the territory of Russia, as well as outside it.
Black Book of Russia
Animals in our country today are represented by more than 1500 varieties. However, species diversity both in Russia and abroad is rapidly declining. Most of the time, this is due to human error. A particularly large number of species have become extinct during the last two centuries. Therefore, we also have the Black Book of Russia. The animals listed on its pages are irrevocably extinct. And today manyrepresentatives of the domestic fauna can only be seen in the pictures in the encyclopedia or, at best, in the form of stuffed animals in museums. We invite you to get acquainted with some of them.
Steller's cormorant
This bird species was discovered in 1741 during an expedition to Kamchatka by Vitus Bering. The cormorant got its name in honor of the naturalist named Steller, who first described it in detail. Representatives of this species were large and rather slow. They settled in large colonies, and from danger they could hide only on the water. People very quickly appreciated the taste of Steller's cormorant meat. And thanks to the simplicity of hunting the bird, its uncontrolled extermination began. As a result, the last Steller's cormorant was killed in 1852. Only a hundred years have passed since the species was discovered…
Steller's cow
The Black Book of Extinct Animals also describes another species discovered during the expedition of Vitus Bering in 1741. His ship, called "St. Peter", was wrecked off the coast of the island, later named after the discoverer. The team was forced to stay here for the winter and eat the meat of unusual animals, which were called cows due to the fact that they ate exclusively sea grass. These creatures were huge and slow. Their weight often reached ten tons. The meat of sea cows turned out to be very tasty and he althy. The hunt for these harmless giants was not difficult, since the animals calmlythey ate algae near the shore, were not able to hide from danger in the depths and were not at all afraid of humans. As a result, after the completion of Bering's expedition, cruel hunters arrived at the islands, exterminating the entire population of sea cows in some three decades.
Caucasian bison
The Black Book of Animals also includes such a magnificent creature as the Caucasian bison. These mammals once inhabited vast territories from the Caucasus Mountains to Northern Iran. The first mention of this species dates back to the 17th century. However, the number of the Caucasian bison began to decline very quickly due to the uncontrolled destruction of it by humans, as well as the decrease in pasture areas. So, if in the middle of the 19th century about two thousand representatives of this species lived on the territory of Russia, then after the First World War there were no more than five thousand of them left. During the civil war, the population uncontrollably destroyed the Caucasian bison because of their meat and skins. As a result, in 1920, the population of these animals numbered no more than a hundred individuals. The government urgently established a nature reserve to protect the species from extinction. But until the moment of its creation in 1924, only 15 Caucasian bison survived. However, the protection from the state could not save them from the guns of poachers. As a result, the last three representatives of this species were killed by shepherds in 1926 on Mount Alous.
Transcaucasian tiger
It was not only harmless and vulnerable animals that were subjected to human extermination. The black book contains a number ofand rather dangerous predators, which include the Transcaucasian (or Turanian) tiger. The population of this species of mammals was completely destroyed in 1957. The Transcaucasian tiger was a rather large (weighing up to 240 kilograms) and very beautiful predator with long bright red fur. Representatives of this species lived on the territory of such modern states as Iran, Pakistan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan (southern part) and Turkey. According to scientists, the Transcaucasian tiger is the closest relative of the Amur tiger. The disappearance of these wonderful animals in Central Asia is associated primarily with the arrival of Russian settlers in this territory. They considered the predator too dangerous and opened the hunt for it. So, even regular army troops were used to destroy tigers. Also, the expansion of human economic activity in the habitat of these animals played an important role in the process of extinction of this species. The last Transcaucasian tiger was seen in 1957 on the territory of the USSR in Turkmenistan, near the border with Iran.
Extinct representatives of the fauna that lived outside the territory of Russia and the USSR
Now we offer to find out what information the Black Book of the World contains. The animals listed on its pages have disappeared from the surface of the earth also mainly as a result of human activities.
Rodriguez parrot
The first descriptions of this species date back to 1708. The Rodrigues parrot lived on the Mascarene Islands, located 650 kilometers east ofMadagascar. The length of the bird's body was about half a meter. This parrot was distinguished by its bright green-orange plumage, which ruined it. To get beautiful feathers, people began to uncontrollably hunt birds of this species. As a result, by the end of the 18th century, the Rodrigues parrot was completely exterminated.
Falkland fox
The population of some representatives of the fauna declined gradually, over many tens or even hundreds of years. But some animals listed in the Black Book were subjected to a truly quick and cruel massacre. The representatives of these unfortunate species include the Falkland fox (or the Falkland wolf). All information about this species is based only on a few museum exhibits and travelers' notes. These animals lived in the Falkland Islands. The height at the withers of these animals was sixty centimeters, they had very beautiful reddish-brown fur. The Falkland fox could bark like a dog and fed mainly on birds, larvae and carrion washed up on the island by the sea. In 1860, the Falkland Islands were captured by the Scots, who really liked the fur of local chanterelles. They quickly began to brutally exterminate: shoot, poison, suffocate with gas in holes. With all this, the Falkland foxes were very trusting and friendly, they easily made contact with a person and could well become excellent pets. But the last Falkland wolf was destroyed in 1876. Thus, in just 16 years, man completely exterminated a whole species of unique mammals. All that's left of the oncelarge population of Falkland foxes, these are eleven museum exhibits in London, Stockholm, Brussels and Leiden.
Dodo
Animals from the Black Book have in their ranks a legendary bird with a bizarre name dodo. Many of her description is familiar from the book by Lewis Carroll "Alice in Wonderland", where she was mentioned under the name Dodo. Dodos were quite large creatures. They reached a height of one meter, and their weight ranged from 10 to 15 kilograms. These birds could not fly and moved exclusively on the ground, like, for example, ostriches. Dodos had a long strong and powerful pointed beak, the length of which could reach 23 centimeters. Due to the need to move only on the surface of the earth, the paws of these birds were long and strong, while the wings were very small. These amazing animals lived on the island of Mauritius. The dodo was first described in 1598 by Dutch sailors who arrived on the island. Since the appearance of man in their habitat, these birds have become frequent victims, both of people who appreciated the taste of their meat, and of their pets. As a result of this attitude, dodos were completely destroyed. The last representative of this species was seen in Mauritius in 1662. Thus, less than a century has passed since the discovery of the dodo by Europeans. Interestingly, people realized that this species no longer exists, only half a century after its disappearance from the face of the earth. The destruction of the dodo was perhaps the first precedent in history whenmankind thought about the fact that people can be the cause of the extinction of entire species of animals.
Thylacine marsupial wolf
The Black Book of Animals also includes such a unique creature as the marsupial wolf. He lived in New Zealand and Tasmania. This species was the only member of the family. Thus, with its disappearance, we will never again be able to see the marsupial wolf with our own eyes. This species was first described by English researchers in 1808. In ancient times, these animals lived in the vast territories of Australia. However, later they were forced out of their natural habitat by dingo dogs. Their population was preserved only in places where dingoes were not found. At the beginning of the 19th century, another trouble awaited the marsupial wolf. Representatives of this species began to be massively destroyed, as it was believed that they harmed farms that were breeding sheep and chickens. Due to the uncontrolled extermination of marsupial wolves, by 1863 their population had significantly decreased.
These animals from the Black Book were found only in hard-to-reach mountainous areas. It is possible that this species would have managed to survive if it had not been for the epidemic of some kind of disease that occurred at the beginning of the 20th century, most likely, canine distemper, brought here along with the domestic animals of immigrants. Unfortunately, the marsupial wolf became susceptible to this disease, with the result that only a tiny part of the former vast population remained alive. In 1928, representatives of this species were once again unlucky. Despite the fact that a law was passed to protect the Tasmanianfauna, the marsupial wolf was not included in the list of species protected by the government. The last wild member of the species was killed in 1936. And six years later, the last marsupial wolf kept in a private zoo also died of old age. However, despite the fact that this species includes the Black Book of Animals, there is a ghostly hope that somewhere high in the mountains in the impenetrable wilds, several marsupial wolves still managed to survive, and sooner or later they will be found to try to restore the population of these unique mammals.
Quagga
These animals were a subspecies of the zebra, but differed markedly from their counterparts due to their unique color. So, the front part of the animals was striped, like that of zebras, and the back part was monophonic. They occur naturally in South Africa. Interestingly, the quagga is the only extinct species to date that has been tamed by humans. Farmers quickly appreciated the reaction speed of these zebras. So, grazing next to a herd of goats or sheep, they were the first to notice any danger, and warned the rest of their hoofed brothers.
As a result, they were sometimes valued more than shepherd or guard dogs. Why did a person destroy such valuable animals is still not entirely clear to scientists. Be that as it may, the last quagga was killed in 1878.
Carrying Pigeon
Until the 19th century, representatives of this species were one of the most common birds on earth. Their population sizewere estimated at 3-5 billion individuals. They were small and very pretty birds with brownish-reddish plumage. The passenger pigeon lived in North America and Canada. The number of these birds gradually declined between 1800 and 1870. And then this species began to be destroyed on a catastrophic scale. Some people believed that these birds were causing damage to farms. Others killed passenger pigeons purely for fun. Some "hunters" even held competitions, during which it was necessary to kill the maximum number of birds as beautifully as possible. As a result, the last passenger pigeon was seen in nature in 1900. The only surviving representative of this species, named Martha, died of old age in September 1914 at the zoo in the US city of Cincinnati.
So, today we learned what the Black Book is. About the animals listed on its pages, we can only regret. However, it is in our power to do everything possible to stop the extermination of currently existing species. After all, man, as the king of nature, is responsible for our smaller brothers.
