SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Supposedly extinct kangaroo rat resurfaces after 30 years
The last time anyone saw the San Quintin kangaroo rat was more than 30 years ago, in the arid scrublands of Baja California in Mexico. Mexican authorities declared the small mammal critically endangered, and possibly extinct, in 1994. So biologists couldn't believe their eyes when not one, but four San Quintin kangaroo rats (Dipodomys gravipes) hopped into their survey traps in 2017.
[...] The researchers attribute the kangaroo rat's comeback to a dramatic decrease in farming over the past decade, thanks to drought-related water shortages. Although the researchers are concerned that farmers may eventually make their own comeback, they are optimistic that the San Quintin kangaroo rat will persist, as it has also shown up in a nearby nature reserve. They say it also offers hope for other "extinct" small mammals, which may be findable if only researchers take the time and effort to track them down.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday May 04 2018, @06:30AM (1 child)
This makes me happy, Go, San Quintin kangaroo rat, go! If at least one species, besides Asian Brown Cockroaches, survives the Anthropocene era, there is hope for Earth!
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 04 2018, @06:01PM
Aristarchus, rats, and roaches - what a trinity.
(Score: 2, Troll) by jmorris on Friday May 04 2018, @06:38AM (7 children)
Of course there is little incentive to go looking. Far better to cry about all the six gorillion species exterminated by evil Capitalist humans. Lots more money in it at ant rate. This author obviously needs further training though, speaking of drought is unacceptable without an obligatory reference to climate change, global warming or whatever new phrase is in vogue in $current_year to make it clear all changes in climate are the result of evil humans.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @07:01AM (5 children)
I noticed they seemed to look down upon farmers as if they were a pest for some reason. Wtf is wrong with farmers? Farmers are necessary for the author and researchers to live... I'd say they are far more important than people spreading PR before even publishing their research or those regurgitating the press release.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by jmorris on Friday May 04 2018, @07:30AM
Because Progressivism is a death cult.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @08:39AM (3 children)
Maybe the article discussed it differently, but the researchers basically stated that farming in the area destroyed the kangaroo rat's natural habitat by making (I assume) heavily arid to desert conditions into moist farmland. Due to drought in the region, which had been de-desertified, it began to return as desert as a result of the lack of water, which made farming in the region economically unsustainable. The result of this is that species believed extinct due to development of the region, which had eliminated their natural habitat and breeding grounds, were recently able to recolonize their former habitats as the returned to the conditions beneficial to their survival.
Not everything has to be x is good, y is bad you know. Sometimes you can just make impartial observations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @01:04PM
You are doing it too. When an environment becomes good for humans it is "destroyed", but when it changes to be good for rats it is "returned".
(Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Saturday May 05 2018, @02:50AM (1 child)
There are millions of acres of parched desert surrounding the relatively small acreage that was farmed. And speaking as an old desert dweller, kangaroo rats are more than happy to inhabit irrigated land. They loved to get stuck in my garden fence.
Here's the real problem: Kangaroo rats are nocturnal. Counting them during the daytime returns a quantity of "extinct".
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 05 2018, @12:44PM
Were they getting stuck in your fence after being declared "extinct"?
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Friday May 04 2018, @10:47AM
You mean... the advisable way to do it is to follow the example of evil Capitalist humans, who are so environmental conscious that they spend their last time (and the one of their shareholders) searching for endangered species, right?
Just in case you don't get my point: why do you think is acceptable the evil Capitalist humans to not give a shit about environment, but the ones who care must go the full way and then some further?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday May 04 2018, @07:32AM
I promised the American people I would END the catch & release at our Southern Border. And I signed a memo -- last month I did a memo -- asking for reports. I wrote a memo to 5 departments, I told them to report back on what they need to END CATCH & RELEASE. And I gave them 75 days to report back to me. A promise kept!
(Score: 2) by bootsy on Friday May 04 2018, @09:41AM (1 child)
a Richard Gere joke.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @10:37AM
Good.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday May 04 2018, @01:47PM (2 children)
The article shows a picture of a rat in someone's hands. I've seen the sort of lab rat that viciously attacks everything that gets close enough. Perhaps they were traumatized. No way could a person hold one of those. The rat would go berserk biting and clawing at the hands and leaping out and fleeing the instant there was an opening.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @01:59PM (1 child)
They said it was found in a trap so it may be starved or dead. Also, what did the lab rat you saw look like?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @07:29PM
It was wearing glasses, and had a pocket protector. Vicious, I tell ya!