A mosaic-tailed rat called in popular parlance as the Bramble Cay melomys is now extinct, declare Queensland researchers. This is the first mammal species that has been wiped out by climate change.
The rodent lived on an island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. It has totally disappeared from its 350m-long cay home in the Torres Strait due to an alarming rise in the sea levels, say the researchers in a University of Queensland report.
The species was surveyed by Ian Gynther from Queensland's Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, partnering with the University of Queensland. After laying 150 traps on the island for six nights, researchers extensively measured the islands and took stock of the vegetation.
The rodents' range was the most restricted and isolated compared to other Australian mammals. Its habitat was a small coral cay called Bramble Cay just off the north coast of Queensland. Being only 340m long and 150m wide, the coral cay home was located at 3m above sea level.
"I am of absolutely no doubt we will lose species due to the increasing pressures being exerted by climate change. Species restricted to small, low-lying islands, or those with very tight environmental requirements are likely to be the first to go," Australia's Deakin University ecologist John White told The Guardian.
Last spotted in 2009, intense and extensive searches have not given any trace of the species' existence. Study authors Luke Leung and Natalie Waller have thus suggested that they need to be given the status of not "endangered" but "extinct."
One-sixth of the global species is faced with extinction due to climate change, while the world will soon face a mass extinction, says a 2015 report Hence, while the rodent is the first to be affected, species are facing extinction everywhere.
"For low-lying islands like Bramble Cay, the destructive effects of extreme water levels resulting from severe meteorological events are compounded by the impacts from the anthropogenic climate change-driven sea-level rise," the authors said.
Scientists still hold on to one ray of hope---that the Bramble Cay melomys may have some undiscovered members in Papua New Guinea, if the melomys happened to arrive into Brambles Cay on rafting debris from the Fly River region of Papua New Guinea. Some targeted surveys can help us to locate a few of the species.
