Extinction, past and present

[SinisterMinisterX]

11 extinct animals that have been photographed alive

This isn't just history, we (the human race) are still at it...

Philippine fisherman catch and eat a megamouth shark - an animal so rare, this "meal" (it was sauteed in coconut milk!) is only the 41st ever seen.

I normally don't care about this kind of stuff too much. Extinction happens; it's been happening for billions of years. But this makes me genuinely sad. Some of those 11 animals were amazing.

 

[Perun]

Nice find, SMX. I don't think it's too much to remind people once in a while that the lives we are leading has its share of victims.

I caught a pretty amazing documentary on Siberian wildlife the other day, which featured rare footage that was assembled in year's worth of work, from some places that had not been touched by man before. The highlight of that documentary was the sight of an Amur leopard eating its prey. I'd always taken the existence of those creatures for granted, principally because I had seen them numerous times at the zoo. But when the commentator said that there are less than 40 specimen left in the wild, I got a bit of a shock, and the footage went from stunning to ghostly.