Top 10 Animal Stories of the Decade

12/24/2009

It’s incredibly challenging to pick just ten animal stories that made the most impact over an entire decade, but here’s my selection. Please share any others that you feel made an impact that didn’t make my list!

White Nose Syndrome devastates bats

A strange killer came out of nowhere and has had catastrophic effects on many bat species in the northeast United States. Cavers first observed bats with white noses in New York in 2006, and scientists have since documented hundreds of thousands of dead bats in caves during their winter hibernation. Every year it has spread to new caves and additional states. In 2009, scientists identified a Geomyces fungus as the “white” on the bats’ noses and wings which most likely is an exotic species. So far scientists have found no bats with immunity, and WNS is expected to continue spreading, though research on solutions has begun in earnest.

Animal cloning

Advances in science resulted in several new mammals cloned during the past decade – including Tetra the rhesus monkey in 2000, Copycat the cat in 2001, a horse named Prometea in 2003, and Snuppy the dog in 2005. Scientists also worked at – and intensely debated – cloning endangered animals as a way to recover imperiled species and possibly even extinct ones. The San Diego Zoo has a Frozen Zoo which keeps tissue of the world’s most imperiled species.

Lost worlds of animals discovered

It’s not all bad news out there. Though many wild animal populations have declined, scientific expeditions to relatively untrammeled places like Papua New Guinea, Madagascar, the Himalayas and Asia’s Mekong Delta have revealed “lost worlds” of never before documented species and incredible biodiversity. Scientists have named many new species in the past decade, as well, which just goes to show how much biodiversity we stand to lose by not protecting the world’s remaining natural habitats.

Global warming effects on wildlife

The image of polar bears starving and drowning from shrinking polar ice has become the mental picture associated with global warming, but many other species around the globe have been affected by climate change. The timing of animal migrations has changed in some species, habitat has diminished or 'moved' due to changing microclimates and the world's oceans have started turning more acidic. Although known about in scientific circles for decades before this one, global warming finally came into broader public acceptance this decade in large part due to efforts Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth, but also brought to life through 2005's breakaway success March of the Penguins.

Did we or did we not rediscover the ivory-billed woodpecker?

When the news broke of the possible rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) it was the wildlife story of all stories. A forestry student had made a promising observation in 1999 prompting a comprehensive survey through the hardwood swamps of Louisiana, Arkansas and Florida over the past decade. Scientists recorded a rapping sound similar to the woodpecker’s double knock in 2002, and a team from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology published a paper in Science in 2005 based on multiple observations of a male in Arkansas. But robotic cameras in the region have never recorded any ivory-bills, neither DNA nor nests have been located. The “rediscovery” remains steeped in controversy but it did allow conservation groups to buy up large tracts of wilderness that would preserve the birds’ habitat, as well as many other species. 

Global amphibian declines

Scientists first identified the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd)– suspected in killing frogs and other amphibians in 1998, but the past decade saw both major advances in scientific understanding of the fungus including how it kills frogs. The deade also witnessed severe declines in many amphibian species. The fungus is thought to have spread from African clawed frogs – a common pet – to native amphibians after people flush their dead, or living, pets down the toilet or release them outside. The fungus thrives in moist, cool environments so amphibians in montane rainforests have been more heavily affected than desert or dry, temperate species.

Virgin birth in sharks

It all started in 2001, when aquarium personnel saw a bonnethead shark pup in the Omaha Zoo – a shock since no male bonnethead was in the tank, and all the females had been captured as juveniles. Geneticists soon confirmed the pup had no father. Not long after, a blacktip shark at the Virginia aquarium was found with a pup in her belly. Once again geneticists confirmed virgin birth. Unusual in vertebrates, the phenomenon has since been confirmed in white-spotted bamboo sharks and suspected in a whitetip reef shark. This strange method of reproduction, never observed in sharks prior to this decade, won’t save them though. Research published in the past few years has shown dramatic global declines in most shark species over the past 25 years, including long-term declines in reef sharks and great whites - which cascades through the marine ecosystem - with an increase in the brutal and wasteful practice of shark finning.

Michael Vick’s dogfighting ring

Interest in this story peaked in April 2007 when star NFL quarterback Michael Vick was investigated for involvement in a vicious dogfighting ring. In dogfights where the “loser” doesn’t get killed, the owners typically kill it themselves using electrocution, drowning or hanging. Vick participated and also financed an illegal dogfighting ring. His pled guilty and was sent to federal prison for nearly 2 years. The story this brought this brutal and secretive practice front and center in the public’s awareness. Released from prison in May 2009, Vick now works with the Humane Society to teach about why animal cruelty is wrong.

Contagious cancer devastates Tasmanian devils

In the early part of this decade, Tasmanian devils, started dying in mass, their faces deformed by grotesque tumors that caused them to starve. It took scientists a few years to conclusively determine the cause, and this decade has shown great progress in scientific understanding, but during that time the charismatic marsupial carnivore went from being very common to seriously endangered. Conservation biologists believe the Tasmanian devil faces the very real possibility of extinction in the wild in the next decade, so they started “Project Ark” to save as much genetic diversity as possible while still working frantically to identify details of the disease. Scientists have determined that it's only three known contagious cancers in the world.

Puppy mills

Court cases, video and news reports showing putrid living conditions for dogs and their pups brought this topic squarely into the public awareness over the past few years. In puppy mills, dogs live in small wire cages, with little to no veterinary care, no natural social interaction with humans or other dogs – except to breed or pup. Breeding dogs are bred for year after year just for the sake of making puppies to stock the store windows of pet stores, and then are euthanized. Animal Planet has exposed some puppy mills on Animal Cops. A better way? Adopt one of many pets in a local shelter that needs a loving home.

Comments

[Ann Coleman]

Michael Vick’s dogfighting ring was by far the most devastating story for me. Unfortunately, he just got an award for courage?!? by the Ed Block Courage Award group. If you disagree join the FB Cause http://apps.facebook.com/causes/422272/13312187?m=ab445bc4 or contact the organization.
http://www.edblock.org/content/home

[Kate]

Seriously? Any positive stories out there???

[david Burg]

Most of the stories are sad because humans continue to expand our impact via technology. The global warming does not bother me as much as the quiet on going crisis of habitat destruction from roads, suburbanization, mining, and logging (rain forest, western forests, boreal forest, Appalachians-everywhere there are trees), industrial agriculture, etc. The success stories such as the spread of some big animals (bear, deer, coyote, cranes, etc) since the decrease in US farming may only be temporary. Cattle egrets are an example of a species that did well, spread to N America, and are now crashing, at least on the East Coast.

[sugarlips]

hey first sorry to comment here in a place that's not related to the subject but i did not know where to comment this anyway I saw your video of the dragon and I really liked it and I really think that they could be real but i had just one question . what happen to the bones ? if people could find dinosaurs bones what happen to dragons bones ? is it possible that some dinosaurs are actually dragon bones ? please make another video of dragons .

[sugarlips]

hey first sorry to comment here in a place that's not related to the subject but i did not know where to comment this anyway I saw your video of the dragon and I really liked it and I really think that they could be real but i had just one question . what happen to the bones ? if people could find dinosaurs bones what happen to dragons bones ? is it possible that some dinosaurs are actually dragon bones ? please make another video of dragons .

[montane rainforest]

Virtually unknown from a herpetological perspective, scientists and researchers from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Natural History Museum, London, UK and Biogeography Institute, Basle, Switzerland led several expeditions from 2004 to 2006 to uncover the incredibly rich number of herpetofauna species of this region.