Climate Change moves Aussie Mammal to Extinct list

Aussie Mammal the first

 'Climate Change Extinction'

Aussie mammal the first ‘climate change extinction'

Australia officially declared a Great Barrier Reef rodent extinct on Tuesday, Bramble Cay Melomys was generally known as Aussie Mammal, making it the first mammal believed to have been killed off by human-induced climate change.

The Melomys rubicola considered the Great Barrier Reef's only endemic (found nowhere else) mammal species, whose only known habitat was a small sandy island in far northern Australia was first discovered on the cay in 1845 by Europeans who shot the "large rats" for sport.

Ocean Inundation in Australian Reef

First Climate Change Extinction:

But the last known sighting, by a professional fisherman, was in 2009. It has not been spotted in a decade.

When a 2014 study found no sign of the species, researchers decided to conduct the most extensive survey possible in the hope of conserving the species.

Researchers from Queensland determined a key factor in its disappearance was “almost certainly” repeated ocean inundation (Flood of water due to sea level rise) of the cay — a low-lying island on a coral reef — over the last decade, which had resulted in dramatic habitat loss.

Australia’s environment ministry on Tuesday said it had officially transferred the animal to the “extinct” list.

Climate change pushes Aussie mammal to Extinct list

Available data on sea-level rise and weather events in the Torres Strait region “point to human-induced climate change being the root cause of the loss of the Bramble Cay melomys”, a study released in 2016 said.