To ward off extinctions, scientists get creative
From coaching captive animals and breeding new variants to deploying dogs and drones, conservationists aim to nurture species. This story appears in the October 2019 issue of National Geographic magazine.
Some scientists contend that we're heading toward what would be the sixth mass extinction in the history of life on Earth. Human activity has increased the rate of extinction by several orders of magnitude. A recent UN report says around one million species 'are now threatened with extinction, many within decades.'
That prospect is grim but not inevitable. Across the world, scientists are using new technologies and unorthodox approaches to bring species back. From lending a hand in breeding to training dogs to sniff out rare gorillas, scientists are taking extraordinary measures to save the animals they love. Playing the Part White-naped crane (vulnerable)
When Walnut the crane was brought to the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, she fixated on keeper Chris Crowe and refused to take a mate. Now Crowe (hand shown) plays that role: He mimics crane courtship gestures to get her interested, then artificially inseminates her eggs. Photograph By Lexey Swall, Grain Introducing the enemy Bilby (vulnerable)
Rabbit-eared Australian marsupials are being hunted out of existence by foxes and feral cats in their environment. Now scientists are exposing bilbies to cats in a fenced reserve in hopes of sensitizing the marsupial to avoid the predator. Photograph By Queensland Government Deploying technology
Kakapo (critically endangered)
With fewer than 150 adults left in the wild, kakapos can't afford one bad breeding season. To monitor and encourage the birds' breeding, scientists deploy high-tech gadgets. One example: Drones deliver kakapo semen to scientists so they can artificially inseminate females in the field. Photograph By ANGELO GIANNOUTSOS Following the scent Cross river gorilla (critically endangered)
Africa's rarest great ape is hard to track in its dense forest habitat. But now scientists get help from former shelter dogs, trained by the group Working Dogs for Conservation, to follow the scent of the gorilla's poop. Photograph By OROKIET/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
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