The First Mammal Species Has Been Wiped Out by Climate Change

uman-caused climate change has driven the Great Barrier Reef’s only endemic mammal species to extinction, The Guardian reported Tuesday.

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The Bramble Cay melomys, a small rodent also known as the mosaic-tailed rat, have been completely wiped-out from its only known location. They are also the first instance of a mammal anywhere in the world thought to have gone extinct due primarily to human-caused climate change.

When they were first seen and recorded by Europeans in 1845, they existed in high density on the island, located in the eastern Torres Strait. By 1978, it was estimated there were several hundred that lived on the small island.

However, the melomys were last seen in 2009, and after there was an extensive search for the animal in 2014, a report recommended its status should changed from “endangered” to “extinct.”

This report was led by Ian Gynther from University of Queensland’s Department of Environment and Heritage Protection. The search for the small rodent consisted of laying 150 traps on the island for six nights, as well as extensive measurements of the island and its vegetation.

In their report, that was also co-authored by Natalie Waller and Luke Leung from the University of Queensland, the researchers found that the root cause of the melomys’ extinction was a rise in sea level. The rising seas killed the animals and also destroyed their habitat, with the loss of 97 percent of their habitat in just 10 years.

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Globally, the average sea level has risen by almost 20 cm between 1901 and 2010, which is a rate unparalleled in any period during the last 6,000 years. But around the Torres Strait, where the melomys lived, the sea level appears to have risen at almost twice the global average rate between 1993 and 2014.

The one hope for the animal, the authors say in the report, is that there might be an undiscovered population in Papua New Guinea. They speculate that the melomys might have arrived on the small island amidst rafting debris from the Fly River region of Papua New Guinea. If this is the case then the mammal, or at least a close relative, may still live undiscovered there.

John White, an ecologist from Deakin University in Australia, who was not involved in the study, told The Guardian, “I am of absolutely no doubt we will lose species due to the increasing pressures being exerted by climate change. Certainly, extinction and climatic change has gone hand in hand throughout the history of the world.”