Human-Caused Climate Changed Drives First Mammal Into Extinction

The current human-caused climate change has reared its ugly head: it caused the only endemic mammal species into extinction. The Bramble Cay melomys, a rodent that lives on an island i the eastern Torres Strait, has been completely wiped-out from its only known location.

Bramble Cay Rodent is First Mammal Species to Go Extinct due to Climate Change https://t.co/PknmsxVw7W pic.twitter.com/wpYXWiYyUi

— Sheila Weeks (@sheilaweeks) June 14, 2016

According to The Guardian, it is the first recorded extinction of a mammal in the world that is due primarily to climate change. However, the melomys will not be the last of it.

Also called the mosaic-tailed rat, these species is known to live on Bramble Cay just 340 meters long and 150 meters wide off the north coast of Queensland, Australia. It was the most isolated and restricted range of any mammal. It is also considered as the only mammal species endemic to the Great Barrier Reef.

National Geographic stated that the rats were first seen by Europeans on the island in 1845, and several hundred was confirmed to still be living there by 1978. However, the part of the island that sits above the tide has shrunk from 9.8 acres to 6.2 acres by 1998, which means that the island's vegetation also shrunk, and the rodents lost about 97 percent of their habitat.

Ian Gynther of Queensland's Department of Environment and Heritage Protection said, "The key factor responsible for the extirpation of this population was almost certainly ocean inundation of the low-lying cay, very likely on multiple occasions, during the last decade, causing dramatic habitat loss and perhaps also direct mortality of individuals."

The melomys was considered "endangered" since 1992, when it has been included in the Queensland Nature Conservation Act. In 2008, ABC News

noted that the Australian Government introduced a recovery plan. However, a survey by researchers revealed that conservation efforts could not keep up -- climate change has affected the Great Barrier Reef too much. It was simply too late.