Hi there my Steemian friends and followers!
When writing about ecology and environment, I usually try to be positive and inform you about good news from around the world such as successful wildlife reintroduction programs, inspiring tree planting initiatives etc. but unfortunately, the bad news have had the upper hand lately :(
You all know about the tragedy that´s been happening in Australia with billions of animals having fallen victims to the devastating wild fires.
My beloved Mexico, a country that was my home for two years, let me down really bad by planning to open new dolphinariums (even though a new federal law was adopted recently that banned this kind of facilities in the country) and by giving up on some pristine natural areas that are home to numerous rare animal and plant species and offering the land to greedy developers who cannot wait to turn them into new tourist resorts.
My own homeland, the Czech Republic, is already preparing for another extremely hot and dry year that will be terribly affected by the drastic climate changes that have been lately happening in Central Europe (and many other parts of the world too of course).
However, it was the heartbreaking news about yet another amazing animal that just went extinct that made me write this sorrowful post. The creature that we will never see on our planet again is called the Chinese Paddlefish.
Image source: The Vintage News
With an average body length of more than 3 m (10 ft), the Chinese Paddlefish was one of the largest freshwater fish species in the world. Once abundant in the Chinese rivers of Yangtze and the Yellow River, this magnificent animal was exterminated by humans, mostly because of overfishing, water pollution and habitat loss (just like many other aquatic animals in China, unfortunately).
The species was officially proclaimed extinct just a few days ago, thus holding the sad primacy of being the first extinct animal of the year 2020, but in fact, it might have already been extinct for almost two decades as the last living specimen of the Chinese Paddlefish was seen in 2003.
I am always heartbroken when I learn about another animal species becoming extinct and I really wish China took their environmental policy much more seriously as this country has already lost an alarmingly high number of animal species.
Rest in peace, poor fish. You were living and thriving on this planet for 200 million years but then, a very short encounter with the human race put an end to your existence. I am so sorry...
This post was created by me for the Steem blockchain exclusively.
