Transcription
Earth is huge and diverse, from deep sea trenches to cold mountain tops, tropical shallow seas to dense, steamy jungles, from haunting pine forests to windswept plains. Our planet has an estimated 8.7 million species that currently call it home. Sadly, that number is decreasing daily, with only an estimated 15 percent of Earth's species being formally known to science. Extinction is often happening before we even know a species exists. About 18,000 new species are scientifically described annually, but extinction rates are hard to know when so many species are yet to be described. Estimates range from 200 up to 10,000 species going extinct every year. While some extinction is natural, current rates are because of one species: humans.
As much as 300,000 years ago, modern humans appeared and began spreading to every corner of the Earth. And as we spread, we encountered more and more of the amazing biodiversity of our planet. Cave drawings are the earliest known attempts to record that biodiversity. In many cases, cave drawings show familiar animals to the region in which they are painted, but in some cases, they record animals that didn't survive into our modern world. For example, in 1940, in Lascaux, France, cave drawings were discovered with an array of familiar Eurasian species: bears, deer, wolves, and ibex. But a couple of drawings would not be familiar to us today. Here is a drawing of an Irish elk, the largest species of deer to ever walk the Earth. It went extinct 12,000 years ago. This is a depiction of a steppe bison, once common from Great Britain to Siberia. This huge species of bovine went extinct as recently as 3,000 years ago. These paintings highlight the importance of human records of species. They give us an idea of the impact of human growth and climate change on a region. In some cases, even politics and religion can lead to the demise of a species.
In today's video, we're going to look at two species that were once documented by humans. They were described, written about, and even studied, only to vanish. These species were feared to have gone extinct at times, remaining lost for centuries before surprisingly being found, barely holding on. Welcome to All About Nature! On my channel, I try to bring nature-related content that's entertaining and educational. If you like this kind of content, then please consider liking the video, leaving a comment, and even subscribing to the channel. I really appreciate your support. [Music]
In 1870, British ornithologist John Gould formally described a large species of ground-dwelling pigeon in Western New Guinea. The pigeon had a black head, body, and tail, with iridescent purple, blue, and green hues on the rump. It had chestnut-colored wings and a distinct green spot on the back of its neck. He gave it the Latin name *Otidifaps nobilis*, and today it is known by its common name of green-naped pheasant pigeon.
Ten years later, in 1880, Australian ornithologist Edward Pearson Ramsay described the same pigeon in Eastern New Guinea. It was identical, except for one important difference: instead of a green spot on the neck, it was gray. The subspecies was given the name of *Otidifaps nobilis cervicalis*, and it's known by the common name gray-necked pheasant pigeon.
Two years later, on Ferguson Island off the east coast of New Guinea, British ornithologists Frederick DuCane Godman and Osbert Salvin found that the pheasant pigeons present on the island were yet again morphologically distinct. Here, the spot on the neck wasn't present, and instead, the black feathers of the head continued unbroken down the neck onto the body. This subspecies was given the name *insularis*. Two specimens were collected. Little did they know that the black-naped pheasant pigeon was going to be lost to science, not being seen again for 140 years.
In 1928, one more subspecies would be found on the Aru Islands off the southwest side of Papua. Described by British zoologist Walter Rothschild, the white-naped pheasant pigeon was given the scientific name of *arowensis*. Today, the green and gray nape subspecies are listed as 'least concerned' within their ranges. The white-naped subspecies is listed as 'vulnerable' due to its limited range on the Aru Islands. But the black-naped pheasant pigeon was assumed to be extinct. Locals, who call the bird 'Owo,' had claimed to hear and see the bird several times over the decades, but it was hard to confirm if the bird had actually been seen or not.
In September 2022, an expedition of foreign scientists and local guides set out to see if it was still alive. It was part of the Search for Lost Birds, a collaboration between BirdLife International, Re:wild, and the American Bird Conservancy, which funded the trip. The initiative aims to rediscover more than 150 species of bird that haven't yet been declared extinct, but also haven't been seen for at least a decade. Several members of the expedition team had tried locating the black-naped pheasant pigeon in 2019, but with no success.
After a month of searching, the team was almost done their expedition. They had spoken to countless local hunters, trying to find the perfect place where the bird might still be hiding. With only two days left to go, they had lost hope that any of the 20 camera traps they had set up around the island would capture a bird. But this was the day all their hard work was going to pay off. A camera that had been set up in thick jungle on a steep slope of Mount Kilkerran was triggered, recording a 10-second video. [Laughter]
Upon seeing the footage they captured, scientists were understandably elated. Jordan Boersma, one of the co-leaders of the expedition, described the sighting as being similar to seeing a unicorn or Bigfoot, and the others on the team were as excited to see it as he was. [Music] "It... it's... Owo, isn't it? We can't tell. We can't tell them. We have to have them look through the photos too. We say nothing."
However, bad news was just around the corner. It was soon revealed that the owner of the land where the pigeon was spotted had just signed a deal with a logging company, which leaves the future of the black-naped pheasant pigeon in jeopardy. The team estimates that there are anywhere between 50 and 250 black-naped pheasant pigeons left in the wild. They plan to do another trip soon to help determine the population size and potential areas that need to be protected to ensure the future of this unique bird.
Foreign to 31 BCE, King Herod the Great built two palaces on top of a plateau on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea: Masada. It was intended to be a safe place for himself in case of a revolt. But in the year 73 CE, a group of Jews rebelling against the occupying Roman Empire used it as their last stronghold of rebellion. This group of political assassins took control of Masada in 66 CE and for the next eight years survived there by raiding nearby towns. By the time the Romans showed up to take Masada back, 960 Jewish men, women, and children were living in the fortress. The Romans built a ramp to reach the top, which took several months to complete. Their goal was to capture them and take them into Roman slavery. Josephus, a contemporary scholar from the time of the raid, reports that by the time the Romans came into the fortress, all of the residents had committed mass suicide. Only two women and five children were found alive. On top of this, they had burnt all the buildings except for the food storerooms. And that was it. Masada all but disappeared into the pages of history until 1,800 years later, in 1838, two Americans identified the site.
Over the coming century, it was excavated, and just as Josephus had documented, most of the buildings were found burnt, but the food storerooms were still intact. In the 1960s, a cache of date palm seeds were found in a jar just outside of the food storerooms. They were excavated and put into storage in a nearby university. They sat there for 40 years until Dr. Sarah Sallon came along and asked the university if she could have some of the seeds. When she informed them that she was going to try to grow them, the curators of the collection thought she was crazy. The seeds were 2,000 years old! But they relented and provided her with a number of the date seeds.
Dr. Sallon contacted her friend, Dr. Elaine Solowey, in an attempt to get her to germinate the seeds. Dr. Solowey started by rehydrating them in a bottle warmer that she had lying around her house from raising her children. A Jewish holiday, considered the new year of trees, the rehydrated seeds were planted and left to see what would happen.
Judean date palms have been determined to be genetically distinct from other modern date palm varieties for thousands of years. They were one of the most important crops in the Judean Valley, providing shade from the unrelenting desert sun. Dates were a staple food and played a huge part in the Judean economy. They were exported to nearby regions, and some were even given to the Roman Emperor every year as a gift from the province of Judea. Their importance was immortalized on Judean coins from the time of Christ, highlighting how central they were to the local economy. Eventually, the Roman Empire fell, and Islam grew in the area. By the 11th century, the Christian kingdoms of Europe began to view the growth of Islam in the Near East as a threat to their power. In a quest to retake the Holy Land and stop the spread of Islam, the Crusades began. As many as nine million people died over the next two centuries in these political and religious wars, and along with them, the Judean date palm was wiped off the face of the Earth. All that was left was a small store of seeds on top of a plateau in the Judean Desert, just waiting to be found.
A few weeks after being planted, Dr. Sallon got a call from Dr. Solowey: a miracle had happened! One of the 2,000-year-old date seeds had sprouted and was growing quickly. The tree was given the name Methuselah, after the oldest recorded man in the Bible. It was determined to be a male date palm. This meant that without a female, the tree was destined to eventually die, and the species would disappear again. They needed more trees, so more seeds were procured, and the team managed to germinate six more plants. Of the six additional seeds, four turned out to also be male, but two were the female trees they had been hoping for. They were given the names of Hannah and Judith. By 2015, the Judean date palm was successfully producing fruit again, and as of 2019, 32 trees were growing, and some of the trees were approaching 2 meters in height. It's hoped that with further study of the Judean date palm, modern date cultivation will be able to build varieties that are more climate-tolerant and disease-resistant. And so, after 2,000 years, the Judean date palm is casting shade in the desert of Israel once again.
I want to thank you for taking the time to watch this video. Do you know of any other species that we thought were gone but have been rediscovered? And if you enjoyed the video, please give it a like, leave a comment, and maybe even share it on your socials. If you want to see more content like this, consider subscribing to the channel and hitting the bell icon for notifications. I recently created a Patreon page. I'm not sure if that's something anyone would be interested in joining, but it would be a means for me to justify the 25-plus hours I spend making each of these videos. So, if you want to support the creation of these videos, click the Patreon link in the video description. Thanks again for watching, and I'll see you next time!