Here’s the first animal species officially wiped out because of global warming

We will never see the golden toad again in the heart of the Costa Rican rainforest. And it’s not for nothing that this species is officially the first extinct due to global warming. An alarming announcement that says a lot about the ecological emergency.

It was not uncommon to cross its path in the Monteverde Biological Reserve, in northwestern Costa Rica. But that was for the golden toad (Incilius periglenes) disappeared from the planet in 1990. And today scientists are positive, it is the first known species whose extinction is attributed to global warming. At least, the first one we know.

“About 99% of the population was lost in one year.”

Alan Pounds, ecologist at the Monteverde Biological Reserve in Costa Rica, quoted by theAFP

Photo: Charles H. Smith/Wikimedia Commons

Conservationists, however, have a glimmer of hope. Research is still ongoing to try to find a trail of the golden toad. But to date, it seems less and less likely that the amphibian will reappear.

The first in a long series?

And this extinction probably won’t be the last, according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Even if the world manages to limit warming to +1.5°C, 9% of species could disappear in the coming years.

In addition, several already seem to have disappeared in the Monteverde region, such as the harlequin frog (Atelopus varius† Many amphibians are said to be affected by an infectious disease, chytridiomycosis. This one would be “the bullet, climate change pulled the trigger”as Alan Pounds explains.

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