a lot of things seem hopeless right now. i just want to say that its not. despite everything, there are still good things. let me remind you, that-
there are over 243 kākāpo, and it is the first breeding season in four years. at least 74 of their eggs so far are fertile and have potential to hatch. in 1995 there were 51. [1]
there are 607 california condors as of last year. in 1987 there were 27. [2, 3]
there are 110 'alalā (hawaiian crow), while they were pronounced extinct in the wild in the 1970s-80s. 5 have been released into the wild in the past 2 years. [4, 5]
there are over 319 wild mexican grey wolves, after numbering only 7 in 1977. [6, 7]
there are at least 1300 wild przewalski's horses, after they were pronounced extinct in the wild with only 31 captive individuals in 1945. [8, 9]
hell, they still have sperm from the last male northern white rhino and are attempting to have a southern white rhino be a surrogate mom with his & the last two female's eggs. [10]
i know things can feel hopeless but i work in this field. there is still hope out there because people do genuinely care. even if it just reassures you about the environment around us, there is still some hope out there.
humans are not inherently bad. i know it's easy to say it but i promise that we are not. the assumption that all of humanity is evil and morally reprehensible for the extinction of species- yes, including species that we drove extinct ourselves- is discounting the work of millions of people trying to stop it from happening again. humanity is not evil. there is still hope, and there is still time. never forget that.
hey prev, dont worry! while there are still currently only between 8-11 vaquita individuals recorded as of 2024, the survey was also only done in a small region. their population has also actually stabilized and has not changed much, which is a great sign! in addition, there are active efforts to keep the Gulf of California clean and to remove illegal gillnets. [11, 12, 13]
