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The Bird That Laughs at Extinction
David Attenborough found fame with the few giant tortoises of the Galapagos. His namesake species, the Attenborough long-beaked echidna, has been recorded only twice in the history of science.
Everyone loves rare animals. There is no greater nod to the fatalism that awaits your kind than the gentle dulcid tones of Attenborough.
The IUCN’s Red List of endangered animals might be a great way to generate airtime, but those creatures are not the future.
The human-powered Anthropocene extinction means animals on the fringe of life today are set for the bucket of evolution tomorrow.
Yet this change is throwing up the odd curveball species that, far from choking on our fumes, are hustling a living in our backyard. Who are these badass beasts?
Feral pigeons
Everything about this bird suggests it would be a rarity. Big enough to eat, pigeons tumble through the air with the grace of an airborne fridge.
The passenger pigeon, its American relative, experienced a ferocious extinction event less than a century ago — going from the most populous bird in North America to an…
