Major shocking climate crisis alert - first species exterminated by climate change. How will earth cope without the Bramble Cay Melomys?
From the Scientific Urban Legend Department: “The little Bramble Cay melomys is likely the first mammal claimed by man-made climate change”
Kip Hansen / 2 hours ago June 27, 2016
Guest Essay by Kip Hansen
The Claim:
Bramble Cay melomys (mosaic-tailed rat) is the first mammal to go extinct due to human-induced climate change.
Rating:
Examples:
“A small rodent that lived only on a single island off Australia is likely the world’s first mammal to be a casualty of climate change…” National Geographic
“Bramble Cay melomys, a rodent round in body, long in whisker and lumpy in tail. The creatures are probably the first mammal casualty of man-made, or anthropogenic, climate change,… “ The Washington Post
“University of Queensland and Queensland Government researchers have confirmed that the Bramble Cay melomys – the only mammal species endemic to the Great Barrier Reef – is the first mammal to go extinct due to human-induced climate change.” The University of Queensland News
….and over 80,000 more.
“The key factor responsible for the extirpation of this population was almost certainly ocean inundation of the low-lying cay, very likely on multiple occasions, during the last decade, causing dramatic habitat loss and perhaps also direct mortality of individuals. Available information about sea-level rise and the increased frequency and intensity of weather events producing extreme high water levels and damaging storm surges in the Torres Strait region over this period point to human-induced climate change being the root cause of the loss of the Bramble Cay melomys.” Confirmation of the extinction…
The Bottom Line:
There are no longer any Bramble Cay melomys living on Bramble Cay. Their extirpation was almost certainly caused by environmental degradation resulting from the very nature of Bramble Cay as a “geologically temporary..[island]..of considerable instability, which may respond dramatically to fluctuations in [its] environment”, with a maximum elevation of 3 meters (~ 10 feet), made of constantly shifting sand that collects around a small rocky outcrop surrounded by a shallow reef. The area of the cay that supports vegetation, the main source of shelter and food for the melomys, has been shrinking since 1998, down to less than 10% of the 1998 area in 2014.
The main contributing factor to this degradation is the success of other species, primarily the Green Turtle and various sea birds, both of which use the island for nesting (and roosting) which resulted in increasing disturbance and destruction of the vegetation required by the melomys for survival.
Bramble Cay suffered at least one (Spring 2014) or more (or a series of) weather events that inundated the island (maybe repeatedly), that possibly would have reduced the melomys population below a sustainable level, both directly and through destruction of vegetation, their primary food source, however, it is doubtful that there were in fact any remaining melomys at that late date. No melomys had been official recorded on Bramble since 2004.
The official cause — climate change – is speculative and partially based on predictions of future sea level rise and future increased storminess and intensity of storms.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/06/27/from-the-scientific-urban-legend-department-the-little-bramble-cay-melomys-is-likely-the-first-mammal-claimed-by-man-made-climate-change/
  The 3.62-hectare (8.9-acre) sand cay is predominately grassland, with 1.72 hectares (4.3 acres) covered in grasses. [4]
There are melomys (rats) elsewhere, but the ones on this tiny island were probably brought to the island inadvertently on fishing boats or drifting logs. Due to the passage of time and isolation the handful of rats on this 'sand spit' were considered a separate species.
Truly, the man-made climate crisis is scraping the bottom of the barrel over these rats.
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