The Earth has experienced five periods of mass extinction. Scientists can’t quite be certain yet, but they’re fairly sure we’re now well into the sixth.
Eastern-yellow robin. Some 60 per cent of the native birds of south-east mainland Australia have lost more than half of their natural habitat.
Graham Winterflood/Wikimedia Commons
Aside from their intrinsic value, common bird species might be one of the only ways we connect with nature in our everyday lives. But these opportunities are under threat.
Realising the silence of outer space was what made us appreciate our precarious position down on this pale blue dot – so beginning our obsession with extinction.
The world mourns the loss of Malaysia’s last male Sumatran rhino. Can anything stop the slide of the species towards extinction?
The now-extinct giant beaver once lived from Florida to Alaska. It weighed as much as 100 kilograms, roughly the same as a small black bear.
Illustrated by Luke Dickey/Western University
New species are being discovered all the time, which only adds to the problem of knowing how many there are on the planet today. It also helps to know what we mean by species.
Two southern resident killer whales surface near Saturna Island, B.C, in September 2012.
Miles Ritter/flickr
Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University