The fate of any individual animal, even any species, is not, in the big scale of planetary history, in any way notable. But that doesn’t mean we can’t, indeed shouldn’t, mourn their loss.
On the individual: close studies of the northern bottlenose whale that died in the Thames last year shows human actions were a big factor in her lonely, tormented death at the age of six. (Her natural lifespan would have been at least 40 years.)
An analysis of the whale’s blubber and liver by a government laboratory in Essex showed her body was laced with toxic chemicals used in paints, electronics, pesticides and detergents. The most toxic were PCBs, banned in the 1970s.=
This finding suggests pollution may be reaching farther out to sea than previously thought, as northern bottlenose whales are deep-sea feeders.
In Vietnam, it is a whole species that is at risk –the saola, “which looks like an antelope but is related to cattle” – a species that the world only learnt existed a decade ago.
It was the first new large mammal discovered in half a century, but while the population then was thought to be quite sustainable, it has now crashed to less than 200, and its chances look very poor.
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