Australian rat identified as first extinction due to ‘human-induced climate change’

Bramble Cay Melomys
Photo credit Australian Wildlife Department

QUEENSLAND (1010 WINS) -- A certain type of small brown rat from Down Under is no more.

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Most people won't mourn for rats, but the loss of this one is significant. The Bramble Cay melomys is the first mammal known to have gone extinct due to 'human-induced climate change' the government said.

The rats lived on a small coral island on the Great Barrier Reef in the Torres Strait between Queensland and Papua New Guinea.

Maybe the final Bramble Cay melomys died in a group. Maybe one last little rat had a period of solitude before the end, more profoundly alone than any human has ever been. Either way, this is a more important story than anything you’ll see on cable news today. https://t.co/z0iZDAdIBP

— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) February 20, 2019

A report published by the University of Queensland in 2016 said the rats had not been seen for nearly a decade and was pronounced extinct when 'exhaustive' efforts to save it failed. The Australian government confirmed those findings on Monday.

The report said the cause of extinction was likely 'ocean inundation' leading to 'dramatic habitat loss.'

There were several hundred of the melomys on the island in the 1970s, but they were declared endangered by 1992.