extinction

Leave it to Jenny-Jinya to hit us right in the feels on the day of love. Jinya uploaded a new short comic on February 14th and as always, it brought the feels along with it. 

Jenny-Jinya is quite known for her reaper comics, and her strong messages that come with each and every comic. Some comics are happy ones, most are sad, but all make us want to sob. This short comic is no different. The comic is about a Carolina Parakeet who asks death to see their colorful feathers once more because it's been so long and they can't remember what it looked it. The rest is Feel-Town, USA, population us. 

After the comic was uploaded, Twitter users quickly shared their thoughts and pain. Follow Jenny-Jinya on Twitter and/or Instagram! 

Is there any real way of knowing if an animal is extinct or not? How do scientists make that decision? Those were the thoughts of one twitter user that went viral all over twitter, and we cannot stop laughing at the responses. 

Honestly, they're right. How can we know for sure? Some extinct animal species end up randomly being found in some places on Earth every once in a while. Who's to say that they're not simply hiding from us, totally done with all of our weird human shenanigans? They're probably messing with scientists just as much as they're messing with us, and honestly, that is one of the reasons why we totally love nature. 

You think this year has been strange? Well, it's about to get stranger. Just in time for Halloween month, none other than the devil has returned to Australia. The devil, you ask? Yes, the Tasmanian devil. 

The Tasmanian devil, the world's largest surviving marsupial carnivore, used to live in the mainland of Australia but became extinct on the mainland 3000 thousand years ago. The only place that these devils continued to live was in Tasmania. Not anymore though. Last month, 11 devils were released back into mainland Australia.

20 years ago, the Burmese roofed turtle was presumed extinct, but today, we have some good news! This huge Asian river turtle, whose face seems to be set with a permanent smile, has been saved from extinction by a group of scientists. After accidentally coming across a few of these turtles, these scientists, over the years, have managed to grow the population of these turtles to 1000 and counting, with some of the turtles even released back into the wild.

Heartbreaking news from Australia: a year-long New South Wales parliamentary inquiry revealed that without urgent intervention, koalas will likely be extinct in parts of Australia before 2050. The investigation found that "loss of habitat, fragmented populations, and fire" have been major threats to koalas.

Sometimes, life...finds a way. Cue the Jurassic Park theme song

In all seriousness, this is really incredible. All these animals were so very close to extinction but overcame the odds and now are thriving! Just the kind of uplifting news we need in this world.

Learn more about each species below (commentary by MentalFloss):

Penguins aren't exactly formidable creatures, are they? Although Emperor penguins can reach up to 4 feet 2 inches, they always seem super friendly and cute. Now imagine a penguin the same height as you. That changes things. Penguins the size of humans... the idea sounds like it comes from science fiction. But it actually just comes from science. It was recently discovered that giant penguins used to exist. We are not kidding. 

The Spix's macaw, or as most would recognize as the parrot from the animated film Rio, heads the list of first bird extinction confirmed this decade. You can read more of this story at Birdlife.org.

To learn more about the troubles facing cheetahs and how you can help, click here.