homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Pixelated images showcase how close these species are to extinction

You'll have to squint.

Alexandru Micu
October 2, 2019 @ 5:20 pm

share Share

As a campaign the World Wildlife Fund ran in 2008 is re-making the rounds on reddit, one Imgur user has created a powerful follow-up.

Image credits JJSmooth44 / Imgur.

Back in 2008, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released a striking photo campaign. Called WWF Japan – Population by pixel, the campaign was created by the agency Hakuhodo C&D in Tokyo. It consisted of a set of 4 posters, blurred so that every single pixel in the photo corresponds to one living animal — the poorer-quality the final image is, the worse for wear the species is in the wild.

Since 2008, however, the four species shown in the campaign have been recovering and increasing in numbers in the wild. But those four aren’t the only ones that have been struggling. A collection of 22 new but very similar images recently published on Reddit by user JJSmooth44 showcases just that.

JJSmooth44 claims he “did it as a programming challenge,” using the Python language to obscure these images through pixelation, matching the number of pixels with the number of individuals that species are estimated to still have in the wild. He took the original photos from the Animal Planet endangered animals list.

“The code is very gross,” he says. “I only worried about the final product and not the readability/niceness of the code.”

The rate of species extinction has been picking up recently, and a big part of that is due to us. Species do go extinct through natural mechanisms, but more and more of them are struggling to adapt to ever-more pollution, human encroachment, and habitat devastation. Climate warming is further pushing these species towards extinction.

Work such as the Population by Pixels campaign and JJSmooth44’s work perfectly showcase how vulnerable Earth’s species and ecosystems can be if we do not care for them. Just like a picture losing its pixels, these species run a very real danger of fading away forever.

share Share

Evolution just keeps creating the same deep-ocean mutation

Creatures at the bottom of the ocean evolve the same mutation — and carry the scars of human pollution

Underwater Tool Use: These Rainbow-Colored Fish Smash Shells With Rocks

Wrasse fish crack open shells with rocks in behavior once thought exclusive to mammals and birds.

Scientists Found a 380-Million-Year-Old Trick in Velvet Worm Slime That Could Lead To Recyclable Bioplastic

Velvet worm slime could offer a solution to our plastic waste problem.

Beetles Conquered Earth by Evolving a Tiny Chemical Factory

There are around 66,000 species of rove beetles and one researcher proposes it's because of one special gland.

This Freshwater Fish Can Live Over 120 Years and Shows No Signs of Aging. But It Has a Problem

An ancient freshwater species may be quietly facing a silent collapse.

These researchers counted the trees in China using lasers

The answer is 142 billion. Plus or minus a few, of course.

The Soviets Built a Jet Powered Train and It Was as Wild as It Sounds

This thing was away of its time and is now building rust in a scrapyard.

New Diagnostic Breakthrough Identifies Bacteria With Almost 100% Precision in Hours, Not Days

A new method identifies deadly pathogens with nearly perfect accuracy in just three hours.

This Tamagotchi Vape Dies If You Don’t Keep Puffing

Yes. You read that correctly. The Stupid Hackathon is an event like no other.

Wild Chimps Build Flexible Tools with Impressive Engineering Skills

Chimpanzees select and engineer tools with surprising mechanical precision to extract termites.