I think I found the problem, Jim

Whether you "believe in" global warming or not, there's no arguing that the planet has seen better days. And this is a good indicator of the problem:

New Snub-Nosed Monkey Discovered, Eaten

Yep. That's right: new species discovered moments before it became the blue-plate special.

Bob: "What is that thing?"
Ray: "I don't know. I ain't never seen one before."
Bob: "Whaddya reckon it tastes like?"

I saw the same sort of reaction in a news story a while back. I've lost the link, but it was about a "giant bug" creature that was found attached to a submersible that was hauled back up out of the ocean. The thing looked like a giant pill-bug (or "roly-poly" bug, as we used to call them). The comments that followed the picture started out as, "whew! that thing is ugly," and "That's frightening;" but not long after, the comments shifted to, "I wonder what that would taste like with a little butter and garlic."

So that's our problem: the world is just too doggone tasty!