A Brief History
On September 1, 1914, the last known living Passenger Pigeon died in the Cincinnati Zoo. When Martha the Pigeon died, her species became extinct, and extinct because of over hunting by people. Once in flocks so great people said you could knock them from the air with a broom, the birds were slaughtered without regard to conservation, and now they are gone, just like many other species. Here we list 10 notable animal species or varieties that are either totally extinct or nearly so because of the actions of people. Perhaps cloning can bring some of them back someday, but it has not been successful yet.
Digging Deeper
10. Passenger Pigeon.
The most abundant bird in North America and maybe even the world in the 19th Century, in 1866 a flock of at least 3.5 Billion Passenger Pigeons was observed in Ontario. Hunting and habitat destruction did what seemed impossible, and now they are gone.
9. Dodo.
First noted by Europeans in 1598, by 1662 hunting, European domestic animals, and invasive species made the Dodo extinct. Only found on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, it had no natural predators and was therefore unafraid of Europeans and their animals, making the birds seem stupid to the danger they faced, and exceedingly easy to kill. That, combined with a kind of goofy expression, gave the birds the reputation as “Dumb as a Dodo” and their extinction later gave birth to the expression “As dead as a Dodo.” This was probably the first species widely recognized as driven to extinction by humans.
8. Great Auk.
A flightless, penguin like bird (though not a penguin), the Great Auk lived along the Atlantic and Arctic coasts of Canada, Greenland, and Northern Europe. Useful as a source of food for people, Europeans used the Great Auk even more so as a source of down, driving the bird extinct in Europe by around 1550. Upon colonization of the New World, the North American population of Great Auks also quickly succumbed to human hunting, and the last known pair died in Iceland in 1844, though 1 may have been sighted in 1852.
7. Tasmanian Wolf.
Also known as Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine, this carnivorous marsupial lived in Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea before hunting by humans and habitat loss made them extinct some time in the early 20th Century. The hunting was encouraged by bounties paid for each animal killed, as they were seen as a threat to livestock. The Tasmanian Wolf thrived for 4 million years (earlier species go back 23 million years) until people put an end to them. Occasional reports of a sighting of a live Thylacine in the wild have never been proven.
6. Blue Pike.
A subspecies of the Walleye (Sander vitreus) , this tasty food fish (Sander vitreus glaucus) once made up as much as half the commercial catch in Lake Erie (the top fish producer of the Great Lakes), but starting in the 1950’s its numbers dwindled due to over-fishing, becoming extinct in the 1960’s or 1970’s, perhaps as late as 1983.
5. Quagga.
A subspecies of Zebra that lived in great numbers in Southern Africa, the European colonization of the area quickly diminished the numbers of these half striped animals (Equus quagga quagga) to the point of extinction in the wild by 1878 and total extinction when the last resident in a zoo died in 1883. (Scientific trivia: the Quagga is the first extinct animal to have its DNA analyzed.) Only the head and front shoulder area of the Quagga is striped, and current efforts with selective breeding of Burchell’s Zebra in order to recreate the color pattern is being attempted. Only 1 known photo of a live Quagga is known to exist.
4. Northern Right Whale.
The most endangered of the Great Whales, the Eastern North Atlantic variety may number less than 20 or be effectively extinct already, while the Eastern North Pacific variety is down to less than 50. These whales like the other Great Whales were hunted to near extinction until pressure from whalers eased up somewhat in the 20th Century. Mankind is still causing the deaths of these giants (up to 65 feet long and 100 tons) by accidental strikes by ships and entangling fishing nets. Trivia: The Right Whale has a penis almost 9 feet long and testes 6 feet 6 inches long and over 1100 lbs (the largest known on Earth)! Right Whales have been protected with a Whaling Ban since 1937, though some continue to be taken illegally or for scientific purposes. Fortunately, the Southern population still has about 15,000 animals.
3. Yellowfin Cutthroat Trout.
A distinct subspecies (Oncorhynchus clarkii macdonaldi) of Cutthroat Trout that lived in the Twin Lakes of Colorado, the Yellowfin was markedly larger than its smaller cousins. Introduction of Rainbow Trout to the lakes spelled doom for the Yellowfin Cutthroats, as the Rainbows interbred with the other (Greenback) Cutthroat Trout creating a hybrid that forced the Yellowfin variety to extinction. The story of this fish is an example of how man can drive an animal to extinction by the introduction of a non-native species.
2. Rhinoceros.
Of the 5 species alive today, 3 are listed as critically endangered. The Northern sub-species of the White Rhino of Africa may already be extinct in the wild, with perhaps 4 wild animals left and another 5 in zoos. The black Rhino of Africa has only around 4800 animals in the wild, which is double what it was in 1995, though there were around 70,000 of the 2 ton beasts as late as 1960. Unfortunately, at least 1 of the subspecies (west African) of Black Rhino was declared extinct in 2011. The giant Indian Rhino (up to 7100 lbs) is also greatly reduced and limited to certain park preserves, while the Java and Sumatran Rhinos are critically endangered, with only perhaps 60 Java Rhinos and as few as 80 Sumatran Rhinos. Rhinos once found in various Asian countries such as Viet Nam, Burma, Nepal, China, Bangladesh and Malaysia are no longer alive in the wild. Persistent stupid myths about ground Rhino horn being a cure for erectile dysfunction has resulted in the slaughter of these great animals. The Woolly Rhinoceros, about the size of the White Rhino, was probably hunted to extinction by ancient Humans and went extinct about 8000 BC.
1. Woolly Mammoth.
Like the Woolly Rhino, the Woolly Mammoth was probably a victim of habitat change as the Ice Age receded and pressure from Human hunting. Early man was an avid hunter of these large elephants (about the size of African elephants) and used their meat, skin, and bones for food, clothes, shelter, and tools. The North American version is called the American Mastodon, and was similar in size to the Mammoth. Both animals were driven to extinction about 8000 BC, around the same time as the Woolly Rhinoceros. Hunting by running herds over a cliff was wasteful, though productive while they lasted. Prior to Europeans bringing horses and firearms to North America, Native Americans often hunted buffalo (Bison) the same way, driving herds over a cliff.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Fuller, Errol. Lost Animals: Extinction and the Photographic Record. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Gunzi, Christiane. The Best Book of Endangered and Extinct Animals. Kingfisher, 2004.
Lessem, Don and Jan Sovak. Dinosaurs to Dodos: An Encyclopedia of Extinct Animals. Scholastic, 1999.
Markle, Sandra, William Markle, et al. Gone Forever: An Alphabet of Extinct Animals. Aladdin, 2007.
