Animals

Barbary Lion

The Barbary lion is an extinct Panthera leo leo population that lived in North Africa from Morocco to Egypt, especially in the mountains and deserts of the Barbary Coast. It was eradicated following the spread of firearms and bounties for shooting lions. A comprehensive review of hunting and sighting records revealed that small groups of lions may have survived in Algeria until the early 1960s, and in Morocco until the mid-1960s. Today, it is locally extinct in this region.

RIP 1960s

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Black Rhino

In the early 1990s the number dipped below 2,500, and in 2004 it was reported that only 2,410 black rhinos remained. By 2019 the population of 5,500 was either steady or slowly increasing. In 1992, nine rhinos were brought from Chete National Park, Zimbabwe to Australia via Cocos Island. In 2002 only ten western black rhinos remained in Cameroon, and in 2006 intensive surveys across its putative range failed to locate any, leading to fears that this subspecies had become extinct. In 2011 the IUCN declared the western black rhino extinct.

Critically Endangered

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Desert Rat Kangaroo

The desert rat-kangaroo was first recorded in the early 1840s. Predation by the red fox and feral cats, as well as variable seasonal patterns and overhunting by indigenous Australians, were blamed for the extinction of this species. No reliable reports of the species have been made since 1935, but unconfirmed sightings in Queensland followed periods of rain in 1956-1957 and 1974-1975. Recent remains of this species have been found in the mid-1980s inside caves. The desert rat-kangaroo was declared extinct in 1994, making it the only mammal species to be rediscovered and then lost again.

RIP 1994

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The Great Auk

The last Great Auk colony lived on Geirfuglasker, a volcanic rock off of Iceland, which was surrounded by cliffs that made it inaccessible to humans, but in 1830, the islet submerged after a volcano and the birds moved to the nearby island which was accessible. When the auk colony was discovered in 1835 nearly fifty existed. However, museums desired the skins, so people quickly began collecting birds from the colony. The last pair, found incubating an egg, was killed there on 3 June 1844, on request from a merchant who wanted specimens three Icelanders strangled the adults and smashed the egg with their boot.

RIP 3 June 1844

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Pennant's red colobus

Pennant's Red Colobus is a species of tree-dwelling primate in the family Cercopithecidae. with one population on the island of Bioko , a second in the Niger River Delta in southern Nigeria, and a third in east-central Republic of Congo. The subspecies is listed as Endangered by the IUCN in its Red List of Threatened Species because its range on the island of Bioko is less than 500 square kilometres and its population size is decreasing due to it being hunted for bushmeat. In 2006, the population on Bioko Island was estimated to be smaller than 5000 individuals. The Niger Delta red colobus is listed as Critically Endangered due to the fact that its habitat in the Niger Delta is being degraded by logging and the monkeys are hunted for food. Its population has declined by 80% during a period of thirty years. The Bouvier's red colobus has declined dramatically in numbers and is also listed as Critically Endangered.

Critically Endangered

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Pyrean Ibex

The Pyrenean ibex was one of the four subspecies of the Iberian ibex or Iberian wild goat, a species endemic to the Pyrenees. Pyrenean ibex were most common in the Cantabrian Mountains, Southern France, and the northern Pyrenees. In January 2000, the Pyrenean ibex became extinct. Following several failed attempts to revive the subspecies through cloning, a living specimen was born in July 2003; however, she died ten minutes after birth due to a lung defect.

RIP Jan 2000

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Stellars Sea Cow

Steller's sea cow is an extinct sirenian described by Georg Wilhelm Steller in 1741. Steller first encountered it on Vitus Bering's Great Northern Expedition when the crew became shipwrecked on Bering Island. Much of what is known about its behavior comes from Steller's observations on the island, documented in his posthumous publication On the Beasts of the Sea. Within 27 years of its discovery by Europeans, the slow-moving and easily-caught mammal was hunted into extinction for its meat, fat, and hide.

RIP Late 1880s

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The Bali Tiger

The Bali tiger was a Panthera tigris sondaica population on the Indonesian island of Bali which has been extinct since the 1950s. It was formerly regarded as a distinct tiger subspecies with the scientific name Panthera tigris balica, which had been assessed as extinct on the IUCN Red List in 2008. Results of a mitochondrial DNA analysis of 23 tiger samples from museum collections indicate that tigers colonized the Sunda Islands throughout the last glacial period 11,000–12,000 years ago. In Bali, the last tigers were recorded in the late 1930s. A few individuals likely survived into the 1940s and possibly 1950s. The population was hunted to extinction and its natural habitat converted for human use.

RIP 1950s

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Toughie, The Frog

Toughie was the last known living Rabbs' fringe-limbed treefrog. The species, scientifically known as Ecnomiohyla rabborum, is thought to be extinct, as the last specimen Toughie—died in captivity.

RIP Sep 2016

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