These 24 Once Common Animals Are Now Lost Forever

Throughout history, countless species have, and still do, inhabit our planet. They thrive when in their natural habitats, without any form of human intervention. However, many of these animals that were once common sights have now vanished from our world. The reasons for their extinction vary, but in most cases, humans were to blame. Even some who were placed under the protection of natural reserves and armed guards could not withstand the impact we had on their lives in the past. These are their stories.

Pinta Island Tortoise

The Galápagos Islands are (or were) a tortoise sanctuary. Between 14 and 15 subspecies lived on the islands, though only 12 are still going strong. The Pinta Island Tortoise was one of them but it was hunted to near-extinction by the end of the 19th century. The last male of the species, Lonesome George, was the only survivor until 2012 when he died. Breeding attempts with him were unsuccessful and the species is effectively extinct.

Western Black Rhino

The Western Black Rhino was declared extinct in 2011. This unfortunate animal once covered sub-Saharan Africa’s savannas but poaching brought the species to an end. It first appeared on the planet between 7 and 8 million years ago but could not survive intense human poaching practices. Sadly, other rhino species are also under threat, with armed guards watching over them 24/7 so poachers don’t get them.

Pyrenean Ibex

Just a few hundred years ago, there were tens of thousands of Pyrenean ibex. They were endemic to the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain until 2000 when they went extinct. A clone was brought back in 2003 which sparked hope in reviving the species but it died shortly after due to a lung defect. It is the only animal to be brought back from extinction and the only animal to go extinct twice.

Labrador Duck

The Columbian Exchange was an intercultural event where animals, plants, culture, commodities, technology, human populations, and diseases were transferred from the new world to the old world and vice versa. That is how the Labrador Duck became a North American species of duck. Hunting was not the primary cause of its extinction since its meat spoiled quickly and tasted bad, but its eggs were harvested vigorously, drastically reducing its already low population.

Javan Tiger

The Sunda Islands were home to three tiger species populations during the last glacial period of the region, some 110,000 – 12,000 years ago. However, due to agricultural land expansion and infrastructure, the Javan tiger population was pushed back to remote forested and montane areas. Its extinction was confirmed in 2008 as not a single specimen was seen after the 1990s.

Bluebuck

The Hippotragus genus has three subspecies in it – the Roan Antelope, the Sable Antelope, and the Bluebuck, now extinct. It lived in South Africa until the early 1800s when European settlers arrived and hunted them to extinction. However, their numbers were already low due to habitat changes brought on by the early Holocene sea level changes, and their preference for grasslands, the area of which was reduced to roughly 1,700 square miles.

Mexican Grizzly Bear

While the dwindling grizzly bear population of today mainly lives in the United States, Mexico was once home to its own distinct species of grizzly, promptly called the Mexican Grizzly Bear. The conquistadors of the 16th century kickstarted the decline of this bear as it was considered a pest due to cattle attacks, and it was finalized by illegal hunters by 1964 when it was declared extinct.

Caspian Tiger

The second well-known extinct species of tiger is the Caspian tiger which inhabited much of eastern Turkey, northern Iran, the Caucasus, and all the way to China. It kept surviving in the wild despite human interference and hunting but could not do so for too long and the species was declared extinct in 2003. Their fur was prized and highly sought after, hence the overhunting that brought forth their demise.

Ivory-billed Woodpecker

These birds have a distinct red patch on the back of their head and are easily distinguishable from other woodpecker species. Thanks to heavy logging activity in their native habitats, these birds have become functionally extinct, with highly sporadic and unconfirmed reports that they’re still around in Cuba and the Southern United States. The US Fish and Wildlife Service suggested that the species be declared extinct in 2021 though no finalization on this status has occurred yet.

Passenger Pigeon

The demise of the Passenger Pigeon cannot be overstated as this bird’s population in North America numbered in the billions (by some estimates 5 billion specimens). They were fast (reaching speeds up to 62 mph) and flew great distances during migration. Once the Europeans arrived in North America, the Passenger Pigeon was put on the menu and its meat was highly affordable. Hunting and deforestation ultimately led to the species’ extinction in 1914.

Haast’s Eagle

Haast’s Eagle used to hunt Moa (another extinct bird species) on the South Island of New Zealand. It was the largest eagle known to exist, with a weight of 22-40 pounds. Unfortunately, its size and ferocity were no match for the Maori who hunted both it and the Moa to extinction around 1445. The Maori also burned large swathes of forest, destroying its habitat completely, and further contributing to its disappearance.

Steller’s Sea Cow

It took us just 27 years after our discovery of this animal to hunt them to extinction. The species was first discovered by Georg Wilhelm Steller in 1741 when he and the other members of the Great Northern Expedition shipwrecked on Bering Island. At the time, Steller’s Sea Cow inhabited only the marine area around the Commander Islands in the Bering Sea, a habitat that shrunk due to changing glacial cycles.

Quagga

The Quagga has a funny scientific name – Equus quagga quagga – but that’s about the only thing funny about it. This horse-zebra-looking hybrid was a subspecies of the plains zebra and it lived in South Africa. Quaggas gathered in herds numbering between 30 and 50 individuals. The last captive specimen died in 1883 and today, only one photograph of a living quagga exists, as do 23 conserved skins of the animal.

Great Auk

This flightless bird stood no chance against human ‘intervention’, with thousands of specimens being killed for their skins and eggs. The Great Auk was the only modern species in the Pinguinus genus and it was technically the first discovered ‘penguin’. Other penguin species are called penguins because of their resemblance to the Great Auk. Some breeding attempts were made in the mid-1800s but in 1844, the last two specimens were killed, thus ending this species’ existence.

Tasmanian Tiger

The Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) used to roam the Australian mainland but was also present on the islands of New Guinea and Tasmania. It is unknown exactly what caused their extinction in Australia and New Guinea as it happened before the arrival of the Europeans. The 5,000-strong population that remained in the wild in Tasmania was designated as a pest, ultimately dying off due to hunting. The last specimen died in 1936 at Hobart Zoo, Tasmania.

Falkland Islands Wolf

This small wolf species was the only native land mammal of the Falklands Islands and is the only known canid to have gone extinct in modern times (1876). Its closest living relative is the maned wolf. Charles Darwin studied this animal and noted in his studies that due to hunting and the shrinking of its habitat, the species would go extinct, comparing its demise to that of the Dodo.

Moa

Alongside Haast’s Eagle, the Moa went extinct in or around 1445. It was originally speculated that the extinction process lasted for centuries but carbon dating has shown that after people discovered the bird, it took them roughly 100 years to kill the last remaining specimen. The Moa is, with the Dodo, a ‘prime’ candidate for possible cloning and de-extinction, though no efforts have been made to date.

Caribbean Monk Seal

The last confirmed sighting of this marine animal was in 1952, off the eastern coast of Nicaragua. The species was officially declared extinct in 2008 after US authorities spent 5 years intensely searching for a living specimen of the Caribbean Monk Seal but all efforts were fruitless. It survived being hunted by tiger sharks and great whites, but not humans who hunted them for their oil and meat.

Dodo

The dodo bird was effectively revitalized by the Ice Age movies. While it was presented as goofy and incapable, the dodo was a crafty bird, using gizzard stones to help it digest food. At one point, people considered the dodo to be a myth since no one was paying attention to its status in the wild. However, 1662 marked the last year the dodo was sighted, after dozens of years of intense hunting and habitat loss.

Atlas Bear

Africa’s very own and only brown bear species, the Atlas Bear inhabited the Atlas mountains and the surrounding regions, from Morocco to Libya. It was a large animal, measuring roughly 9 feet long and weighing up to 1,000 pounds. Once modern firearms reached northern African countries, its fate was essentially sealed. The Atlas Bear went extinct in the late 19th century.

Aurochs

Modern domestic cattle probably wouldn’t exist in the form it does were it not for the aurochs. This large cattle species had extremely long horns (up to 31 inches in length) and has been depicted in hundreds of ancient cave paintings, petroglyphs, and figurines. However, instead of domesticating the animal, humans at the time decided hunting was the best option, so they hunted it until they hunted the last one in the 17th century.

Po’ouli

Po’ouli, or ‘Black Head’ in English, was a bird native to the Maui island of Hawaii. In 2004, only two specimens remained and scientists were unsuccessful in trying to get them to mate. The female was brought to where the male was but she flew back to her territory. Another attempt was made at a later date but ultimately, nothing worked. It was declared extinct in 2019.

Christmas Island Pipistrelle

Bats have endured for millennia on their own but more than 10 species have gone extinct since they were first discovered. One such species is the Christmas Island Pipistrelle which lived exclusively on Christmas Island. This bat was a fairly common sight on the island until 1990, after which the island’s bat population dramatically dwindled and eventually disappeared, with the last sighting being in August 2009.

Baiji

The Baiji is one of many freshwater dolphin species, native to the Yangtze river in China. It also has the unenviable title of the first dolphin species to be driven to extinction by humans. It’s currently listed as critically endangered/possibly extinct as there have been no sightings of the animal in the last 40 years. Industrialization and the heavy use of the Yangtze for hydroelectricity, fishing, and transportation are the main culprits behind its extinction.

19 Most Powerful Animals on Earth

19 Most Powerful Animals on Earth