ANIMALS THAT HAVE GONE INTO EXTINCT (YOU MIGHT BE SHOCKED)

Dinosaurs and dragons are known to be extinct. At least everybody knows this. Probably because they are dangerous and nobody prays to meet them or the fact that a dragon can spit fire made its extinction popular.

You will be shocked when you find out there are many more animals that have gone extinct. You might have seen some of them in movies, I'm sure you wondered if those animals exists. Here is a penny for your thought, most of them have existed.

Why and how these animals went into extinction, I'm letting it out today. I was able to handpick five of them. And these five are recent.

Scientists don't wake up in a day and declare an animal extinct. They might have searched all over the world for them for years.

Let's start our list, shall we?

EASTERN COUGAR


_Pixabay

It looks like a lion but, it isn't. I wish I could get more pictures of it. It's bigger than a lion in length. I guess it looks more like a cat.

OK, let's stop comparing.

Eastern cougars lived in Northeastern North America. That's why "Eastern" was added to the name I guess. They struggled to live for more than 100 years after being spotted in 1800. One was spotted and killed in Canada in 1932, another was killed in 1938 and that was the last time any other one was seen.

Thus, they were added to endangered list in 1973 . After so many years of looking for them, they were declared extinct in 2011, although it was unofficial.

Earlier this year, the Eastern cougar has been removed from the endangered list and had been declared extinct.

WESTERN BLACK RHINO


_Pixabay

This isn't the white rhino you see. I believe there's a reason these particular species are called black. Compared to the white rhinos, the western black rhinos have always struggled to survive.

You know what? In 1900, more than one million of this specie existed. Now, guess what? Only 10 were estimated to have lived past 1996. In 2001, the last one was sighted. Then after many years of seeing no black rhinos, it was officially declared extinct in 2011.

Most of this rhinos were killed by poaching. They believed the black rhinos' horn could cure all sort of illnesses. How superstitious.

PYRENEAN IBEX


_Pixabay

I've always imagined if a goat was wild. Little did I know that there once lived a wild one. Pyrenean Ibex are always called bucardo. These animals were hunted down because they hurt and kill domestic animals.

In 1993, the government tried to stop the hunting, but it was too late. Only 10 of them remained then. The last one died on January 6th 2006. It had a name, "Cilia". It was killed by a fallen tree.

They were common in Spain and Portugal. In 2009, a female Ibex was cloned and it only lasted a minute. That was after they have been declared extinct.

THYLACINES


_Wikicommons

They look like a crossbread between a tiger and a dog. One part of their body has a tiger's mark and the shape is that of a dog. But, this animal isn't related to any of them. Instead, it belongs to the masubio family. Yes! Where kangaroos are being classified.

That are also called the Tasmanian tigers. Simply because the last of them were found in Tasmania after being hunted. The last one was captured and kept in a zoo for three years until it died in 1933. They were hunted down because they kills domestic animals. In fact rewards were given to whoever killed them.

There are reports of sightings. But, no one has been found on camera, it's still officially declared extinct.

PASSENGER PIGEON


_{Enno Mayer (1921) in wikicommons}

That's Martha, the last passenger pigeon that ever lived. It died in a zoo in 1914.

These pigeons live in huge numbers in North America. When humans were 500 million on earth, they were estimated to be more than 4 billion. Making them more populated than humans, they hunt in groups, actually they are just threat to farmers because they eat their grains. I guess that's why they were hunted too. These birds were considered wild.

There were no laws as to how many passenger pigeon a farmer could kill. Hence, there was massive slaughtering. When the law came in, it was already to late. Only a few could be found.

Since 1914, there's no sign of a passenger pigeon, and they have been officially declared extinct.

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Most of these animals went extinct due to human actions. We hope none of them goes into extinct again. Although, there are some of them I wouldn't want to see again. I don't mind if few of them goes into extinction too.

I hope you've learnt something new today.

Till next time...

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References
You can check each animal out here.

Eastern cougar

Western Black Rhino

Pyrenean Ibex

Tasmanian tiger

Passenger pigeon