Introduction

In recent times I have been fascinated with the growing amount of plants and animals that are either endangered or completely extinct. And I have made several posts concerning this topic. Some of the major reasons behind some species going extinct are because of climate change, habitat destruction, and hunting. And it's no secret that man is heavily involved in driving species into extinction, for one economic reason or the other.

Just to reiterate, the loss of a given species has a domino effect, as other species depending on them for one reason or the other will face extinction too. Scientists evaluate that if the vast majority of the 12,200 plants and animals currently listed as endangered or threaten worldwide should disappear, another set of 6,300 species could be lost as well. In this post, we will be looking at some animal species that have gone into extinction in the last two decades.

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The Pinta Tortoise- officially Extinct in 2012

Scientific classification

^{Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Reptilia Order:Testudines Suborder:Cryptodira Family:Testudinidae Genus:Chelonoidiso, Species: abingdonii
Scientific name:Chelonoidis abingdonii}

The pinta tortoise is a species of Galapagos tortoise and has the scientific name Chelonoidis abingdonii which was first identified by Albert Gunther. This species has gone on extinction due to excessive hunting by humans in the 19th century. This is a sad story about Lonesome George ( this was the name given to the last member of this subspecies of tortoise. Lonesome George was a male tortoise that was alone for a long time because we humans obviously killed its family members and made it live a lonely and sad life with nothing to connect or communicate with.

Prior to the discovery of lonesome George, it’s species was feared to have gone extinct because of the outrageous hunting events and killing of the pinta island tortoise by human because it was valued as a rich source of food. This is bizarre for a species that was thought to be endangered. I’d like to believe these humans were ignorant at as that time. Well,I’ll try not to totally crucify humans on this because when they got to realize that this species of tortoise is functionally extinct. To put in efforts to conserve the last alive pure breed pinta island tortoise by providing it with protection from competitors, goats etc. While George was alive they had tried to find female mates for him but it all turned out to be a failure because the eggs couldn’t hatch because of the differences in the species.

George died on June 24th, 2012 causing the pinta island tortoise species to be classified as extinct in the IUCN list. The pinta tortoise species was a very interesting with special characteristics like surviving without food and water for 6 months. It is an herbivore and loved to feed on leaves and grasses a lot which made humans made the pinta island free of goats (which was a major competition in their consumption of food) in an effort to conserve these species of tortoise. This species is believed to be possibly alive and living on the isabela island but there are not facts backing this claim.

West African Black Rhinoceros- officially Extinct in 2011

Scientific classification

^{Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Perissodactyla
Family:Rhinocerotidae
Genus:Diceros
Species: bicornis
Scientific name : Diceros bicornis}

The West African Black Rhinoceros with Scientific name Diceros bicornis was widespread and native to different countries in the southeastern part of Africa. It was named by Ludwig Zukowsky and was heavily hunted by humans in the early 20th century. Superstitious beliefs sent this species of animals out of the world for good and it’s sad which leaves me with a question- did these animal do wrong to have distinctive horns ? Well, because it’s horn was the main reason why humans hunted it. This horns was quite expensive and humans used this opportunity to make a fortune at the expense of this animal’s life quite sad isn’t it ?. It’s horn, I would say, was like a saving device to native doctors who produce traditional medicine in China as they believed that it could cure unique illnesses and could also reveal poison. People believed that the horn could cure cancer-really hilarious.(This claim isn’t factual because it has not scientific backup).

The west African Black rhinoceros used to weigh about 3000 pounds and was shortsighted like most rhinoceros. This poor creatures was driven off the surface of the earth due to man’s selfish nature and useless beliefs that did not and still does not have scientific backup. These beliefs made the horns of the West African Black rhinoceros to be so costly which increased hunting, reduced population and made it to be very scarcity. You know money owes its value because of its distinctive characteristics of being scarce, this was the same thing that happened to the west African Black rhinoceros. This unnecessary poaching made its population to reduce to as low as 10 individuals in the year 2000 and further reduced to 5 in 2001.

The horns of this animal was very expensive and was measured and sold in kilograms. In areas, where it was highly demanded the horns worth in a certain kg was up to $100,000 which made rich people buy ceremonial sword handles, which they used to portray wealth at the expense of this animal’s existence. This is a really annoying thing to do and doesn’t make any sense to me. I am literally pained as I write this article.

Formosan Clouded Leopard - officially extinct in 2013

Scientific Classification

^{Kingdom : Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Carnivora
Suborder:Feliformia
Family:Felidae
Genus:Neofelis
Species:Nebulosa
Scientific Name : Neofelis nebulosa brachyura}

The formosan clouded leopard with scientific name Neofelis nebulosa was identified by swinhoe in 1862. The formosan clouded leopard is now extinct due to the destruction of its habitat and also hunting for its skin by humans, but majorly extinct because of habitat destruction. It used to live in Taiwan and was the said to the largest carnivores in the Taiwan, second to the formosan Black Bear. The destruction of this habitat was as a result of felling of trees and cutting of woods in its habitat for construction. This was done in a very outrageous manner and these animals couldn’t hold it in, the only option they had was to leave their habitat and they were believed to have left for jade and tawu mountain. I believe they didn’t leave but were hunted and killed by humans because after this period they claimed these leopards left their original habitat, a couple thousands of cameras had been set in these mountains and not one formosan clouded leopard has been spotted since then.

Alaotra grebe- Officially Extinct in 2010

Scientific Classification

^{Kingdom:Animalia Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Podicipedi
formes Family:Podicipedidae ,Genus:Tachybaptus
Species:T. rufolavatus}

The Alaotra grebe with Scientific name Tachybaptus rufolavatus is grebe that is not widely distributively as they were only found in Madagascar. This grebe grew to about 9.8 inches and it’s extinction was as a result of the destruction of its habitat by humans. All the animals I have written about prior to this animal in this article all went extinct in the mid 19th century to the early 20th century and the Alaotra grebe is not an exception. Not much information is gotten from these grebe, as a matter of fact there exist only one picture of it in the wild. Another thing that led to its extinction apart from habitat destruction and hunting, they also had predators (blotched snakehead) and also the its pure species was rapid reduced because of excessive hybridization of these species by other aves.

Japanese River Otter - Officially Extinct in 2012

Scientific Classification

^{Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Carnivora
Family:Mustelidae Genus:Lutra
Species:L. lutra
Subspecies:L. l. whiteleyi}

The Japanese River Otter with trinomial name-Lutra lutra whiteleyi was described by Gray in 1867. This Japanese River Otter from the name you could obviously tell that it’s native to japan and it used to number up to and more than thousands until humans started hunting it for war and medicinal purposes. It is quite sad that we humans are the main reason why these creatures are wiped out of the earth permanently. Quite sad!

The Japanese River Otter grew up to a length of 31.5 inches and a tail length of 19.5 inches. They were loners and loved to forage when it is dark. The female otter had a very motherly nature, as they used to take very good of their young ones who are born blind and remain blind for a period of one month.

Humans also destroyed their habitats and caused them to starve as they was no readily available food, also forced them to hunt in very dangerous environments. The 20th century was quite a century of eradicating species of precious animals out of the surface of the earth for ever for man’s selfish needs. The waters where these animals usually got food from became polluted by man’s activities and destruction of its habitat continued until it became extinct.

Malagasy Hippopotamus- officially Extinct in 2012

Scientific classification

^{Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia Order:Artiodactyla
Family:Hippopo
tamidae
Genus:multiple}

They are three different species of the Malagasy Hippopotamus which are all extinct. Not much is known about these species of animals, in fact they were studied using their fossils. This species include H.lemerlei, C. madagascariensis and H. laloumena. The main cause of the declination and finally extinction is vague but scientists say that the evidence derived from studying the fossils showed that humans used to slaughter them, which eventually made them an extinct species.

Eastern Cougar -Officially Extinct in 2018

Scientific classification

^{Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Carnivora
Suborder:Feliformia Family:Felidae
Genus:Puma
Species:P. concolor
Subspecies: P. c. couguar}

The eastern cougar with trinomial name -Puma concolor couguar is a member of the family felidae and is assumed to be extinct as the last time an eastern cougar was spotted was in the 1930’s. They were distributed in northeastern North America where they were first locally extinct before they were confirmed to be extinct globally. Just like the other extinct species of animals, the excessive poaching of the eastern cougar also happened in the 19th century and they were hunted for the fur, man also killed Judy like the wild dogs for fear of killing their livestock.

Pyrenean Ibex- Officially Extinct in 2000

Scientific classification

^{Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Artiodactyla Family:Bovidae Subfamily:Caprinae Genus:CapraSpecies:C. pyrenaica
Subspecies:C. p. pyrenaic}

The Pyrenean Ibex with trinomial name- Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica was described by schniz in 1838. The Pyrenean Ibex was widely distributed in the Pyrenees region until humans started hunting in the late 19th and early 20th century until its population was rapidly reduced. I sincerely do not understand why we would kill off a species of animal and then try to bring it back to existence again. Why did we kill them off in the first place? Do we want to kill it ? resurrect it and then kill it again? -This must be a quite interesting and thrilling thing to do to a helpless species of animals who just want to live and breed in peace.

The male Pyrenean Ibex were quite different from the female Pyrenean Ibex because of their fur colour and horn size. The Pyrenean Ibex in general changes fur colour and fur size during different seasons. They have a duller colour of their original colour when it’s winter and also grow more fur during the winter and brighter colour during the summer with less fur. Apart from hunting and killing from humans, the Pyrenean Ibex also had a lot of competitors(ungulates)for food and environment. This led to food scarcity and disease outbreaks.

Scientists have tried different means with an objective or goal to bring the Pyrenean Ibex back to life but all efforts failed. The only live one that was born in 2003, couldn’t make it but died some minutes after it’s birth from lung failure. Just like lonesome George the pinta island turtle, we also had Celia the last living Pyrenean Ibex whose death caused the final extinction of its species.

Prior to the death of Celia, scientist removed tissues from her ears and body parts in order to clone these species and bring them back to life but like I said, it didn’t turn out to be a success because even if she was clone where would they have gotten a male mate for the reproduction of pure Pyrenean Ibex.

Spotted Green Pigeon- Officially Extinct in 2008

Scientific classification

^{Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Columbi
formes Family:Columbidae
Genus:Caloenas
Species:C. maculata}

The spotted green pigeon with Scientific name-Caloenas maculata was named by Gmelin in 1789. Not much information was provided and recorded for this bird because the birds were already at the verge of extinction when humans invaded their habitat. Excessive hunting by other animals must be been the reason why these species of birds went on extinction or it may have been as a result of climate change.

There exist only one specimen of this bird species in the world museum in Liverpool. Gmelin named these bird according to the information he got from John Latham’s description in 1783. The John Latham’s description of the spotted green pigeon has been the same since time and other description of these species of birds by other other had simply been a modification of his original description.

^{If you noticed, this is the first animal that’s had gone on extinction with little or no cause of its extinction from humans in this article.}

Christmas Island pipistrelle - Officially Extinct in 2016

Scientific Classification

Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Chiroptera
Family:Vespertilionidae
Genus:Pipistrellus
Species:P. murrayi

The Christmas Island pipistrelle with Scientific name- Pipistrellus murrayi was described and named by Andrews in 1900. It was endemic to Christmas Island. I couldn’t get a free picture of the Christmas Island pipistrelle, ill briefly describe it but you can also surf the web to check out pictures of it. It is actually a bat and a very small one at that. It grew up to 1.6inches long and weighed about 4.5 grams. I don’t really like bats but I’m not happy about the extinction of these species of bats either. They had brown furs and black hands and legs.

The population of this animal soon reduced drastically in the 1990’s but the exact cause of this declination in population was not known or specified. Scientist say that it could have been a disease outbreak, insecticide poisoning, poaching and hunting of these species of bats by predators. The last time one of these species of bats was seen was in the wild in 2009 (This was the last time it’s voice was heard and it was seen) but officially declared extinct in 2016.

After reviewing the population statistics of the Christmas Island pipistrelle, the government and scientist worried about their existence and tried to go into the wild to make some captive but it was a failure, which led to their total extinction from the surface of the earth.

Final thoughts

The 19th and 20th century was quite a century where humans hunted animals excessively not minding their population statistics. They didn’t even care to know the animals that should be conserved and not hunted, which is quite saddening because we literally wiped out sub-species and species of unique animals off the earth, out of ignorance in a bid to satisfy our undying and selfish needs.

Many conservation agencies have been putting in a lot of effort to create awareness of endangered species, vulnerable species, extinct species of animals in the wild etc but they can’t keep doing this own their own as it may seem quite impossible to spread the news to the whole world but a bit easier if we take it upon ourselves to spread the news in our local communities and create policies that’d help conserve specific species of animals that are vulnerable to extinction.

Change begins with us! Let’s help conserve these helpless animals in our own little way to avoid unnecessary extinction caused by “us” humans.

References

^{Pinta tortoise |West African Black Rhinoceros | Formosan clouded leopard |Alaotra Grebe | Japanese River Otter | Malagasy Hippopotamus |Eastern Cougar | Pyrenean Ibex | Spotted green pigeon | Christmas Island pipistrelle}

Image Sources

^{All images used here are from free sources and are all liable for commercial use, licensed under the Creative Commons}