Scientists are reporting that we are on our way to the biggest mass extinction since the
dinosaurs.
From the western black rhinoceros to the tasmanian tiger, here are 10 animals people forced into
extinction.
10.
Mosquitoes
Obviously mosquitos aren't extinct... yet. If there’s one species that annoys the heck out of everyone it’s the mosquito, right?
They not only give us irritating bites and buzz in your ear, but they can also transmit
diseases like malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, and much more.
In fact mosquitoes are responsible for killing almost 1 million people a year…this is no
joke.
And this is half the number that used to die in the year 2000, according to the WHO.
There are over 3500 species of mosquito but only 6% of species draw blood from humans
and about half of them are infected with parasites that can hurt us.
But just that small number has a HUGE impact.
While they are clearly not extinct, if it is up to us they might be on their way.
So the question is, would it be wrong to kill all the mosquitoes??
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has dedicated some of its funding to doing just
that.
Mosquitos are bred in a lab and then implanted with a gene that makes them sterile and/or
makes their offspring not develop properly.
The next generation then dies before they can reproduce and carry the disease themselves.
This is part of a process called a ‘gene drive’ which is made possible via a gene
editing system called Crispr, developed in the late ‘80s.
Scientists at Oxford University and the biotech firm Oxitec will then send out these sterile
specimens to mingle with the wild population.
The BBC reported that 3 million of these modified mosquitoes were released in the Cayman Islands
in 2009 and 2010.
Oxitec reported a 96% reduction in mosquitoes.
So is this a good idea?
What do you think?
Entomologists and biologists everywhere are kind of freaking out because we don’t know
all of the side effects that could occur if mosquitoes are eradicated.
They are important pollinators and could have a huge effect on birds, bats, fish, frogs
and their demise could cause irreparable damage to the food chain.
We have no idea!
9.
Passenger Pigeon
The passenger pigeon has been extinct since 1914 but the passenger pigeon made a big impact
on history.
They used to be found in the billions in North America and were noted for their red chests
and tails which were shaped like wedges.
Everything was going great until one thing happened… the invention of the telegraph
in the mid 1800s.
Since we didn’t need them to send messages anymore, word spread like wildfire and people
hunted them to extinction in a matter of decades.
The passenger pigeon became the icon of extinction and the wholesale slaughter of these birds
represented the dark side of humans as powerful predators.
Things got so bad the American government passed something called the Lacey Act in 1900.
This was designed to safeguard wildlife against hunters.
Unfortunately by that point the poor passenger pigeon had been blasted to smithereens and
only one remained at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Her name was Martha and sadly she passed away in 1914.
However, now a team of scientists are launching the Great Passenger Pigeon Comeback trying
to bring the species back from extinction through genetic engineering and cloning.
Do you really want more pigeons?
And now for number 8, but first: what do you think about bringing animals back from extinction?
Let us know in the comments below!!
And if you are new here, be sure to subscribe before you leave!!
8.
Western Black Rhinoceros
This subspecies of the black rhino was officially declared extinct in 2011.
The Western black rhinoceros used to be a stunning feature of African wildlife.
Sadly like many of its kind it was killed by poachers for its horn, which some believed
had medicinal properties.
But others just like having the horn on display for status purposes.
You know, something to talk about with your friends.
The last confirmed sighting of a Western black rhino was back in 2003.
In fact the animal was thought to be dead as a dodo in 2006 but organizations always
wait a few years after just in case they’re mistaken.
Unfortunately in the case of the Western black rhino they were proved correct.
At the time the media didn’t take much of an interest.
They were so out of touch they reported the rhino’s extinction 2 years after it was
mentioned!
The big problem is that many of the organizations that are there to help critically endangered
species just do not have enough funding for all of them to keep them alive and get the
word out that these creatures are almost gone.
We have to pay more attention!!
7.
The Dodo Bird
Everyone’s heard of the dodo right?
It even made an appearance in ‘Alice In Wonderland’…?
Well in case you haven’t, it was a goofy-looking thing, it couldn’t fly and was apparently
extremely delicious.
It became extinct when sailors landed on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean in
the late 16th century.
The hungry Dutchmen kept on eating the dodo until there was nothing left!
That’s the popular version of history anyway… the reality is very different!
Recent studies have suggested humans have been pretty unfair to the dodo, which has
been dead for approx.
350 years.
Archaeologists found waste pits with bones leftover from meals that definitely aren’t
dodo bones.
And the dense rainforest environment would’ve made it easy for dodos to hide from hunters
anyway so they weren’t on the menu much, as far as I can see.
So were they hunted to extinction?
Unlikely.
And whatever you do, don’t call them fat birds!
It’s just rude and the fact is they were pretty lean, but the dead specimens would
often be overstuffed.
More recent official studies of the bird believe that instead of being clubbed to death by
sailors, they were probably made extinct by rats and other critters the sailors accidentally
brought over with them.
And nobody really cared at the time.
The last confirmed sightings were from the 1660’s.
Stuffed examples of dodos were put in museums, but this was before 1796 when the scientific
community became aware that extinction was a REAL thing.
Because no one figured that animals could actually disappear, a lot of the specimens
were thrown out.
So a lot of it had to do with our own carelessness.
6.
Pyrenean Ibex
In this case, we have a d-extinction?
Thanks to science, extinction can be reversed and an interesting example of this was the
Pyrenean Ibex, a wild goat that also has the Spanish title ‘bucardo’.
These hardy little guys used to roam the Iberian Peninsula.
Their distinctive horns were thick and curved on the males and shorter and thin on the females.
They were very hardy and could adapt quickly to changing climates.
That was until poachers got their hands on them of course!
That and other factors led to the Pyrenean Ibex dying out.
The last of its kind was named Celia who died in 2000.
But scientists managed to get skin cells from Celia and grew a clone from her in 2009.
So now she has become part of a ground-breaking de-extinction experiment!
I’m sorry to say the clone only lasted 7 mins before perishing from lung defects.
But scientists are willing to try again.
5.
La Pinta Island tortoise
La Pinta Island is part of the legendary Galapagos Islands in Ecuador.
These islands were immortalized by Charles Darwin when he used the wildlife there as
inspiration for the theory of evolution we still rely on today.
Also known as ‘Abingdon Island’, La Pinta played host to a giant species of tortoise.
They were tough creatures that had the ability to survive regardless of whether there was
food or water available!
When humans came to the Galapagos however it spelled the end for the La Pinta tortoise.
Whereas Darwin saw them as beautiful examples of nature, to whalers and other explorers
they were more like slow-moving steaks!
The population were all eaten up but there’s a happy ending of sorts to the story.
For starters just when we thought this mighty species had died out, the last living La Pinta
tortoise was found in 1971.
Dubbed “Lonesome George”, he lived until 2012 before he passed away.
That looked like the end for the La Pintas.
But in 2010 an experiment was conducted where 39 other tortoises were introduced to the
island to see how they got on.
And while that was going on more tortoises were discovered on nearby Isabela Island.
These tortoises shared DNA with their La Pinta ancestors.
So the species may have found a way to survive... about time we had some good news in this video,
right?
4.
Quagga
Until the late 1800s quaggas were a common sight in South Africa.
A quagga was essentially a zebra only with a brown bottom half.
It was a subspecies of the plains zebra and fell prey to hunters, who killed so many they
wiped them off the map.
For over a hundred years Mankind never saw a live quagga but then The Quagga Project
started.
The late German natural historian Reinhold Rau helped found this project, which wanted
to bring quaggas back from extinction.
But how?
The answer lay in the genes of other zebras.
Experts believed zebras carried the quagga’s characteristic gene and that it would only
be a matter of breeding zebras selectively to bring it out.
They worked at this over 4 generations of zebras and sure enough recreated the look
of the quagga!
They even named them “Rau quaggas” in Reinhold’s honour.
So that means quaggas are no longer extinct, right…?
Actually that’s pretty debatable.
Critics of the project think all they did was recolour a zebra, not revive the quagga
species.
Well you know, can’t make everyone happy...
3.
Tasmanian Tiger
This Tasmanian Tiger isn’t exactly a tiger, it just got called that because of its stripes.
The correct name was ‘thylacine’ and it was actually a large marsupial like a kangaroo.
It also lived on the Australian mainland as well as Tasmania.
Originally it was thought they became extinct on the mainland due to attacks by dingoes,and
Aboriginal hunters.
However, it turns out that the Tasmanian Tigers fared much better, making it to 1936 before
they too disappeared.
They were fine until settlers rocked up on the island and began blasting them to kingdom
come.
There were even bounties to make sure they were eradicated from the island.
Well apparently they did a good job.
What did the tigers ever do to them, huh…?
2.
Steller’s Sea Cow
If any species had it rough it was the Steller’s sea cow.
This also includes manatees.
Named after George W. Steller, the naturalist who discovered them in 1741, they were part
of the ecosystem on the Komander Islands in the Bering Sea.
They grew to around 9 or 10 m (around 30 ft) and weren’t known for being dainty!
A Steller’s sea cow could weigh approx.
9979 kg (22,000 lbs) and had small flippers that were used for gaining traction on things
like rocks.
What did a sea cow like to eat?
Well they didn’t have any teeth so seaweed was typically the order of the day.
Because they couldn’t submerge themselves they became a target for seal hunters looking
for an easy substitute.
Shockingly this meant the whole population was made extinct by 1768.
That’s less than 3 decades… crazy, right?
1.
Great Auk
The big name when it comes to extinct species is probably the Great Auk.
It’s been referred to as the “original penguin” and you can see why.
It’s black and white, short and it can’t fly.
Look at that huge beak too.
This little bird wouldn’t look out of place in ‘Happy Feet’.
Things certainly weren’t happy for the Great Auk once sailors got ‘em in their sights.
They used to be pretty plentiful over the centuries but once humankind began taking
to the seas they were targeted for various reasons.
Not only did they taste good but their feathers were in high demand and they were a great
source of fat and oil.
As they were driven to extinction all kinds of horror stories came out.
Sailors believed that they were witches and would throw stones at them.
The last remaining Auks were hunted down in Iceland and if that wasn’t awful enough
there was an egg that one of the hunters trod on by accident.
That was it for one of the most interesting species on Earth.
Pretty terrible note to end on, huh…?
Thanks for watching!
Are there any extinct species you would like to mention?
Let us know in the comments.
Thanks for watching and see you soon!