Extinct animals around the globe

Tasmanian wolf
Thylacine, Thylacinus cynocephalus

The Tasmanian Wolf is not a wolf, but a carnivorous marsupial and a relative of wombats and kangaroos. It even has a pouch. Tasmanian officials promoting ranching paid bounties to hunters. Believed to be extinct for well over half a century, unconfirmed reported sightings persist.

Quagga
Equus burchelli quagga

The quaggas were a subspecies of the Plains Zebra that became extinct in the late 1800s. They were once believed to be their own species, but recent DNA analysis has shown that quaggas were actually Plains Zebras. There are six known subspecies of the Plains Zebra. Quaggas differed from other Plains Zebras in that their stripes faded in to a solid brown color at the midsection. They populated South Africa's Cape Province.



Steller’s Sea Cow

Steller's Sea Cow was discovered in the Aleutian Islands by George Steller while exploring with Vitus Bering in 1741. They grew as large as 35 feet long and weighed up to three-and-a-half tons. Sailors ate their meat and used their leather. They were easily killed and vanished from their only home within 30 years after Steller's discovery.



DODO
Roland Savery

In 1505, Portuguese explorers discovered the island of Mauritius and the 50 lb flightless Dodos which supplemented their food stores. Imported pigs, monkeys and rats fed on the Dodo's eggs in their ground nests. The last Dodo was killed in 1681.

The Golden Toad
Incilius periglenes

The Golden Toad is sometimes referred to as the Monteverde Toad or the Orange Toad. It was only known to exist on a high altitude ridge in Monteverde, Costa Rica. It last bred in normal numbers in 1987, and its breeding sites were well known." Its demise is attributed to a combination of factors, including airborne pollution and, due to its restricted range, global warming. The golden toad is extinct by 2007.

The Baiji Dolphin
Lipotes vexillifer

An expedition organized by The Baiji Foundation in late 2006 sought evidence that Baiji white dolphins still existed in their only habitat, the Yangtze river in China. The Foundation published a report on the expedition and declared the species functionally extinct in 2006. What does functionally extinct mean? It means too few potential breeding pairs remain to ensure that the species will survive.