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These iconic animals were driven to extinction within the past few centuries due to human activities, with each representing a unique loss to biodiversity and serving as a stark reminder of humanity's impact on the natural world.
The dodo, a flightless bird endemic to Mauritius, was discovered by Dutch sailors in 1598 and became extinct by 1662, just 64 years later, primarily due to human activities and introduced predators.
Years after its extinction, many scientists doubted its existence, believing it to be too strange to be real, until the discovery of subfossil remains in the 1860s confirmed its former existence and unique anatomy.
The passenger pigeon went from being one of the most abundant birds in North America, with flocks numbering in the billions, to extinction in just a few decades due to overhunting and habitat loss.
The last passenger pigeon, named Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914, marking the end of a species that once darkened skies.
The thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, went from being widespread across Australia to extinction in just a few thousand years, with the last known individual dying in captivity in 1936.
However, there have been reported sightings of thylacines well into the late 20th century, leading some researchers to suggest the species may have survived in the wild until as recently as the early 2000s.
The great auk went from being widespread across the North Atlantic to extinction in just a few hundred years, with the last confirmed pair killed in 1844 for a collector.
This flightless bird was hunted so intensively that sailors would sometimes use their bodies as fuel to boil water for cooking other great auks.
The wooly mammoth went extinct around 4,000 years ago, with the last population surviving on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until that time.
Wooly mammoth DNA has been so well-preserved in permafrost that scientists have successfully inserted mammoth genes into elephant cells, raising the possibility of potentially "resurrecting" the species through genetic engineering.
Steller's sea cow went from being widespread across the North Pacific to extinction in just 27 years after its discovery by Europeans in 1741, with the last known individual killed in 1768.
Sailors would sometimes use the sea cow's own blubber as fuel to render more blubber from other sea cows they had killed.
The quagga went extinct in 1883 when the last specimen died in captivity at the Amsterdam Zoo.
It is the only extinct animal whose DNA has been fully extracted, sequenced, and studied, which allowed scientists to confirm that it was a subspecies of the plains zebra.
Additionally, there is a project called the "Quagga Project" that aims to recreate the appearance of the quagga through selective breeding of current zebras.
The Caribbean monk seal went extinct in 1952, when it was last confirmed sighted at Serranilla Bank.
Its extinction was extremely rapid—it went from being very abundant to extinct in just over 400 years since its discovery by Columbus in 1494, mainly due to excessive hunting for its oil and meat.
It was a very docile and curious species towards humans, which greatly facilitated its hunting and accelerated its extinction.
The golden toad went extinct in 1989, when the last known specimen was seen in Costa Rica's Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve.
It went from being abundant to extinct extremely rapidly—it was only discovered in 1966 and was extinct just 23 years later. Its extinction remains poorly understood, with various hypotheses including climate change, fungal disease, and pollution.
The Pyrenean ibex went extinct in 2000 when the last individual, a female named Celia, died after being crushed by a fallen tree.
It became the first species to be "de-extinct" in 2003 when scientists successfully cloned a Pyrenean ibex, though the clone only survived for a few minutes after birth due to lung defects.
This makes the Pyrenean ibex the only animal to have gone extinct twice—once naturally and once after being cloned.
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