🔴 ExtinctUpon a visit to the Field Museum in Chicago with a curator, this was the first bird Schlossman saw. He said: ‘This is it, this species is gone ... it doesn’t exist in the wild. The only place you can see this bird is in a museum.’ He started this book because of it. The huge appetite for lumber to rebuild after the American civil war led to the destruction of the ivory-billed woodpecker’s habitat and its primary food source, beetle larvae. Demand from collectors increased as it became rarer, speeding its elimination. The bird was last seen in 1944
🔴 ExtinctOn 14 September 1914, the last passenger pigeon, named Martha, died in a cage at the Cincinnati zoo. It is one of the few species for which we know the exact date of extinction and one of the first whose extinction is credited to human behaviour
🔴 ExtinctThe Carolina parakeet was the only indigenous parrot in North America. As its forest habitat was cleared in the 1800s, and as crops were planted in its range in the eastern United States, it began to feed on cultivated fruit, adding to its traditional diet of wild fruits and the seeds of plants. Farmers exterminated the birds in fields and orchards because they saw them as agricultural pests. They were also hunted for their colourful feathers, used to adorn women’s hats. The last sightings made in the early 1900s
🟣 EndangeredThe IUCN estimates there are about 10,000 red pandas left in the wild, representing a decline of approximately 50% in the past 20 years
🟠 Critically endangeredThe Chinese and Sunda pangolin species have suffered more than any others due to their location in the world. Their meat and blood are prized as a delicacy and their scales are used in traditional medicines. A live pangolin can be sold on the black market for several hundred dollars, a price that continues to rise. It is estimated that 1 million pangolins have been trafficked in the past decade – and nearly 200,000 were trafficked in 2019 for their scales alone –resulting in an 80% decline in their numbers
🔴 ExtinctThe last known remaining thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, died in captivity in 1936. By the time European colonizers arrived in Australia, the dog-like marsupial could only be found on the island of Tasmania, and it began attacking the settlers’ sheep. A bounty scheme was soon in place, resulting in the eradication of thousands of them: by the 1920s wild thylacine were extremely rare
🟠 Critically endangeredThe Chinese alligator is one of the most endangered species of crocodilians. Once occurring widely throughout the lower Yangtze River system, today its population is severely fragmented and almost eradicated
🔴 ExtinctThere are 15 species of giant tortoises on the Galapagos Islands, three of which are officially declared extinct. Another, the Fernandina giant tortoise, was rediscovered in February 2019. Darwin found no live tortoises on Floreana (known as Charles Island at the time) but he did find carapaces and noted at the time that the species was the primary food source for the islanders. It is thought the tortoise was hunted to extinction by 1850 and no live individuals have been observed there since
🔴 ExtinctThe Xerces blue was last observed in the wild in 1941. The species was first described in 1852 and was of great interest to butterfly experts because individuals exhibited incredible variation in their wing patterns. The small, periwinkle-blue butterfly was native to the coastal sand dunes of San Francisco before being driven to extinction by habitat loss due to urbanisation. It was the first North American butterfly to become extinct as the result of human action.
🟠 Critically endangeredThe American burying beetle’s range once extended over 35 states in the US and into southern Canada, yet by the 1920s it had all but disappeared – it is now only found in six states and in the Canadian province of Ontario. Scientists think its decline is linked to several factors: the extinction of the passenger pigeon (which was perfect-size food for the beetle), the widespread use of insecticides, an increase in mammal scavengers, and light pollution, which disrupts their circadian rhythm
🔵 VulnerableBlue coral is one of only two species in the genus Heliopora. It produces a massive internal skeleton, populated with individual polyps. It is most commonly found in the shallow waters of the Indo-western Pacific and is named after its distinctive bright blue skeleton. A second species of blue coral, H hiberniana, was formally named in 2018 and remarkably, it has a white skeleton. It is no secret that coral reefs are under threat, primarily from human action, with an estimated 20% already destroyed
🟠 Critically endangered or 🔴 extinctOf the 41 species of Oʻahu tree snails that are endemic to the third largest Hawaiian island, all are now believed to be extinct or near extinction. These tree-dwelling snails were once found in forests at altitudes above 1,600ft (480m). They are nocturnal and fed on fungus that grows on the leaves of some native Hawaiian plants
🔴 ExtinctA ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae, native to Mexico. It was listed as extinct in 1986 – along with E eigenmanni and E bustamantei – most likely due to degradation of its habitat as a result of urbanisation. This specimen from the Field Museum is the only one in existence. It was collected in 1901 outside of Mexico City by Dr Seth Meek, one of the museum’s first fish curators
🔴ExtinctThe yellow blossom pearly mussel was first described in 1857 and the last known specimen was collected in 1967. The species originally inhabited the once clean, shallow, and rapid streams of the Tennessee River basin and the Cumberland River, primarily in the states of Tennessee and Kentucky. Extinction resulted from the destruction of its habitat through damming, recreation, and hydroelectric power production
