Some animals are on the verge of extinction. The difference between a related group of animals continuing for another generation or becoming just another addition to the history books may be the survival of just a few species.

Some have even gone extinct in the wild and are only around because we had them in captivity. Nevertheless, every animal on this list will be extinct in a few years unless breeding programs become successful or some miracle happens.

10 Vaquita

The vaquita is one animal you have probably never heard of. It is a small porpoise that only lives in the Gulf of California. It presently holds the title of the “rarest marine mammal in the world.” Only 10 are left in the wild, and that number is going down.

The vaquitas are endangered because of the illegal poaching of the totoaba fish, which is also native to the vaquitas’ natural habitat. The totoaba fish is in high demand in China where traditional medicine men claim that it cures several illnesses.

Poachers often use gill nets to catch the totoaba fish. Unfortunately, the vaquitas often get entangled in the illegal nets. The vaquitas are useless to the poachers, who just dump their carcasses back into the water. For the poachers, it is all about the money. The stomach of the totoaba fish sells for $46,000 per kilogram ($20,865 per lb).

For the vaquitas, it could be the difference between survival and extinction. Lots of them get entangled in those nets. In fact, over 20 vaquitas could have become entangled in nets since 2017 when their population was put at 30.

The Mexican government has declared a part of the Gulf of California as a refuge area for vaquitas. However, it does not seem like it will save the animals. Poachers still hunt for totoaba fish within the refuge, and the government seems to be incapable of stopping them.^[1]

9 Northern White Rhino

Until March 2018, only three northern white rhinos were left in the world. Now there are only two. Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, was euthanized at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya in March 2018 after suffering a series of complications caused by old age. Sudan was 45 years old, which is equivalent to 90 in human years.

At their height, northern white rhinos roamed through Uganda, Central African Republic, Sudan, and Chad. However, their population was dramatically reduced by illegal poaching, which reached its height in the 1970s and 1980s. Their population has been in decline ever since. In 2008, the northern white rhino officially went extinct in the wild.

Sudan was survived by his daughter and granddaughter, which are the only two northern white rhinos left. Both females are past childbearing age and are possibly the last of their kind unless some northern white rhinos miraculously turn up somewhere.

Scientists are trying to stop the extinction of the critically endangered rhino by artificially inseminating female southern white rhinos with the sperm of the northern white rhino. This is the first stage of a grand plan to implant the embryo of the northern white rhino into a southern white rhino.

Javan and Sumatran rhinos are two other species of rhinos at the brink of extinction. The Javan rhino has a population of just 67, while the Sumatran rhino has just 100. The southern white rhino is much better off. There are between 19,000 and 21,000 left in the wild.^[2]

8 Fernandina Island Tortoise

The Fernandina Island tortoise (Chelonoidis phantasticus) is native to Fernandina Island, one of the several islands that form the Galapagos Islands. The tortoise was considered extinct until one showed up this year.

Before this discovery, the last time a Fernandina Island tortoise was spotted was in 1906. It disappeared thereafter. In fact, some began to doubt whether it really existed or was just another joke or misidentified species.

This year, a team from Galapagos National Park and the Galapagos Conservancy proved that the Fernandina Island tortoise really existed when they visited the island to find the tortoise. They discovered an adult female that is over 100 years old. Researchers also found tortoise footprints and droppings, indicating that more tortoises could be in the area.

Interestingly, unlike most other animals that are at the brink of extinction due to human action, the Fernandina Island tortoise is at risk because of its habitat. Fernandina Island contains active volcanoes. Lava sometimes flows down the sides of the mountains, killing the tortoises.^[3]

Humans played a part, too. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, Fernandina Island was a fertile hunting ground for passing ships, which often stopped by to hunt tortoises. Over 100,000 tortoises were hunted during that time. Today, feral non-native animals like pigs, dogs, cats, and cattle also prey on the tortoise eggs or compete with the tortoises for food.

The Fernandina Island tortoise is not the only tortoise at risk of extinction. The other nine species of tortoise on the Galapagos Islands are also endangered. A few centuries ago, there were 15 species of tortoise on the islands. Five are already extinct.

7 Amur Leopard

Several species of leopard across the world have been experiencing a declining population over the past decades. They are often killed by poachers and humans who consider them a threat. They have also lost large tracts of their natural habitats to deforestation.

The Amur leopards are the worst hit. Only 60 cats are estimated to be left in the wild, making this subspecies one of the most endangered cats in the world. The majority of the surviving leopards live in the Land of the Leopard National Park, an Amur leopard nature reserve in Russia. The reserve covers 60 percent of the cats’ natural habitat.

While considerably safe from humans, the leopards are at risk from other predators in the forest, including the Amur (Siberian) tiger. Determining the population of the Amur leopard has been difficult because it is one of the world’s most elusive cats. To help with the count, park officials installed motion-sensitive cameras at strategic locations.^[4]

6 Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle

The Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) is native to the Red River of China and parts of Vietnam. This is why it is also called the Red River turtle. Unfortunately, this animal has lost a large part of its habitat to the massive infrastructure development in China. And it continues to lose more, especially as China builds more dams.

Only three Yangtze giant softshell turtles were left in the world as of 2017. A male and female pair are held at Suzhou Zoo, China, while the third lives in Dong Mo Lake in Vietnam. The sex of the third is unknown because the turtles are naturally elusive, making them difficult to spot and observe.

Besides the loss of habitat, the Yangtze giant softshell turtle also suffers a declining population that is caused by poachers killing them for their eggs, meat, and skin. Poaching has actually caused a decline in the population of every other turtle species across the world.^[5]

The Yangtze giant softshell turtle got a population boost in 2018 after a wild turtle was found in Xuan Khanh Lake in Vietnam. There may be even more as locals living around China’s Red River have reported spotting one or two turtles.

5 Hainan Gibbon

The Hainan gibbon (Nomascus hainanus) is the world’s rarest primate. Only 25 are left in the wild. They are cramped into a pitiable 2-square-kilometer (0.8 mi²) area of Bawangling National Nature Reserve on Hainan Island in the South China Sea.

The Hainan gibbon suffered a massive population decline after losing most of its habitat to deforestation. Poachers also took their toll on its population as the animals were widely hunted for food, for their supposed medicinal properties, or just to be sold as pets.

The massive population loss has led to inbreeding and a decline in general health. Almost every gibbon on the island is related. Curiously, the Hainan gibbon is not the only gibbon at risk of extinction. Eighteen of their 19 species are endangered.^[6]

4 Sehuencas Water Frog

The Sehuencas water frog is native to the cloud forests of Bolivia. In recent years, the frog has suffered a population decline after losing large areas of its habitat to pollution and climate change. The loss of population has been worsened by the deadly Chytrid fungus and an invasive trout fish that eats the frog’s eggs.

There are only six Sehuencas water frogs left in the world. Interestingly, five of them were found recently. There was only one Sehuencas water frog left as of February 14, 2018. He was named Romeo and was called “the world’s loneliest frog.”

Romeo was alone until Match.com, the Global Wildlife Conservation, and the Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d’Orbigny decided to raise funds for an expedition to find a partner for the frog. It started with Match.com creating a profile for Romeo. This raised awareness and the needed funds for the expedition.

The expedition team found five more frogs. Two were male, and three were female. Each female was paired with a male, including the third which was paired with Romeo. She was called Juliet.^[7]

3 Marsican Brown Bear

The Marsican brown bear (Ursus arctos Marsicanus) is a subspecies of the brown bear. It lives in the Apennine Mountains of Italy, which is why it is also called the Apennine brown bear. Hundreds of bears lived in the mountains a few centuries ago. But they soon got into conflict with shepherds and farmers, who considered them pests. Only 50 are left today.

Italy is making conservation efforts and trying to tag the bears to monitor their movements. Unfortunately, in 2018, a tagging operation ended badly after a bear died during a botched capture attempt. The bear suddenly suffered breathing difficulties and died after it was sedated to be tagged with a radio collar.^[8]

2 South China Tiger

The South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) is a subspecies of the tiger. It is believed to be the major tiger from which other subspecies descended. However, that would not matter anymore if it goes extinct—which could be soon. Only 24 are estimated to remain in the world.

The South China tiger became endangered in the 20th century when deforestation put it in close proximity to humans. It was massively killed at the time because it often fed on livestock. The tiger’s population never recovered. In the 1970s, there were 4,000 left in the wild. Today, there are none. All 24 survivors are in captivity.

However, there are claims that 20 South China tigers are in the wild. Some even argue that the wild population is far more than 20. However, nobody has reported a verifiable sighting of the tiger in 20 years. The captive population is not faring any better. The current population is way below the 50 tigers that were in captivity in the mid-1990s.^[9]

1 Asiatic Cheetah

The Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) freely roamed through several Asian nations a few centuries ago. India had lots of these cheetahs, but they were hunted to extinction as sport. The Asiatic cheetah started to suffer habitat loss in other parts of Asia during the 19th and 20th centuries when huge parts of its natural range were turned into farmland.

The Asiatic cheetah soon went extinct everywhere except Iran. Today, it is considered native to Iran. With only 50 left in the country, it’s only a matter of time before the animal becomes native to nowhere.

In Iran, the Asiatic cheetah will occasionally kill sheep and goats, drawing the ire of herders who hunt and kill it in return. Its range also crosses the highway, where it often ends up as roadkill. Mines are also springing up within its range, further reducing its territory.

Conservation efforts have been frustrated by the economic sanctions imposed on Iran. It worsened in 2017 when the UN stopped funding the conservation and suggested that the Iranian government take over. However, that could be difficult because Iran has reduced the budget of the Department of Environment that is responsible for overseeing the cheetah’s habitat.^[10]

The past few years saw an unprecedented slew of remarkable fossils. It is not always the biggest dinosaurs that are the most valuable to science. More important are the fragments that reveal behavior, extinct diets, missing ancestors, and the answers to tough puzzles.

New finds can also introduce intriguing mysteries about unknown human species and animals. They can be dramatic, too, showing for the first time the creatures that died minutes after the dinosaur-killing asteroid struck Earth.

10 Comb Jelly Ancestor

Some researchers love their jellies. The predatory and gelatinous kind, not the wobbly dessert. Recently, a scientist from the United Kingdom visited colleagues in China. When he was shown a particular fossil, he got very excited over the creature’s tentacles. The fossil, later named Daihua sanqiong, sprouted 18 whips around its mouth.

Each tentacle had robust ciliary hairs, something only found on comb jellies. The latter is alive today. This bizarre creature uses “combs” of cilia to travel through seawater. The comb jelly was a bit of an orphan. Nobody can follow its evolutionary progress on the tree of life.

However, the 518-million-year-old fossil shared enough characteristics with comb jellies and other ancient creatures that researchers could tentatively build the entire early lineage of comb jellies. It even gave the Oliver Twist of the jelly world a few likely cousins—corals and anemones.^[1]

9 Bandicoots Were Nimble

Pig-footed bandicoots went extinct in the 1950s. Like most marsupials, they were delightfully different in their own way. These bandicoots looked like they had been assembled from pieces taken from a deer, a kangaroo, and an opossum. Weighing about the same as a basketball, bandicoots were among the tiniest grazers that ever lived.

As there are no living animals, researchers turned to the aboriginal community for insights about the creature’s behavior. Done in the 1980s, the interviews revealed something surprising. The ungainly animal could gallop quite fast.

What made this fact so unexpected was the structure of the bandicoot’s feet. Each front leg had two functional toes, and bizarrely, the hind legs had one each. This arrangement appeared unstable. But according to witnesses, the herbivores zoomed into the distance like the Road Runner when they were startled.

Interestingly, in 2019, a DNA analysis was performed on the last remaining 29 skeletons in museums. It revealed that what researchers thought was one species, Chaeropus ecaudatus, was in fact two. The new species was called Chaeropus yirratji to honor a local aboriginal name for the animal.^[2]

8 Worm City

In 2018, rocks were analyzed from Canada’s Mackenzie Mountains. Nobody had worms on the brain while preparing the rocks for another study. However, during the grinding and sawing, unusual colorations prompted a look—and it changed a big belief.

To find out what caused the unfamiliar shades, samples were scanned and digitally enhanced. Almost instantly, a crowding network of tunnels appeared. Previously invisible, the tunnels were made by a thriving community of worms. This may sound torture-level normal, but it showed life where none was expected.

The rocks dated back 500 million years when the region was a seafloor. Most experts agreed that it was a dead zone due to no oxygen. But some rocks were so tunneled that they resembled the highways of a busy city. This proved that the dead zone harbored more life—and definitely more oxygen—than anyone had guessed.^[3]

7 Step Closer To Ancestor X

Ancestor X is the mysterious focus of a scientific argument. It involves the early evolutionary tree of vertebrates, animals that include humans. Ancestor X is not a primate but a fish. This aquatic grandparent, so to speak, was identified in absentia when researchers had a look at some the oldest vertebrates alive today.

Most felt that the boneless hagfish and lampreys belonged at the bottom of the tree. This suggested that X looked similar to the two eellike species. Fossil finds supported this theory. DNA tests did not.

Genetic analysis suggested that lampreys and hagfish had an ancestor that branched off much earlier. The debate swung in the DNA’s favor when a fossil was discovered in Lebanon in 2011. It was an early type of hagfish that was around 100 million years old.

Considering that hagfish have no bones, finding one was “like finding a sneeze in the fossil record” as one scientist put it. The rare discovery had features suggesting that Ancestor X was not some squishy eel but more probably looked more like a fish.^[4]

6 Unique Fingerprints

Around 1 percent of tracks revealed that dinosaurs had skin on their soles. As skin forms patterns, dinosaur feet could stamp “fingerprints” unique to each individual. However, none of the fossils in question had more than a few traces of skin.

Fingerprint-obsessed scientists thirsted for just one measly fossil fingerprint, and then they got five. Few people have heard of Minisauripus, the smallest theropod. The larger theropods were the type of bipedal carnivores that often chase people in movies. Tyrannosaurus rex is the most famous.

Although Minisauripus is not dramatic enough to hit Hollywood, one of these creatures gave the world footprints unlike any ever seen before. Around 120 million years ago, it left tracks in modern-day Korea.

Discovered in 2019, the exquisitely preserved feet measured 2.5 centimeters (1 in) long. The paws were entirely covered in “fingerprints.” The pattern was surprising. Tiny scales wove together like fabric, producing a pattern that resembled those of Chinese bird fossils. It was something that the team had expected from a much bigger theropod.^[5]

5 Ancient Diet And Digestion

When paleontologists want to know what extinct species ate, they have limited options. The shape of teeth and chemical deposits in bones can suggest an animal’s diet. However, to narrow things down, researchers really prefer to find fossilized stomach contents. Unfortunately, soft tissues like the stomach and a digesting meal do not preserve well.

In 1965, a pterosaur fossil (161 to 146 million years old) was unearthed in Southern Germany. The significance of the find was not immediately recognized. In 2015, scientists reviewed the flying reptile at its home museum in Canada. Thankfully, the fossil was in great condition.

Among the well-preserved details were clues about its diet. Inside the guts was something resembling the skeleton of a fish. Best of all was a lump near the base of the pterodactyl’s spine. It was likely a coprolite, or fossilized feces.

Coprolites are rare enough, but finding one inside a pterodactyl would be a first. Analysis of the possible poop revealed what the reptile snacked on. There were spiny remnants suggestive of a marine invertebrate like a sponge or starfish-like prey.^[6]

4 Whale Ancestor With Hooves

Whales began as land mammals and evolved until they permanently took to the seas. There are gaps in this story, but in 2011, a crucial piece was recovered. A 42.6-million-year-old whale fossil turned up in Peru. The creature had four legs.

Each foot had a hoof and was webbed like an otter. This odd combination suggested that the animal had walked on land and swum very well. Other whale fossils from this time were too fragmented to suggest how whales went from land to marine mammals.

The flipper-hoofed thing, technically named Peregocetus pacificus, provided a valuable gem. It proved that early whales sometimes lived on land, probably to mate and have young, but could also stay in the water for weeks. It was an extreme semiaquatic lifestyle for a crossover species.^[7]

The 4-meter-long (13 ft) animal also provided crucial information about how and when whales spread to the Americas. The Peruvian fossil suggested that they crossed the South Atlantic, which was 50 percent smaller than today, and came from somewhere near India.

3 Cache Of 50-Plus New Species

In 2019, scientists were trudging along China’s Danshui River when they hit the jackpot. The team encountered hundreds of ancient remains, which were duly ogled and discussed.

The fossilized bodies of 101 animals were recovered. Astoundingly, over half were unknown species. Ironically, the researchers sat down to have lunch when they made the discovery.

While eating, somebody noticed telltale signs of ancient mudflows. These are great preservers of fossils, but the Danshui batch blew everyone away. The creatures were so well-preserved that soft tissues and animals that normally did not fossilize appeared to be freshly pressed. There were perfect jellyfish, eyes, gills, digestive systems, soft-bodied worms, and sea anemones, to name but a few.

The cache dated to the Cambrian Period (490 million to 530 million years ago) when animal life diversified at an uncommon pace. The new species present the perfect opportunity to better understand this strangely fruitful time.^[8]

2 A New Human

Modern humans are the only survivor of the hominid “family tree.” Cousins like the Neanderthals, Australopithecus, and Homo erectus are long gone. It is not often that a new human species is identified.

But in 2007, a bone turned up in the Philippines. Part of a foot, it was 67,000 years old and the most ancient human fragment in the Philippines. In 2019, 12 more bones were found nearby. Together, they outlined an unknown miniature species of human beings.

This part of the world is already famous for the 2004 discovery of Homo floresiensis, an unrelated tiny hominid nicknamed the “hobbit,” in Indonesia. The newly named Homo luzonensis shared traits with H. sapiens, H. erectus, and Australopithecus.

This mix proved that it was a new species, but a lack of viable DNA obscured evolutionary links with the others. The discovery also contradicted the belief that the first hominins out of Africa were H. erectus, followed by H. sapiens around 40 thousand to 50 thousand years ago.

The small human was outside of Africa almost 10,000 years earlier. Incredibly, their Australopithecus traits are much older. Australopithecus remains have never been found outside Africa, but some specimens are three million years old.^[9]

1 The Day The Dinosaurs Died

The K-Pg boundary is a terrible grave marker. Discovered in the 1970s, this layer can be found in rock separating the Cretaceous and Paleogene eras. It is filled with iridium from a massive asteroid that hit near Mexico about 66 million years ago.

The impact left a crater 145 kilometers (90 mi) wide and killed three out of four species, including the dinosaurs. Despite the mass extinction that followed, known as the K-Pg event, no fossils reflected the disaster right after it happened.

In 2019, ancient fish turned up at Hell Creek, North Dakota. They were the first group of large species found at the K-Pg boundary. Even better, the fish had glass spheres in their gills. Caused by the impact, the glass rained down at Hell Creek minutes after the asteroid struck and before the fish were buried in mud, together with animals, plants, and insects.

It was the glass-smothered fish that proved the group had died within a short period from direct consequences of the impact. To view the Hell Creek fossils is to see the day the dinosaurs died.^[10]

Across the history of our world, from the beginning to this day, life has not had a good run. Sure, the planet is teeming with it, but relatively speaking it’s the barest hint of what has been. 99.9% of all life that has ever existed has gone extinct. We’re holding onto a tiny sliver of what life has to offer. 

Evidence shows humans have contributed to many of those species going extinct. There are a lot of animals that died before we ever arrived, but there are also some that could and should still be here today as their extinctions wouldn’t have been too hard to prevent. 

10. A Shrimp Species Went Extinct To Make Way for Land Development

There aren’t a lot of “good” reasons for a species to go extinct but there are reasons we can at least wrap our heads around. When an animal is hunted to extinction, for instance, we can understand how that happened even if we think it’s horrendous. And maybe it’s because it’s a process, a group of people going out and killing them until there are none left, it makes sense. But a species that goes extinct overnight by accident is another matter altogether.

The Florida fairy shrimp is a little creature you have probably never seen or heard of. They are presumed extinct right now. It used to live in a single pond near Gainesville, Florida. Just the one pond, as far as anyone knew. 

Unfortunately for the fairy shrimp, someone wanted to develop that land so the pond was destroyed. The shrimp species is presumed to have died out with it.

9. We Killed Off the Condor Louse While Trying to Save Condors

Humans have developed an almost unspoken hierarchy for animal life. While it’s maybe not true for all of us as individuals, humans clearly value certain animals more than others. House pets rank highly as do horses, lions, elephants, pandas and all your cuter zoo favorites. 

Way down the list of life forms humans care about are bugs. We actively eradicate them in our homes and few people ever want them around. That’s probably why, on some level, the extinction of the condor louse wasn’t considered a big deal.

The condor louse used to feed on the California condor. The California condor, one of those more majestic animals, was nearly driven to extinction itself. In the 80s, only 22 of the birds were still in the wild. 

Conservationists captured the animals and took them into captivity to help preserve the species. Part of the process of helping the birds involved making sure they were healthy, so they were deloused and their parasites were killed. Except the lice only lived on California condors so when those last birds were deloused, the entire lice species went extinct in what turned out to be a conservationist oops. 

You could make the argument that lice are parasitic and gross and it’s no big loss, but some could say if you can make that argument for a creature you don’t like, what’s stopping someone else from making it for a creature you do like?

While the louse is gone, the California condor population has risen to nearly 600 birds. 

8. Nearly 100 Bird Species Went Extinct in Hawaii 

It’s no secret that human action, intentional or otherwise, has taken a great toll on nature. We kill off species sometimes but you usually only hear about it in the singular, like the shrimp and lice we already covered. But then, in the interests of efficiency, we can head to Hawaii where humans have killed off close to 100 different species of birds to get a better look at the breadth of the devastation. 

Hawaii was once home to 142 different species of birds that exist nowhere else on Earth. That was before the arrival of humans to the islands. After that, 95 of those species went extinct. Of the remaining bird species, 11 of them have had no confirmed sightings in decades, meaning they are likely extinct as well.

Most of the extinctions in Hawaii can be traced to just a handful of causes. Destruction of habitat is obvious, but many are also killed by invasive predators that humans brought to the island. That includes mosquitos that carry avian malaria which never existed on Hawaii before. 

7. Farming May Have Wiped Out North America’s Most Abundant Insect

It’s rare that a species goes from numbering in the tens of millions to vanishing entirely, but that’s what happened to the Rocky Mountain locust. These grasshoppers were considered a literal plague in North America. In 1874 the swarms were said to be so bad they blocked out the sun and they ate everything in sight. Imagine the sky so thick with grasshoppers you couldn’t see anything else as millions of them devour all your crops and even the clothing you’re wearing as you try to get away from them. 

The species went from swarms of billions that were over 100 miles wide and 1800 miles long to nothing at all within just a few years. For years there was no explanation to the species’ disappearance that made any sense when it was examined more closely. 

It’s since been theorized that the species went extinct thanks to the expansion of farming and homesteading across America. River valleys were all converted to farmland, irrigation was set up diverting streams and rivers, and all the habitats once used by the grasshoppers for breeding went away. Because the species is so vulnerable in those early stages of life, they didn’t stand a chance. 

6. Habitat Loss, Hunting, and Genetics Wiped Out Passenger Pigeons

People still consider pigeons a nuisance to this day. They are one of the few birds that have adapted incredibly well to living in urban areas amongst humans. But humans and pigeons have a long history of poor interaction dating back to the passenger pigeon.

Back in the 1800s the passenger pigeon population numbered around three billion. Deforestation and hunting pigeon meat eventually did the birds in while the world sat back and watched, convinced it wasn’t happening. 

In 1857, someone introduced a bill to protect the birds in Ohio. A senate committee responded by saying no protection was needed because “no ordinary destruction could lessen them,” while waxing poetic about how the world was the passenger pigeon’s playground. The last pigeon was believed to have died in 1914.

Part of the problem with the pigeons was that, despite an enormous population, there was relatively little genetic diversity. Combine hunting and habitat loss with breedings issues and you have a species going extinct in just 50 years. 

5. Carolina Parakeets Went Extinct in Part Because of the Hat Trade

What would you say is the stupidest reason a species could go extinct? If your answer doesn’t involve hats, try again. Hats are partially responsible for the demise of the Carolina parakeet.

The only parrot species that was native to the area, you could find the Carolina parakeet in the Eastern US until well through the 1800s. The last captive bird died in a zoo in 1918. 

Like many extinct species, habitat loss took a big toll as their forests were removed to make way for human cities. But more than that, the birds fell victim to human whims for colorful things. Because they were brightly colored like many parrots, people wanted them as pets. Once captured and kept in a cage they obviously weren’t breeding prodigiously anymore and that wasn’t doing the species any favors.

Some people wanted the pretty feathers without the birds and that’s where the hats come in. The birds were hunted so their feathers could be used in the manufacture of ladies’ hats. In 1866 it’s believed 5 million birds of different species were killed just for hats. Others were killed just because people found them to be a nuisance and the entire species suffered for it.

4. Turnspit Dogs Were Replaced By Machines

If you’ve never heard of a Turnspit Dog, it’s probably because they went extinct around 1900. But the dogs were fairly popular starting in the 16th century onward and their claim to fame is part of the reason the SPCA exists today.

Turnspit dogs were used to turn the spit in a kitchen. The small dogs would run on a wheel like a hamster, stuck high on a wall and connected to the cook fire, turning a spit to cook meat over the open flame. They did this every single day, except maybe Sundays. The work started in Europe when someone bred them as a replacement for boys who used to do the same job.

In America, large hotels used to use the dogs and mistreat them terribly which is how the SPCA is linked to them. The founder of the SPCA saw them in Manhattan hotels and was disgusted. When technology could replace the dog, people stopped breeding them and eventually the breed vanished completely. 

3. The Dodo Went Extinct Because It Had No Fear of Predators

For a long while the dodo bird has been synonymous with stupidity. This was an idea bolstered by old Warner Brothers cartoons that featured a stupid dodo bird. The notion stems from their discovery on Mauritius by man in the 1500s. The birds had never experienced predators before and thus had no fear of being hunted. 

Humans could herd them right onto boats with no effort at all so they could eat them while they traveled. This made the sailors mock the birds for being so stupid they wouldn’t save their own lives when, in reality, they just had never been given reason to believe some aquatic jerks were rounding them up for a slaughter.

This innate lack of fear led to the species’ extinction. It wasn’t just the humans themselves; it was the pigs that Dutch sailors brought with them, along with rats and cats. Once free on the island, the animals destroyed the nests of the earthbound birds, eating eggs and young. Along with deforestation, the birds didn’t stand a chance, and the species vanished in just 80 years from the time they were discovered. 

2. Atlas Bears Were Hunted for Roman Games

The Atlas bear used to live in parts of Europe and Africa once upon a time. It’s described as being smaller than a modern grizzly but stockier than a North American black bear. Their name came from the Atlas mountain range which they called home. 

Like many species there are a few reasons that contributed to their decline. As parts of Africa that they called home were consumed by desert they lost some of their habitat. In addition, modernized hunting techniques, such as the creation of firearms, made killing them much easier. But a significant reason for their decline can be traced back much earlier, to the time of the Roman Empire.

Atlas bears were a favorite of the gladiatorial games put on in Roman times. Hunting the bears to be used in sport has been attributed to the downfall of the species. The bears would have been captured, brought to an arena, and forced to fight against arm combatants in the ring. Their species could never recover from the losses.

In the wild, the last bear is believed to have been killed by hunters in the 1870s.

1. Cats Have Destroyed Over 60 Species

There are an estimated 58.3 million cats in America. Concrete figures on a world population are scarce but some estimates go up to 600 million. Next to dogs they’re definitely the most popular pet but that is also proving to be an issue on a global survival scale. Cats are killers, and they’ve been blamed for the extinction of over 60 species so far. This includes birds, reptiles and mammals. 

One study in Canada, which has far fewer cats than America, suggested that if owners kept their cats indoors, it could save the lives of up to 200 million wild birds every year. In the United States cats are blamed for killing 2.4 billion birds per year. 

The problem is even worse for birds that live on populated islands. Cats are invasive predators in these environments and bird populations are at a much higher risk of predation. Cats, even cats that are fed regularly, hunt because of instinct not need. Most cat owners have had their cat bring them a dead mouse or bird in the past which proves this. The cat didn’t want to eat it; it was more of a prize. Unfortunately, dozens of those prizes were the last of their kind.

The nature of life is such that animal species tend to enjoy a good multi-million-year run on the planet, get pushed out by evolution and changing environments, and then go extinct. They’re then lost forever, chalked up by scientists as unfit or unlucky and confined to the dusty realm of paleontology. Except getting an accurate headcount of a species is tough. 

As much as it might seem some animal is completely gone, there could be some of its kind still alive, living just out of sight. This happens more than you’d think. Some animals thoughtfully eradicated by man or predated to extinction turn out to still be alive, sometimes even as part of a large, healthy population totally unawares of its so-called extinction. These are what biologists call Lazarus taxon- species thought dead and then ‘brought back to life’ by a new discovery. 

Here are 10 of these revived animals who have been rediscovered and reintroduced to the land of the living in recent years.

10 Tree Lobsters

What a name. “Tree lobsters” conjures up ideas of canopy-dwelling arthropods ready to drop down on unsuspecting passers-by with nasty claws. In reality, the tree lobster is a type of stick insect called the Lord Howe Island stick insect, and has a gentle disposition. The lucky few researchers who get the chance can hold the creatures in their hands without incident.

These insects were once very common on Lord Howe Island, a small island between Australia and New Zealand. Then in 1918, a ship crashed on its shore and rats managed to escape the ship and create a home on the island. Within a few years, the rats had completely wiped out the tree lobster population.

No living specimen was seen again until 80 years later on a rock formation a few miles offshore of Lord Howe. After a thorough search, only 24 individuals were found, earning the bug the title of “the rarest insect in the world.” In the past two decades, scientists have managed to recover the species, breeding tens of thousands of new individuals.

9 The Takahe

The takahe is also known as the notornis, but presumably only as a supervillain alter-ego. Seriously, start calling Thanos Notornis in your head; it just works. The takahe, native to New Zealand, is a flightless bird with dark, iridescent plumage that looks halfway between a raven and a peacock.

When it was first discovered in the 1800s, the bird’s numbers had been on the decline for centuries, as its preferred habitat, alpine grassland, was diminishing due to a cycle of global warming. Polynesian and European settlement was the cherry on its extinction sundae, it seemed. Only a few living specimens were ever found, and after 1898 only fossil remnants turned up. The bird was written off as extinct.

It was “extinct” for 50 years, until 1948, when it was rediscovered in an isolated mountain range. Since then, conservationists have protected and bred the species, and various populations—some as large as 400 individuals—now exist across New Zealand.

8 Terror Skinks

The terror skink sounds intimidating but is really only terrifying relative to other skinks, which is not saying much. Because of their long, curved teeth, they are thought to be near-apex predators in their environments, but that puts them near the top of an ecological pyramid consisting mostly of bugs and other small lizards. Its home is the Isle of Pines, a tiny island off the coast of New Caledonia in the South Pacific. It was first discovered in 1876, but then could not be found again. It was presumed extinct for over a century, which in most cases is pretty final.

It wasn’t until 1993 that the lizard was seen again, and even then only a handful have been found since. As it only lives on an island less than 1/5 of a mile in area, a handful might be all we can hope for. Still, that is a lot more than zero, which I’m sure makes the many skink fans around the world happy.

7 The Kashmir Musk Deer

The musk deer is also known as the vampire deer and it’s easy to see why. Hanging from its upper jaw are two long fangs that look just perfect for blood-sucking. In reality, the fangs are used by males to compete for females, but I prefer to live in a world with vampire deer, imagined or not. The musk deer is found in various places across central Eurasia, but the Kashmir variety was much more selective- found only in the Indian Himalayas, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. It was last seen in 1948 and expeditions through the area turned up zero deer for 60 years.

Then in 2009, members of the Wildlife Conservation Society managed to spot several living members, saying the elusive vamps were “discrete, cryptic, difficult to spot, and could not be photographed.” But others have been spotted since, so this is one vampire sighting we can believe.

6 The Laotian Rock Rat

Let’s get this out the way: Laotian rock rat is an excellent band name and I have dibs. The rat was first discovered in 1996 in a market in southern Laos. Interestingly, its first sighting was as a piece of meat for sale. With the help of locals, more were found, though all had been killed for meat. It wasn’t until 2006 that a living specimen was seen, and it was then captured and studied in detail. It was clear to researchers that the rock rat was unlike any other living rodent. An entirely new family name was proposed for the creature. For context, a family is a fairly large taxonomic group. Our family is Hominidae and it includes all living and extinct apes, including all extinct humans.

But experts were able to place the rock rat after all, and it made it even more of an oddball. They placed it in a family of rodents known only from the fossil record, whose fossils dry up 11 million years ago. The rock rat is so isolated that its only close family is 11 million years removed.

5 Chacoan Peccaries

There is a long history of Western scientists exploring new regions and not believing local accounts of wildlife. Sometimes it’s for a good reason. The Congo river dinosaur Mokele-mbembe is not real. But sometimes, that causes researchers to miss huge discoveries. The okapi, Komodo dragon, and mountain gorilla are all very real fauna whose existence was attested to by locals and yet went undiscovered by modern scientists for decades. The Chacoan peccary is another example. Fossil evidence of its existence was found in 1930 in Argentina, and without living examples, scientists assumed it an extinct species. Native Argentinians, however, insisted they had seen the pigs many times over the years, so they must still be alive. Their claims were ignored until 1971, when scientists found living specimens- an entire family unit, in fact. Sadly, since its discovery, the widespread deforestation of South America has threatened to turn its extinction from fiction to fact.

4 Arakan Forest Turtles

Look, some animals make the list just because they’re cute. The Arakan forest turtle is one. Do a quick image search for these charming little guys and prepare to fall in love. They were only ever seen between 1875 and 1908 in remote hills in Western Myanmar, and then sightings stopped. The turtles were presumed extinct for almost 80 years until a freshly dead specimen was found at a market in China.

Since then, living turtles have been rediscovered in their home country of Myanmar, and newly discovered in Bangladesh. Like other turtles, Arakan forest turtles are prized both as pets and as food in parts of Southeast Asia, and that has made them critically endangered. Luckily, the turtles have shown a willingness to breed in captivity and that gives conservationists hope that the species can be saved.

3 Night Parrots

If you’re an ornithologist, and statistically 1-2 of you are, then you know all about these little guys. Night parrots are also known as midnight cockatoos, night parakeets, nocturnal ground parakeets, and other combinations of ‘night’ and ‘bird’ you can think of. Night parrots look like common pet store parakeets, and like wild parakeets, are native to Australia. But that’s all that is usual about this bird. Sightings of them were fairly consistent until 1912, when it seemed as if the bird dropped from the face of the Earth. They were presumed extinct until the end of the century, when a dead specimen was found, suggested they were actually still alive.

Then the night parrot became a holy grail for naturalists. Sightings came in and were rigorously vetted for accuracy. Some accepted, some thrown out. Oh, the bird is indeed alive. But what is even more interesting is its Wikipedia page. Every sighting, whether evidence or body, living or dead, real or made up, is chronicled in depth. It’s worth a read, if only to show how even the most obscure topics can become a passion to a whole community.

2 The Pygmy Tarsier

Pygmy tarsiers are a perfect example of the blurred relationship between creepy and cute. They’re half gremlin, half mogwai. Half monkey, half-demon. Half Furby, half almond-eyed alien. But more importantly, they were only recently rediscovered after 80 years of absence. The last pygmy tarsier on record before that time was in 1921. After 80 years, scientists were sure the species was extinct.

Then in 2000, 2 Indonesian scientists set out rat traps in the jungle and accidentally caught and killed a pygmy tarsier. It wasn’t until 2008 that three living specimens were found and recorded, making it official that these adorably haunting primates were still alive. Oh, did I mention that, unlike almost every other primate, they have claws instead of nails? Just picture one staring at you from the end of your bed. It’s not okay.

1 Coelacanth

You knew it was coming. And no matter how obvious it is, the coelacanth has earned its spot as the #1 Lazarus taxon. Even non-biologists know the story of the coelacanth. For almost a century, coelacanths had been known purely from fossil evidence. In addition, their skeletons suggested they were more related to tetrapods than modern fish. This made them a possible missing link in the evolution from ocean life to terrestrial life.

It seemed clear they were ancient and extinct. Then a fisherman in South Africa reeled in an odd-looking fish that caught the eye of local museum worker Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, who instantly recognized its importance. With the help of a biologist friend who came to assist her, they identified the fish as a coelacanth, thus changing its status from ‘extinct for 400 million years’ to ‘just reeled in by some dude.’

You only have to look at the schedule for the Olympic Games to see the diverse range of sports enjoyed by athletes and spectators around the world. Many sports have been around for hundreds or even thousands of years, and a match can draw hundreds of thousands of spectators. Others may be more obscure yet require significant skill from participants.

There are, however, a number of sports that were once hugely popular but which have since faded in prominence. Most of these games posed serious danger to the participants, spectators, and sometimes the animals involved. You’ve probably heard of a number of these sports, but you certainly don’t see them being played to the same extent as football or basketball these days.

10 Chariot Racing

The sport of chariot racing was so popular in ancient Greece and Rome that the streets would be deserted when a race was on. The earliest written mention of chariot racing is in Homer’s Illiad. The races were the primary event of the earliest Olympic games, as well as many Greek and Roman festivals.

Racers were pulled by up to four horses around a 8.4-kilometer (5.2 mi) course in rickety carriages. In ancient Rome, chariots would be divided into teams or colors, with up to three chariots per team. Like modern sports, fans would back their chosen teams, donning the team colors in support.

There appear to have been few rules involved in the sport, with drivers whipping not only their horses but also opponents. The speeding chariots were prone to collision, with drivers often killed or seriously injured in the wreckage or tangled in the horses’ reins. The carnage added to the entertainment for the spectators.

The dangerous sport was one way for slaves or the impoverished to improve their status in life, earning significant sums of money if they became successful charioteers. The Circus Maximus was the largest purpose-built chariot racing venue, with a capacity of over 150,000 spectators, and is still one of the largest sporting arenas ever built. Chariot racing eventually faded into extinction after the fall of the Roman Empire.

9 Jousting

Most of us are familiar with the medieval sport of jousting and tales of knights winning a fair lady’s favor on the field. Early tournaments took the form of melees, where groups of jousters engaged in mock battles, as a training exercise for real combat. Individual jousts, or tilts, became more popular during the 15th century.^[2]

Two armor-clad horseman would face each other at the ends of a field, charging at one another with lances leveled. As they sped past each other, each opponent would attempt to either knock his rival from his horse or break his shield. The charges would continue up and down the field until one opponent claimed victory. An alternative “tilt” would see horseman speeding toward a metal ring, through which they had to spear their lance.

Jousting was discontinued in favor of less violent equestrian sports during the 17th century. Theatrical jousting reenactments can still be seen in some medieval society events today.

8 Board Track Racing

Board track racing was a popular US motorsport during the earlier parts of the 20th century. Motorcycle racers sped around circular wooden tracks, which were banked similar to modern-day velodromes. These “motordromes” were eventually modified to accommodate early automobile racing. They were inexpensive to construct but costly to maintain, with an average track lasting just three years. The first board tracks appeared in Los Angeles in around 1909, and crowds were soon flocking to watch the new racing spectacle around the US.^[3]

Board track racing was a highly dangerous sport, with motordromes eventually dubbed “murderdromes” in some newspapers. Racing bikes were built for maximum speed but had no brakes, resulting in frequent serious accidents in which not only riders but also spectators were injured or killed. The sport disappeared during the Great Depression in the 1930s.

7 Camping

Not to be confused with the modern-day pastime of pitching a tent in the great outdoors, camping, or campyon, was a medieval ball game which forms the basis for modern football games.

One of the earliest references to camping dates back to the 14th century.^[4] Matches were held between competing parishes, usually after church on Sunday, with the object being to carry the ball to the opposite side of town.

Teams of ten to 15 players would face each other while a ball was thrown into the air. A player would catch the ball, running through opponents and shielded by his team to carry the ball to his goal. Just like modern-day football, the odd scuffle between opposing teams and supporters was not uncommon.

6 Naumachia

Roman sports enthusiasts would flock to watch a good bout of naumachia. Purpose-built ships were placed in a water-filled arena and manned with crewmen who would simulate a sea battle. The “willing participants” were often prisoners or slaves who had little option but to fight. The ships were often manned by convicts who battled to the death in a flooded amphitheater for the entertainment of onlookers.

The first naumachia was held in 46 BC to celebrate Julius Caesar’s victory over Pompey.^[5] Over 6,000 people were forced to fight in the mock naval battle to reinforce Caesar’s naval prowess. Not only the unwilling combatants were killed in the spectacle, but onlookers from all over Italy were said to have been crushed in the crowds.

Naumachiae were costly in both human and financial terms to perform, and the practice disappeared after the Flavian period during the first century AD.

5 Club Swinging

Club swinging originated in India as a means of developing strength and mobility in soldiers. The British Army incorporated club swinging into their physical exercise routines, and colonists brought the ancient Indian exercise clubs home. Club swinging became popular with men and ladies alike during the Victorian era. Gymnasiums were established specifically for the sport.

Club swinging appeared as a gymnastic sport at the Summer Olympics in 1904 and 1932, both of which were held in the United States. Competitors held a bowling pin shaped-club in each hand, swinging them around in a complicated routine of maneuvers in a strange mix of juggling and rhythm gymnastics. The sport maintained popularity in the US until the 1950s. The last American Championship was held in 1953.^[6]

4 Fox Tossing

It’s not hard to see why the cruel blood sport of fox tossing has disappeared into the history books. Fox tossing was a popular sport among European nobility during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Caged foxes (or other animals) would be released into an arena, running across slings laid across the ground. Two teammates would be waiting on either end of the sling, quickly capturing the wild animals and flinging them high into the air. The team with the highest throw would be declared the winner.

Despite the frequent injuries from obviously terrified wild animals attempting to escape, the sport was considered gentle enough for ladies to participate in. Any foxes that were not killed during the tossing process would be bludgeoned to death at the end of the tournament.^[7]

3 Knattleikr

Knattleikr was an ancient Nordic sport enjoyed by the Vikings, thought to be similar to modern-day lacrosse. Players used sticks and their hands to hit a hard wooden ball toward a goal. Physical body contact was highly encouraged and was part of the overall objective of the game.

Members of rival teams would be matched up in pairs who had to stick with each other for the entire game and could not interfere with anyone other than their designated opponent. Aside from chasing your opponent, it was acceptable to hit your rival with the stick and wrestle him to the ground. It was not unheard-of for players to be killed during knattleikr matches.^[8]

The game was similar to a battle in which opposing pairs would fight each other for the overall good of the team. The aim of passing the ball through a goal seemed to have been a secondary consideration. Games could last all day on an ice-covered field.

2 Mesoamerican Ballgame

An ancient sport played in Mesoamerica involved players on a long, narrow court (averaging 60 meters [200 ft] in length) using their hips to prevent a ball from falling to the ground. (Some iterations of the game allowed the use of other body parts.) The game had mythical and spiritual significance to the Maya, with large stone courts often a focal point in cities’ sacred centers.

Players aimed to pass the ball through one of three large stone rings set on either side of the court without using their hands. The Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza has rings set at 8 meters (26 ft) high (pictured above). Passing a ball through these rings would have been no small feat. Balls were between 10 and 30 centimeters (4–12 in) in diameter and weighed 0.5 to 3.5 kilograms (1.1–7.7 lb). A larger ball could be lethal if a player was struck by it at high speed.

Archaeological evidence shows various victory trophies, including representations of human heads with a handle on one side (which may have been real heads in earlier versions), stone yokes, and hand-carved stones. The game could have life-and-death significance, with losing teams sometimes sacrificed to the gods.^[9]

1 Pankration

Pankration was one of the most popular sports of the early Olympics and was first introduced into the Olympic Games in 648 BC. Ancient Greeks considered the sport a demonstration of strength and technique. Pankration was a somewhat bizarre combination of boxing and wrestling. The only rules were no biting and no gouging the eyes, nose, or mouth.^[10]

Initially, combatants fought nude and oiled. Later, thong wrappings were placed on the hands and forearms. In upright pankration, the loser was the first combatant to touch the ground three times. In ground pankration, the fight continued until death or until one opponent conceded defeat.

Lesley Connor is a retired Australian newspaper editor who provides stories for online publications and her travel blog.