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Recently extinct mammals are defined by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...
(IUCN) as any
mammals that have become
extinct since the year 1500
CE.
[ Since then, roughly 80 mammal species have become extinct.
Extinction of ]taxa
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...
is difficult to confirm, as a long gap without a sighting is not definitive, but before 1995 a threshold of 50 years without a sighting was used to declare extinction.[
One study found that extinction from ]habitat loss
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...
is the hardest to detect, as this might only fragment populations to the point of concealment from humans. Some mammals declared as extinct may very well reappear. For example, a study found that 36% of purported mammalian extinction had been resolved, while the rest either had validity issues (insufficient evidence) or had been rediscovered.
As of December 2015, the IUCN listed 30 mammalian species as "critically endangered (possibly extinct)".
Conventions
All species listed as "Extinct" are classified as being extinct (no known remaining individuals left) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...
(IUCN). All species listed as Extinct in the wild are classified as being extinct in the wild, meaning that all remaining individuals of the species reside in captivity. All species listed as "Possibly extinct" are classified as being critically endangered, as it is unknown whether or not these species are extinct. Extinct subspecies such as the Javan tiger
The Javan tiger was a '' Panthera tigris sondaica'' population native to the Indonesian island of Java until the mid-1970s. It was hunted to extinction, and its natural habitat converted for agricultural land use and infrastructure. It was one of ...
(''Panthera tigris sondaica'') are not listed here as the species, in this case ''Panthera tigris
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus '' Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on u ...
'', is still extant. The IUCN Redlist
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...
classification for each species serves as a citation, and the superscripted "IUCN" by the date is a link to that species' page. A range map is provided wherever available, and a description of their former or current range is given if a range map is not available.
Causes of extinction
Habitat degradation
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...
is currently the main anthropogenic cause of species extinctions. The main cause of habitat degradation worldwide is agriculture, with urban sprawl
Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...
, logging, mining and some fishing practices close behind. The physical destruction of a habitat, both directly (deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...
for land development or lumber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
) and indirectly (burning fossil fuels), is an example of this.
Also, increasing toxicity, through media such as pesticides, can kill off a species very rapidly, by killing all living members through contamination
Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc.
Types of contamination
...
or sterilizing them. Persistent organic pollutant
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), sometimes known as "forever chemicals", are organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes. They are toxic chemicals that adversel ...
s (POPs), for example, can bioaccumulate
Bioaccumulation is the gradual accumulation of substances, such as pesticides or other chemicals, in an organism. Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a substance at a rate faster than that at which the substance is lost or eliminated ...
to hazardous levels, getting increasingly more dangerous further up the food chain
A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web starting from producer organisms (such as grass or algae which produce their own food via photosynthesis) and ending at an apex predator species (like grizzly bears or killer whales), de ...
.
Disease can also be a factor: white nose syndrome
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a fungal disease in North American bats which has resulted in the dramatic decrease of the bat population in the United States and Canada, reportedly killing millions as of 2018. The condition is named for a distincti ...
in bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...
s, for example, is causing a substantial decline in their populations and may even lead to the extinction of a species.
Overhunting
Overexploitation, also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to replenish. The term ap ...
also has an impact. Terrestrial mammals, such as the tiger and deer, are mainly hunted for their pelts and in some cases meat, and marine mammals can be hunted for their oil and leather. Specific targeting of one species can be problematic to the ecosystem because the sudden demise of one species can inadvertently lead to the demise of another (coextinction
Coextinction and cothreatened refer to the phenomena of the loss or decline of a host species resulting in the loss or endangerment of an other species that depends on it, potentially leading to cascading effects across trophic levels. The term or ...
) especially if the targeted species is a keystone species. Sea otters, for example, were hunted in the maritime fur trade, and their drop in population led to the rise in sea urchins—their main food source—which decreased the population of kelp—the sea urchin's and Steller's sea cow's main food source—leading to the extinction of the Steller's sea cow. The hunting of an already limited species can easily lead to its extinction, as with the bluebuck
The bluebuck (Afrikaans: bloubok ) or blue antelope (''Hippotragus leucophaeus'') is an extinct species of antelope that lived in South Africa until around 1800. It was smaller than the other two species in its genus ''Hippotragus,'' the roan ...
whose range was confined to and which was hunted into extinction soon after discovery by European settlers.
Australia
Island creatures are usually endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
to only that island, and that limited range and small population can leave them vulnerable to sudden changes. While Australia is a continent and not an island, due to its geographical isolation, its unique fauna has suffered an extreme decline in mammal species, 10% of its 273 terrestrial mammals, since European settlement (a loss of one to two species per decade); in contrast, only one species in North America has become extinct since European settlement. Furthermore, 21% of Australia's mammals are threatened
Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensa ...
, and unlike in most other continents, the main cause is predation by feral species, such as cats.
Extinct species
A species is declared extinct after exhaustive surveys of all potential habitats eliminate all reasonable doubt that the last individual of a species, whether in the wild or in captivity, has died.[ Recently extinct species are defined by the IUCN as becoming extinct after 1500 CE.][
]
Extinct in the
wild
Wild, wild, wilds or wild may refer to:
Common meanings
* Wild animal
* Wilderness, a wild natural environment
* Wildness, the quality of being wild or untamed
Art, media and entertainment Film and television
* ''Wild'' (2014 film), a 2014 A ...
A species that is extinct in the wild is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...
(IUCN) as only known by living members kept in captivity or as a naturalized population outside its historic range due to massive habitat loss
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...
. A species is declared extinct in the wild after thorough surveys have inspected its historic range and failed to find evidence of a surviving individual.
Possibly extinct
Extinction of taxa is difficult to detect, as a long gap without a sighting is not definitive. Some mammals declared as extinct may very well reappear.[ For example, a study found that 36% of purported mammalian extinction had been resolved, while the rest either had validity issues (insufficient evidence) or had been rediscovered.][ As of December 2015, the IUCN listed 30 mammalian species as "critically endangered (possibly extinct)".][
]
See also
* Holocene extinction
* List of extinct animals
This page features lists of extinct species, organisms that have become extinct, either in the wild or completely disappeared from Earth.
In actual theoretical practice, a species not definitely located in the wild in the last fifty years of cur ...
* List of extinct birds
Around 129 species of birds have become extinct since 1500, and the rate of extinction seems to be increasing. The situation is exemplified by Hawaii, where 30% of all known recently extinct bird taxa originally lived. Other areas, such as Gua ...
* Lists of mammals by population
This is a collection of lists of mammal species by the estimated global population, divided by orders. Lists only exist for some orders; for example, the most diverse order - rodents - is missing. Much of the data in these lists were created by th ...
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:List of Extinct Mammals
*Mammals
M
*
recently extinct