11 Extinct Animals That Have Been Photographed Alive
Syrian Wild Ass
The Syrian Wild Ass was likely extinct when the last known captive animal died at the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria, in 1928. It once had a wide range throughout Mesopotamia, where reports were common of large herds which used to roam wildly in the mountains and desert steppes of the Middle East.
Although already threatened beforehand, it is said that the Syrian Wild Ass completely collapsed during World War I, when their habitat was overrun with heavily armed Turkish and British troops. One account remarked that ”it could not resist the power of the modern guns in the hands of the Anazeh and Shammar nomads, and its speed, great as it may have been, was not sufficient always to escape from the velocity of the modern motor car which more and more is replacing the Old Testament Camel-Caravan.”
Baiji River Dolphin
The inevitable appears to have arrived for the Baiji River Dolphin, a peaceful, majestic dolphin which had inhabited China’s Yangtze River for at least the last 20 million years. The dolphin was declared functionally extinct after an expedition late in 2006 failed to record a single individual after an extensive search of the animal’s entire range.
Although unconfirmed sightings have come out since then, it’s unlikely that any living individuals, should they still exist, would be able find each other and breed. This tragic demise makes the Baiji Dolphin the first recorded extinction of a cetacean in modern times.
The population had been declining rapidly in recent decades since the rise of Chinese industrialization, which has utilized the Yangtze River as one of its primary arteries. The river is now one of the worst polluted major waterways in the world, being heavily relied upon for transportation and hydroelectricity. Roughly 12% of the world’s human population lives and works within the river’s catchment zone.
Traditional Chinese tales refer to the Baiji as a symbol of peace and prosperity. However, that traditional veneration was denounced during China’s “Great Leap Forward”, which called for hunting the animal in the name of redefining Chinese prosperity.
Regrettably, the Chinese may have got what they called for. Now that the dolphin is extinct, it’s difficult to avoid drowning the kind of prosperity it once symbolized along with it.
Image Credits: Ibex photo by José M. Gómez under the GNU Free Documentation License; Baiji Dolphin photo copyright by the baiji.org foundation, Steven Leatherwood; All other images are public domain via Wiki Commons
@mm, thank you. You’re correct. I’ve contacted the owner of a photo of Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica to ask permission to publish that photo instead.
@Rich, Thank you for your comment. What you saw was probably Equus hemionus, apparently sometimes also called an “Asian Wild Ass”. The extinct animal was called Equus hemionus hemippus.
Dan ganas de llorar, todo a causa de los humanos, que pesar que especies tan hermosas hayan sido extintas por la ambición del hombre. :’( :’(
What! Don’t any of you believe in evolution? This is simply natural selection. Some species survive, some don’t.
Stop trying to apply your religious ideas onto the rest of us.
Humanity is the cancer of the planet. The lower our numbers, the better for other creatures. Only problem is that humanity will become even more numerous, leading to an acceleration of extinction. One day we’ll be reduced by the millions due to global warming. Before that, 1000s of other species will go extinct because of everything we do. What a shame. The real answer is POPULATION CONTROL! We got to get our numbers down!
Here’s a fun fact, 99% of all species go extinct at some point. Its just part of the way of the earth. Everything goes in cycles.
Tiffany A.. you’re an idiot. Millions of species have gone extinct over time with humans having nothing to do with it. Even before humans were here. It’s just how earth works. Something has to die for new things to live. It’s not sad. It’s life.
“Hunters love animals….”
“…. to make sure next year there will be more deer, bear, turkey, hogs to hunt.”
Would it be easy just to say “Hunters love to hunt”?
That just makes me sad, we are only getting started with extinction. How many will we lose in the next 25 years.
“Furthermore, due to the large size of their flocks, the birds were seen as a threat to farmers. In fact, in 1703 the Catholic bishop of Quebec actually excommunicated the entire species.”
This is not possible. Only Catholics (i.e., human beings in communion with the Catholic Church) can be excommunicated. It is, by definition, impossible to excommunicate an animal.
Wikipedia references a book which I don’t have, but I suspect that someone (either the book’s author or the Wikipedia author) used the wrong word.
Vintage stupidity, as one person writes, but until I see more detailed information, it wasn’t stupidity on the bishop’s part.
“Regrettably, the Chinese may have got what they called for. Now that the dolphin is extinct, it’s difficult to avoid drowning the kind of prosperity it once symbolized along with it.”
Thank you for that insulting comment to the Chinese regarding the decline of the Baji dolphin, which according to you, symbolizes the decline of prosperity for the country? Do you not realize that if 12% of the WORLD’s population relies on the Yangtze to LIVE, there are more important sacrifices to be made? I don’t understand this snide hatred towards the Chinese for the extinction of one of their animals, when the government has been undertaking crucial measures to keep so many other endangered species (ie the giant panda) in existance. This was a decent article until you butchered it wholly with that last, completely unfounded comment.