10 Amazing Extinct Animals

The awareness of the importance of protecting life and the living environment has been increasing in recent times. However, people still continue to misuse their power, and have selfishly destroyed many species of animals and their habitats. We are definitely destroying ourselves on environmental and karmic levels.

Limiting one’s selfishness through the spirit of contentment would curb the need to satisfy excessive and unnecessary demands, and thus living in harmony with nature without harming the environment. Lessening our greed towards animal products would have a profound positive impact on our world.

Below are a few examples of animals that are hunted to extinction for meat, sport or due to fear… except for the T-rex!

Tsem Rinpoche

TYRANNOSAURUS REX

Extinct since: 65 million years ago.

Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs that ever lived, measuring up to 43.3 feet long, and 16.6 feet tall, with an estimated mass of up to 7 tons.

Scientists believe this powerful predator could eat up to 500 pounds (230 kilograms) of meat in one bite.

Tyrannosaurus lived in forested river valleys in North America during the late Cretaceous period. It became extinct in the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction.

QUAGGA: Half zebra, half horse

Extinct since: 1883

Causes of extinction: Hunted for meat, hides, and to preserve feed for domesticated stock.

The Quagga was a subspecies of the plain zebra, which was once found in great numbers in South Africa’s Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State.

It was distinguished from other zebras by having the usual vivid marks on the front part of the body only. At its mid-section, the stripes faded and the dark, inter-stripe spaces become wider, and the hindquarters were a plain brown.

The last wild quagga was probably shot in the late 1870s, and the last specimen in captivity died on August 12, 1883 at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.

However, after 100 years of extinction, the quagga have been crossbred back into existence. The video below shows the recreated species.

Or view the video on the server at: http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/Animal-Conservation-Quagga-Recreation-in-South-Afri.flv

THYLACINE: The Tasmanian Tiger

Extinct since: 1936

Causes of extinction: Intensive hunting encouraged by bounties, disease, the introduction of dogs, and human encroachment into its habitat.

The thylacine was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger (due to it’s striped back) and also as the Tasmanian Wolf. It was the last extant member of its genus, Thylacinus.

Despite being officially classified as extinct, sightings are still reported

The video below is a recording of the last Tasmanian tiger which was alive in captivity until 1936

Or view the video on the server at: http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/Last-Tasmanian-Tiger-Thylacine-1933.flv

STELLER’S SEA COW: The defenseless beast

Extinct since: 1768

Causes of extinction: Hunted as a source of food, oil, milk, and hide. The intense hunting of sea otters caused a severe depletion of sea grass and algae, which are the Steller’s Sea Cow’s food source.

The sea cow grew up to 7.9 meters (25.9 ft) long and weighed up to three tons, much larger than the manatee or dugong. It looked somewhat like a large seal, but had two stout forelimbs and a whale-like tail. Its external ear openings were only about the size of a pea, but the internal ear bones were very large, so excellent hearing can be assumed, although when they were feeding, they would completely ignore even a boat. The Steller’s sea cow was almost mute, making only deep breathing sounds when coming up for air and loud moaning sounds when wounded.

There are still sporadic reports of sea cow-like animals from the Bering area and Greenland, so it has been suggested that small populations of the animal may have survived to the present day. This remains so far unproven.

IRISH DEER: Largest deer that ever lived

Extinct since: 7700 years ago.

Causes of extinction: Over hunting by man, the large antler size seen as a ‘maladaptation’

The Irish Elk or Giant Deer, was the largest deer that ever lived. It lived in Eurasia, from Ireland to the east of Lake Baikal, during the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene period. The Giant Deer is famous for its formidable size (about 2.1 meters or 7 feet tall at the shoulders), and in particular for having the largest antlers of any known cervid (a maximum of 3.65 meters/12 feet from tip to tip and weighing up to 90 pounds).

This picture shows the skeletal remains of the Irish Deer compared to the size of a regular man.

CASPIAN TIGER: The third largest

Extinct since: 1970

Causes of extinction: Hunting, and loss of habitat and large wild prey are the primary causes of the loss of the subspecies.

The Caspian tiger or Persian tiger was the westernmost subspecies of tiger, was found in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Caucasus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The body of this subspecies was quite stocky and elongated with strong legs, big wide paws and unusually large claws. The ears were short and small, and gave the appearance of being without hair on the tips. Around the cheeks the Caspian tiger was generously furred and the rest of its fur was long and thick. The colouration resembled that of the Bengal tiger. Male Caspian tigers were very large and weighed 169-240 kg. Females were not as large, weighing 85-135 kg.

There are still occasional claims of the Caspian tiger being sighted.

AUROCHS: A very large type of cattle

Extinct since: 1627

Causes of extinction: Humans were the cause of the decline and extinction of the aurochs. This was done through means of hunt, but also through competition for its feeding ground by domesticated cattle.

One of Europe’s most famous extinct animals, the aurochs or urus (Bos primigenius) were a very large type of cattle. Aurochs evolved in India some two million years ago, migrated into the Middle East and further into Asia, and reached Europe about 250,000 years ago.

Attempts to breed aurochs back into existence have been carried out. In the 1920s, 2 German zoologists, under the direction of Hitler, were directed to recreate the aurochs. The result is the breed called Heck Cattle, which bears an incomplete resemblance to what is known about the physiology of the wild aurochs.

In more recent years, 2010, Italian scientists are hoping to use genetic expertise and selective breeding of modern-day wild cattle to recreate the aurochs.

GREAT AUK: Largest of all auks

Extinct since: 1844

Causes of extinction: Hunted to extinction.

Standing about 75 centimetres or 30-34 inches high and weighing around 5 kg, the flightless Great Auk was the largest of the auks. It had white and glossy black feathers, which were used to make hats.

CAVE LION: One of the largest lions ever

Extinct since: 2000 years ago.

Causes of extinction: Hunting, climate change, disappearance of usual prey.

The cave lion, also known as the European or Eurasian cave lion, is an extinct subspecies of lion known from fossils and a wide variety of prehistoric art. This subspecies was one of the largest lions. An adult male, which was found in 1985 near Siegsdorf (Germany), had a shoulder height of around 1.2m and a length of 2.1m without a tail, which is about the same size as a very big modern lion. This male was even exceeded by other specimens of this subspecies. Therefore this cat may have been around 5-10% bigger than modern lions. It apparently went extinct about 10,000 years ago, during the Würm glaciation, though there are some indications it may have existed as recently as 2,000 years ago, in the Balkans.

DODO: The archetype of extinct species

Extinct since: late 17th century.

Causes of extinction: Human activity, hunting

The Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was a flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius. Related to pigeons and doves, it stood about a meter tall (three feet), lived on fruit and nested on the ground.

It is commonly used as the archetype of an extinct species because its extinction occurred during recorded human history, and was directly attributable to human activity.

Tags: animals, extinct