Once these animals lived among us!
Survival matters! Human beings have hunted down animals and messed with the environment for what we say as survival struggles ie for food, self-protection, and of course sport.
These are the animals that lost their very existence due to human greed:
1. Dodo
The bird was an easy prey as it was not shy to humans. The dodos belonged to the pigeon and dove family and were native to the island of Mauritius. Dutch travelers were the first to discover them. They killed it for food as it was an easy source in the island. Dodos laid only one egg a year and that caused their numbers to decline, marking their extinction.
2. Thylacines (Tasmanian Tigers)
It had the head of a dog, stripes of a cat and the pouch of a kangaroo. Their killing started after farmers complained about their livestock going missing, and the only way out was to exterminate them on a large scale. The Van Diemen’s Land Company hunted it down for its fur. By 1936, the last known thylacine named "Benjamin," died at the Hobart zoo.
3. Elephant Bird
The Elephant Bird, (Aepyornis), was the largest bird that ever lived. At 10-foot-tall, this 1,000-pound behemoth once roamed the island of Madagascar. Related to ostriches and emus, the elephant bird evolved at a time when birds ruled the earth and had existed for 60 million years. But thanks to humans, the bird was hunted to extinction.
4. Warrah
A type of wolf, the warrah was the only land mammal found in the Falkland Islands, which was uninhabited by humans until the 1760s. The wolves were safe till then but after human inhabitation. the numbers began to drop steadily. When settlers arrived, they saw the wolves as a threat to their livestock.
5. Schomburgk’s Deer
Once found in Thailand, the deer was known to have magic antlers which had the power to cure diseases. Human settlement and agriculture destroyed most of their liveable habitat. The last wild Schomburgk’s deer was killed in 1932, and the last domesticated deer died in 1938.
6. Tecopa Pupfish
The Tecopa Pupfish lived in the Mojave Desert in the outflows of water from the South and North Tecopa Hot Springs. In the 1950s, bathhouses and spring pools were expanded to accommodate those who came to enjoy a swim. That caused the fish to be pushed downstream. The currents were much swifter and the waters were colder and the Tecopa pupfish became extinct in or around 1970. The last sighting was on February 2, 1970
7. Sea Mink
Prized for its fur, this tiny creature was vigorously hunted until its extinction in the 1860s. Found in the Falkland Islands, the Sea Mink is the only other terrestrial mammal to have been wiped out from existence.
8. Muskox
Muskox inhabited the Arctic for thousands of years, and their long shaggy hair was well adapted to the bitter cold. Over-hunting in the 1900s until the 1930s forced this species off the face of the planet. They were mostly killed for their hides or just to keep as trophies!
These are the animals that lost their very existence due to human greed:
1. Dodo
The bird was an easy prey as it was not shy to humans. The dodos belonged to the pigeon and dove family and were native to the island of Mauritius. Dutch travelers were the first to discover them. They killed it for food as it was an easy source in the island. Dodos laid only one egg a year and that caused their numbers to decline, marking their extinction.
2. Thylacines (Tasmanian Tigers)
It had the head of a dog, stripes of a cat and the pouch of a kangaroo. Their killing started after farmers complained about their livestock going missing, and the only way out was to exterminate them on a large scale. The Van Diemen’s Land Company hunted it down for its fur. By 1936, the last known thylacine named "Benjamin," died at the Hobart zoo.
3. Elephant Bird
The Elephant Bird, (Aepyornis), was the largest bird that ever lived. At 10-foot-tall, this 1,000-pound behemoth once roamed the island of Madagascar. Related to ostriches and emus, the elephant bird evolved at a time when birds ruled the earth and had existed for 60 million years. But thanks to humans, the bird was hunted to extinction.
4. Warrah
A type of wolf, the warrah was the only land mammal found in the Falkland Islands, which was uninhabited by humans until the 1760s. The wolves were safe till then but after human inhabitation. the numbers began to drop steadily. When settlers arrived, they saw the wolves as a threat to their livestock.
5. Schomburgk’s Deer
Once found in Thailand, the deer was known to have magic antlers which had the power to cure diseases. Human settlement and agriculture destroyed most of their liveable habitat. The last wild Schomburgk’s deer was killed in 1932, and the last domesticated deer died in 1938.
6. Tecopa Pupfish
The Tecopa Pupfish lived in the Mojave Desert in the outflows of water from the South and North Tecopa Hot Springs. In the 1950s, bathhouses and spring pools were expanded to accommodate those who came to enjoy a swim. That caused the fish to be pushed downstream. The currents were much swifter and the waters were colder and the Tecopa pupfish became extinct in or around 1970. The last sighting was on February 2, 1970
7. Sea Mink
Prized for its fur, this tiny creature was vigorously hunted until its extinction in the 1860s. Found in the Falkland Islands, the Sea Mink is the only other terrestrial mammal to have been wiped out from existence.
8. Muskox
Muskox inhabited the Arctic for thousands of years, and their long shaggy hair was well adapted to the bitter cold. Over-hunting in the 1900s until the 1930s forced this species off the face of the planet. They were mostly killed for their hides or just to keep as trophies!
Comments
Post a Comment