Presentation on theme: "Extinct ‘no longer in existence; that has ended or died out’ For example: Dinosaurs are extinct dictionary.reference.com."— Presentation transcript:
Extinct ‘no longer in existence; that has ended or died out’ For example: Dinosaurs are extinct dictionary.reference.com
Native to the island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, was known to mankind for less than 100 years... but that's all it took for us to eradicate the species. It wasn't so much that humans killed the stubby, rotund birds directly, but our decimation of their habitat and food source did an awful lot to hasten their demise. And then there are the pigs, dogs and other predators that we introduced to the isolated island, where they ravaged the birds' nests and generally harassed them. 1: The Dodo (Raphus cucullatus)
Source: science.discovery.com 3: Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) How do you go from being the most common bird species in North America to being nothing more than a sad footnote in American history? Well, it helps if you taste good. While passenger pigeons were hunted as a crop nuisance for years, it wasn't until pigeon meat got popular that things took a turn for the worst. It also sure didn't help that westward-bound settlers were chopping down the birds' habitat at an alarming pace. The last passenger pigeon died in a Cincinnati zoo in 1914. Her name was Martha.
Great Auk (Pinguinu s impennis) Nearly 3 feet tall, Hunted as food and bait, the last auks were observed in 1844 off the coast of Iceland. The nesting pair were killed by fishermen, who made sure not just to kill the birds for their pricey meat, but also to crush their lone remaining egg. Thanks, guys.
Baiji White Dolphin The Baiji white dolphin is one of the most recent species to fall victim to human civilization. Native to the Yangtze River in China. It was nearly blind and quite intelligent. A 2006 expedition searched the Yangtze for six weeks, but didn't find any The aquatic mammal had fallen prey to hunters and fishermen, as fishing boats, complete with their entangling gear, began to crowd the river in the 1950s and '60s..
Steller's Sea Cow Land cows eat grass, but these "sea cows" once grazed on kelp in the Bering Sea. A relative of the smaller, much-beleaguered manatee, the gentle sea cows were over 25 feet long and may have weighed as much as 10 tons. By the time German naturalist Georg Steller found and described them in 1741, their population was already threatened, perhaps due to hunting by indigenous peoples. Their extermination would quickly continue with the arrival of Alaska-bound European fishermen and seal hunters. The sea cows were rapidly hunted for food, skins (used to make boats) and oil (for lamps), and by 1768, less than 30 years after Steller found them, the Steller's sea cow was extinct.
Golden Toad The first record of the Golden Toad was by herpetologist Jay Savage in 1966. None have been seen since 1989. It last bred in normal numbers in 1987, and its breeding sites were well known. In 1987, due to erratic weather, the pools dried up before the larva had matured. Out of potential 30,000 toads, only 29 had survived.