How Many Animals Have Gone Extinct By Humans

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Wooly mammoth (extinct; extinction) — woolly mammoth© Michal Lindner/Fotolia

Humans are non always nifty at self-moderation, especially when things seem both bountiful and tasty. While extinctions are always multi-faceted, the extermination of some species can be near directly linked to the insatiable appetites of modern humans. Read on to detect a few of the animals we take lost to our unthinking exploitation.

Dodo - Raphus cucullatus

dodo
Dodo (Raphus cucullatus).
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc./Christine McCabe

"Dead as a dodo." Yep. These flightless, ground-nesting birds were one time bountiful on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Larger than turkeys, dodos weighed about 23 kg (nearly fifty pounds) and had blue-gray plumage and a large head. With no natural predators, the birds were unfazed by the Portuguese sailors that discovered them around 1507. These and subsequent sailors quickly decimated the dodo population as an easy source of fresh meat for their voyages. The after introduction of monkeys, pigs, and rats to the island proved catastrophic to the languishing birds every bit the mammals feasted on their vulnerable eggs. The last dodo was killed in 1681. Sadly, very few scientific descriptions or museum specimens be.
Steller'southward Bounding main Cow - Hydrodamalis gigas

Steller's sea moo-cow
The Steller's ocean cow (Hydrodamalis gigas), extinct since the 18th century, fed on kelp growing nigh the shore.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Discovered in 1741 by German naturalist Georg Due west. Steller, Steller's sea cows once inhabited the near-shore areas of the Komandor Islands in the Bering Ocean. Much larger than nowadays-solar day manatees and dugongs, Steller's sea cows reached a length of 9–ten meters (over xxx anxiety) and weighed around ten metric tons (22,000 pounds). These massive, docile animals floated at the surface of the coastal waters but unfortunately had little power to submerge. This made them easy targets for the harpoons of Russian seal hunters, who prized them as a source of meat on long bounding main journeys. Killing was ofttimes wasteful and the species was exterminated by 1768, less than 30 years later on it was first discovered. No preserved specimens exist today.
Passenger Pigeon - Ectopistes migratorius

passenger pigeon
Rider pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), mounted.
Bill Reasons—The National Audubon Club Collection/Photo Researchers

One time famed for its massive migratory flocks that would darken the heaven for days, the rider pigeon was hunted to extinction in the early 1900s. Billions of these gregarious birds in one case inhabited eastern Northward America and were like in appearance to the mourning pigeon. As American settlers pressed west, passenger pigeons were slaughtered past the million yearly for their meat and shipped past railway carloads for auction in city markets. Hunters often raided their nesting grounds and annihilated entire colonies in a single convenance season. From 1870 the pass up of the species became precipitous and some unsuccessful attempts were made to breed the birds in captivity. The concluding known passenger pigeon, named Martha, died on Sept. 1, 1914, in the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio.
Eurasian Aurochs - Bos primigenius primigenius

aurochs skeleton
Skeleton of an aurochs (Bos primigenius), an extinct wild ox of Europe.
AdstockRF

One of the ancestors of modern cattle, the Eurasian aurochs was a large, wild ox that once ranged across the steppes of Europe, Siberia, and Key Asia. Standing ane.eight meters (six feet) high at the shoulder with substantial, forrad-curving horns, Eurasian aurochs were known for their aggressive temperaments and were battled for sport in ancient Roman arenas. Equally a game creature, Eurasian aurochs were hunted excessively and gradually became locally extinct in many areas throughout their range. Past the 13th century, populations had declined then much that the right to hunt them was restricted to nobles and royal households in eastern Europe. In 1564, gamekeepers recorded simply 38 animals in a majestic survey and the last known Eurasian aurochs, a female, died in Poland in 1627 from natural causes.
Great Auk - Pinguinus impennis

bully auk
Bully auk (Pinguinus impennis), lithograph of an illustration by John James Audubon.
From The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the United States, Vol. Vii, by John James Audubon, 1844

The great auk was a flightless seabird that bred in colonies on rocky islands in the Due north Atlantic, namely St. Kilda, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Funk Island off Newfoundland. The birds were approximately 75 cm (30 inches) long and had short wings which were used for underwater swimming. Utterly defenseless, great auks were killed by rapacious hunters for nutrient and bait, particularly during the early 1800s. Enormous numbers were captured by sailors, who often drove the birds up planks and slaughtered them on their style into the hold of a vessel. The concluding known specimens were killed in June 1844 at Eldey island, Iceland, for a museum drove.
Woolly Mammoth - Mammuthus primigenius

woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius)
Woolly mammoth replica in a museum exhibit in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
FPLA/SuperStock

Thanks to a number of well-preserved, frozen carcasses in Siberia, the woolly mammoth is the best-known of all mammoth species. These massive animals died out effectually 7,500 years ago, after the end of the last Ice Historic period. While climate change definitely played a significant function in their extinction, contempo studies advise that humans may take also been a driving force in their demise, or at least the final cause. Extensive hunting and the stresses of a warming climate are a lethal combination, and it seems even the mighty mammoth could not withstand the human ambition in a changing world.