Rare Photographs of Extinct Animals

Thank you so much for posting this.

One of the things that disappoints me the most regarding our civilization (if you so choose to call it that) is our reckless disregard for other creatures on this planet. How many of these animals were killed to protect sheep? Its pretty disheartening to think of the damage we've cause to this world.

this is depressing and sad. I heard that if Bengal tigers aren't protected, they will become extinct within 50 years, because of people's greed and stupidity over their demand for tiger bones... wow... WTF

I hate people so much.

What wrong with using tiger bone? It make good wine that make you strong! Need to have tiger bone wine if you going to be with the women, you know?

I swear I've read this article somewhere else before

please make the 'which are next' addition of this.

Hatred toward people is not the answer. It is true that animal extinction can usually be traced back to human behavior or misbehavior. However, the key is in education and fostering love toward ALL living beings. That includes people, 4-legged animals, and creatures that people often kill without a second thought, such as spiders and other insects.

Promote peace and love. Educate people of all ages in compassion.... especially children as they hold the future for all of us.

I still can't figure out why people get so bent out of shape over extinctions. How arrogant we must be that we think we are simultaneously this planet's ultimate acheivement and its worst nightmare. Please. Compared to what this planet has been through over millions of years, and what it will experience in the millenia to come, we are a mosquito bite at best.

Species have been thriving and killing each other long before we arrived on the scene. Every organism has a natural impulse to survive, and it will do what it can to continue to be. That's what life does best: utilize and exploit life. Every few thousand years, an organism comes along that seems to have a leg up over the rest of the competition. That just so happens to be us at this point in time. Where's your bleeding heart for the thousands of bacteria that you murder in an instant every time you wash your hands?

Give it a few hundred-thousand more years and humanity will eventually kill itself off, or some super virus will evolve to combat our vaccines, or we will evolve into something else. Who knows? But when it happens you can all clap hands with glee. Humans as we know ourselves will become extinct, to be replaced by the next big species. Then they can have the joy of sitting around moping about how horrible they are.

I don't know about the rest of you but that Quagaa looks delicious!

When you think of an animal being extinct you mind automatically goes towards prehistoric creatures. It's amazing and sad at the same time that there are species of animals that were living during the time of photography that no longer exist.

What a shame of us the humanity to be so naive and still hunting animals knowing they are about to extinct. Thanx 4 posting pictures of amazing animals

Wild Syrian Ass. I get that when I eat Taco Bell. That beast is alive and well. LOL

It's funny that people fail to realize that the only thing that will survive on this planet is Mother Nature herself.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

The Caspian Tiger is still alive; it lives on as the Siberian Tiger. Recent studies indicate that they share 95% of the genetics with each other.

@anon801

Your ignorance about the natural world is astounding. Nothing like this has ever happened before -- a mass extinction event caused by *a single species*. Even saying that a new species *forms* "every few thousand years" is borderline retarded, let alone a species with our global ecological impact.

Of course you confuse "murder" (killing an individual of a species) with "extinction" (killing all of a species, barring them from existing ever again in the universe). And yes, species go extinct all the time, but the current rate is about a thousand times faster than before we came along.

Get lost in a tar pit, and take your 'edgy' nihilistic anti-ecology mock confusion with you.

VERY GOOD ARTICLE

I'm not gonna lie. The Tasmanian Tiger has scared the absolute hell out of me since I was little--its the only known animal that can open its jaws up to 180 degrees. Its extinction is sad, but not unwelcome.

I know species become naturally extinct over the years, but that's not the case here. Mankind is guilty of pushing these animals to extinctions, it should be treated as a serious crime.

Even if you are really aware of this kind of destruction acts sometimes it is necessary to take a look to the face of the things we have destroyed. I hope this helps people to be conscious of what we are and what we do not want to be anymore.
Thanks for it

You forgot the skunk horse: http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/8163/horse.png

Also extinct: Victoria's sense of humor.

They may be gone but they'll live in our hearts and minds forever. I particularly think their some Wild Asses running around but I digress.

Here's someone else's career that should be extinct. A MUST LISTEN!
http://concretelyambiguous.com/category/truth-in-sound/

It’s funny that people fail to realize that the only thing that will survive on this planet is this imaginary construction of mine herself.

Um, there is no "Mother Nature" and if you mean "Nature" itself then you are being way to general for a system that is constantly evolving and can reasonably be expected to continue to evolve.

what's not to realize? Nature keeps evolving, a couple dozen species go extinct and a couple hundred more are saved and thrive.

Yeah, funny people don't realize that.

Get your facts straight. The Thylacine (or Tasmanian Tiger), was native to the island of Tasmania. It never existed on mainland Australia.

how interesting to see not only the pictures but the things everyone wrote about them and the others who commented about the them...hope that makes sense..it made sense to me while i type it!

Humans suck

i like steak and burgers and hotdogs and chicken mmmm. we, as humans, earned the right to eat animals because they are stupid and we are smart. so i am not heartbroken over the loss of the 'quagga' all you need to do is get a horse and a zebra to hook up, and their back. mabie if these animals didn't to a shitty job at living they would still be around. and mike, you are retarded (and i so choose to call you that).

I wish they could have taken a photo of the Dodo. :(

feel obliged as an animal in this world to support this cause

wow!! I am from Syria and never heard of the Syrian Wild Ass, such a shame!!
I'd like a historical note, there was never any wars between Syria and Palestine.

I think it really shows how resilient the world is. Life goes on without these animals. New species are discovered daily.

While depressing, this is outstanding blogging. Thanks.

nice collections.

the tarpan looks just like any ordinary horse, no ?
oh btw, this list will get longer in the next few years.

wow.... great picture. i had never seen most before.

Humans are a virus in this planet, some days I wish we were the ones who become extinct.

@chris: Get YOUR facts straight. The Thylacine is believed to have gone extinct on the mainland prior to European settlement. The Aborigines on the mainland even painted pictures of it! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aboriginal_thylacine.jpg

PHOTOSHOPPED. idiots.

This is sad. I hope we have learned something from this. Can we all live here together?

Long Dong you r a idiot.Because of morons like you the world is slowly dying.If you kill off everything and leave humans,WE WILL DIE!!! How the fuck will we survive?And to kill a defenseless creature to try to get into a womans pants proves that your as pathetic as the people who hunt these ENDANGERED species.If the only thing going for you is a dead animal then maybe you should just give up on trying to be with females.Because I know if some man told me that he had tiger bone wine I'd kick him in the balls punch him in the face then spit on him.By telling us you hunt animals or eat endangered species just proves to me that your a coward and have to take on a animal because your to much of a whimp to take on another man.Just think about people.If you have to take out your anger with people on animals than it proves that your to scared to confront people about your problems and your a chicken shit.I noticed this list is basically cats and equines.So how is that hunting fair?you send a pack of dogs in after the cat then come in when the tigers done and kill it and think you did the work when in fact it was the dogs and this type of hunting is not coolThen you have helpess horses or asses that are destroyed horribly.Apparently most hunters like to put the ass or horse in a small feild then hunt them.Can you say COWARD?And if anyone has a problem with what I've said please come see me face to face.And lets see how much of a REAL man you are.

jmc6657 thank you for proving the reason humans are stupid.1) we were never given the reason to eat other creatures.Really what have we done thats so wonderful?besides making the world better for us. 2)animals aren't as stupid as you think.Your just an arrogant prick with your head up your ass.I would love for you to give us a reason as to why your so special in thinking you deserve everything.Have you saved the human race of any virus or medical problem?no. have you ever saved humanity from war?no have you just sit on your ass and used the system and not given anything back?yes.white trash pieces of shit like yourself ned to be killed.You are the type to treat animals and humans like crap because you think you deserve it.You deserve what life gives you,nothing except a misserable horrible life.Karma's a bitch my friend and your number one on her list.

If humans were extinct from the very being what would the world be like?would it still be a vast forst,and very little deserts?the air would be clean our water would be clean same with any meat or veggies.we wouldn't have been around to created pollution or half the bullshit the find in foods(or the planet) today.oh and "mabie if these animals didn’t to a shitty job at living they would still be around" maybe if we didn't interfer with their lives then they could live in peace.ANd for the love of god if your going to come on here and pretend to be smart you can fucking learn to spell.Because it makes you look like a fucking idiot,oh wait you did that on your own.I can't wait for humans to be whiped out we deserve everything we get for what we've done to other creatures and each other

animals should be protected. all animals including cows chickens pigs and anything with a substantial brain function. soy can taste better than meat or fowl. no one gets fat eating vegetables or vegetable products. have you been to america? 95% of all americans are obese from eating meat products. i say eat people: soylent green. if they are obese eat them. no different than eating pigs or cows. why do you think we call fat ugly obese people pigs?

People are so ignorant. Yes, species go extinct naturally but it happens over thousands if not millions of years. For so many to disappear in less than a hundred years is not okay. Hunting for food is one thing; hunting for sport or protection is another. If you want to kill things for fun you're an idiot. If you're looking for protection build a fucking fence. There is no reason why these animals should die because of people's selfish desires. And most importantly - eliminating one animal only leads to overpopulation of another.

-Humans are responsible for the desapearence of all this animals. It is realy a motive to be proud of...but i don't see human being? in this list...that is also a extinc race nowadays. Only evolved monkeys are left.

It is hard not to think about other animal species that will be new additions to the list of the extinct animals soon. The human race has not done a good job of protecting the beautiful creatures that share Earth with us. Humans may not be the ultimate demise of all, of course some species are doomed from the start, but we do play a large part.

You people who think humans don't cause problems are ignorant. if humans weren't on this earth, then the earth would florish all on its own. but now it has humans destroying the facade of the earth's beauty just to make some money. humans are pathetic.

Thank you for posting this article. It's sad and frustrating to know so many animals have become extinct and not enough is being done to protect those that are near extinction. I hope more is done to protect the beautiful animals we still have left. @ Karen E.- well said. =]

Interesting photographs, clearly. And interesting comments. I almost sense that those few who said that people can't change anything and that "we are a mosquito bite at best" are trying hard to cling to indifference and claims of "it wasn't ME who did this".

If the world becomes a plastic dump depleted of most life forms, when will it recover? If the toxic chemicals we are smart enough to manufacture disperse world-wide, how many new life forms will evolve in such a planet. As a teen I used to do biology research experiments. I learned from experience that bacteria on a petri dish eventually fill the space and kill themselves with their own waste output. They do not recover afterwards.

The answer is to work towards completing our relatively new-born intelligence as a species. If we were very smart, instead of somewhat smart, we would be taking care of the world that keeps us alive. Promoting greater awareness and moving humanity towards a better use of intelligence and compassion is probably the only way we will survive long-term, as well as keeping the planet habitable for a wide variety of life. It is not clear where we will be in one hundred years, or one thousand years, but it seems to me we must make the effort to create a more sustainable way of life. Those who care will study this and find ways to live in more harmony with the planet and each other.

It is my understanding that the last picture (supposedly showing the thylacine with a chicken in its mouth) has been demonstrated to be a hoax.

The thylacine isn't alive - it's stuffed. The picture, however, was accepted as "proof" that the thylacines were responsible for killing chickens, and thus lended credence to the bounties.

To my understanding, thylacines were/are nocturnal hunters.