1500 AD
Youngest
1800 AD
Early Modern Period
NEW ZEALAND Ten species of Moa Harpagornis Adzebills
INDIAN OCEAN ISLANDS - species of giant tortoise - 14 species of birds ( Dodo, Rodrigues solitaire, Réunion Solitaire
MADAGASCAR - species of elephant birds, Gen. Aepyornis, Gen. Mullerornis - 17 species of lemur : Giant Ayeaye, Sloth lemurs, Koala lemurs, Arboreal lemurs, Monkey lemurs, Pachylemur - Giant Fossa - Plesiorycteropus - Malagasy Hippopotamus
The explosion in our global human population and our rapid technological development. - Cutting down forests - Changing the courses of rivers - Pushing wild animals and plants out of farm and urban areas - Polluting wetlands with pesticides and other man-made chemicals - Industrial-scale hunting of large land animals, whales, and fish.
1900 AD
- At least 40,000,000 bison roaming the Great Plains of North America. By the end of that century, there were only a few hundred remaining because of extremely hunted with guns. The African elephant and rhinoceros, during the 20th century had been hunted near extinction with gun. - Likewise, commercial fishermen have depleted one species of fish after another during the last half century. Governments have had to step in to try to stem the tide of these human population effects on other species. However, they have been only marginally successful. -
The World Conservation Union conservatively estimates that 7,266 animal species and 8,323 plant and lichen species are now at risk of extinction primarily due to human caused habitat degradation. The endangered list includes 1/3 of all amphibian species, nearly 1/2 of the turtles and tortoises, 1/4 of the mammals, 1/5 of the sharks and rays, and 1/8 of the birds. This list does not include the many millions of species that are still unknown to science. It is likely that most of them will become extinct before they can be described and studied.
1970 AD 2000 AD
- 875 extinctions occurring between 1500 and 2009, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources