Seven Animals We Drove to Extinction

By: By Laura Dattaro

Published: October 17,2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The quagga was a subspecies of zebra that grazed in southern Africa until settlers, fearful that the animal might encroach upon their livestock’s grazing grounds, hunted it to extinction. The last mare died in a zoo in 1883. (FunkMonk/Wikimedia Commons)

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In the natural ebbs and flows of the Earth, species rise up and die off. Sometimes they go quietly, a few disappearing each year; other times, a catastrophe rips nearly all life from the planet at once.
It seems we may be in the midst of the latter. Earth is currently experiencing the worst rates of extinction since the infamous dinosaur die-off 65 million years ago, according to the Center for Biological Diversity — and it’s mostly our fault. Habitat loss, species relocation and climate change are all contributing to extinction rates about 1,000 to 10,000 times what should occur naturally, not to mention the purposeful killing of mass amounts of animals considered pests or trophies. Click through above to see a few of the species humans have deliberately destroyed.
MORE: Species Closest to Extinction

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Actinote zikani (Andre Freitas)