Animals that disappeared through the fault of man. Rare and endangered animals

In nature, something is constantly changing, and these changes can be both insignificant and global. Unstable climate, epidemics, environmental pollution, deforestation - all this has a negative impact on the animal world. All forms of life on Earth are closely interrelated and the disappearance of one or another species is reflected in other types of ecosystem. The fact that on our planet there are rare and endangered animals - it is mostly human fault.

Intensified hunting at the end of the glacial period led to the disappearance of the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave bear and the horned deer.

Much harm to the animal world brought the invention of fire by man. Fires destroyed huge areas of forests.

The negative influence of man on the animal world intensified with the development of agriculture and cattle breeding. The result of this is simply the disappeared animals and birds that lost their habitat, as thick forests were replaced by steppes and savannahs.

Concern for animals and plants has long been the task of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Work on this and other organizations. Rare and endangered animals (like plants) are recorded in the Red Book. The country in whose territory the endangered species live, is responsible to the whole of humanity for their preservation. Currently, in the reserves, zakazniks create conditions for the conservation of rare animals, where they are looked after, fed, protected from diseases and predators.

Special pages of the Red Book have an ominous name - the Black Book. It records what animals have disappeared forever from the face of the earth, since 1600. The Black Book is a warning for people and a reminder of those representatives of our world who can not be returned. The book of extinct animals is constantly replenished. There are already several hundred species on its pages. And this is a very sad statistics.

This article describes some animals that disappeared through human fault.

Tasmanian, or marsupial wolf

The homeland of this animal is the mainland Australia and the island of New Guinea. For the first time the marsupial wolf had to change its habitat after people transported dingo dogs to the island . Released them marsupial wolf was on the island of Tasmania, where it began mercilessly exterminating local farmers, trying to protect the sheep.

The last representative of the species was killed in 1930. The date of his final disappearance is 1936, when the last Tasmanian wolf died of old age in the Australian zoo.

Woolly Mammoth

There is an opinion that the birthplace of this animal is Siberia, and later it spread across Europe and North America. Mammoth was not as huge as it is commonly believed. In size, it was slightly larger than the modern elephant.

These animals, who disappeared through the fault of man (presumably), lived in groups. They moved from place to place in search of food, which they needed a considerable amount. A group of mammoths was headed by a female.

The complete extinction of this species of animals occurred about ten thousand years ago. Modern researchers tend to believe that the main reason for the extinction of mammoths was people, although there are many other theories (climate change, epidemics, etc.).

The Mauritius Dodo (dodo)

For a long time this bird was considered mythical, not existing in nature.
And only after a specially organized expedition to Mauritius discovered the remains of the dodo, the existence of the species was officially recognized. In addition, it was proved that these birds were exterminated by people.

The threat to the existence of dodo was Dutch sailors who discovered it in 1598. The Mauritius dodo completely disappeared allegedly in 1681. The travelers, as well as the animals brought by the colonists to Mauritius, contributed to this.

Sea cow

The expedition of Vitus Bering discovered this animal in 1741. Doctor Georg Steller is the author of the most detailed description of the sea (steller's) cow. Actually, a new species was named after him.

The animal living on the coast of the Commander Islands was huge and was inactive. The absence of fear of people and delicious meat caused its complete extermination only thirty years after the discovery.

Meat and fat were used for food, skins made boats. The process of catching and killing a sea cow was often very cruel: the animal was thrown with spears and allowed to swim away in the hope that the body of the deceased cow would take to the shore.

The species was completely exterminated in 1768.

Passenger pigeon

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, these birds were the most common on Earth, but, despite this, they could not survive.

On pigeons, the residence of which was the territory of the modern US and Canada, actively hunted colonists arrived in America.

The number of birds decreased gradually until about 1870, then a sharp decrease in their number occurred. The last species representative was found in the wild in 1900.

The year when this species completely disappeared from the face of the earth, it is considered 1914, when a bird, named Martha, died in one of the zoos.

North African cow antelope

An animal from the subfamily of large antelopes that live in Africa, disappeared from the map of the Earth in the middle of the twentieth century.

Due to the fact that these animals were actively hunting, the last representatives of this species could be found only in the places of the African continent, which are very difficult for humans. In 1954 the animals died out finally.

The Javan Tiger

In the nineteenth century, this tiger could be found on the territory of the island of Java. The animal constantly plagued local residents, which, perhaps, became the reason for active hunting for it.

By 1950, there were about 25 tigers in Java, and half of them lived in a specially created reserve. Unfortunately, this did not help save the population - in 1970 there were only seven tigers.

In the same year the animal disappeared completely from the face of the earth. Although it is still sometimes reported that the island was again discovered Javanese tiger. But there is no documentary confirmation of these cases.

Zanzibar leopard

The history of the destruction of this animal is very unusual. Zanzibar leopard, local residents exterminated purposefully, going hunting for the whole village. And not meat and animal skins attracted people. It was believed that this leopard is associated with witches, who are engaged in breeding and training representatives of the species, and later use them as assistants in their dark affairs.

The extermination of leopards began in 1960. Completely disappeared these animals exactly after thirty years.

Pyrenean Capricorn

It is one of four species of Spanish wild goats. Until now, the animal did not survive, and the death of the last representative was extremely ridiculous - a tree fell down on the animal and crushed it.

The year of total extinction is 2000. Scientists have tried to clone the Pyrenean ibex, but the cub could not be saved, since he had many birth defects.

Western Black Rhinoceros

Only a few years ago the animal was declared extinct. The reason for this was the regular hunting in its habitat, which is Cameroon. These animals, who disappeared through the fault of man, had very valuable horns, which were used in many recipes of Chinese medicine.

The search for the surviving rhinoceroses began in 2006, but no results. Therefore, the species was declared extinct. In addition, other rhinos are on the verge of extinction.

The year of complete extinction of the species is considered to be 2011.

In this article, only some animals that have disappeared through human fault are represented. Over the past five hundred years, more than 844 species have been exterminated.