Let's talk about some fascinating extinct animals and their last recorded sightings. The Barbary lion, also known as the North African lion, roamed the Maghreb but was hunted to near extinction, with the last wild sighting in 1956 and about 80-100 still in captivity. The dodo, a flightless bird from Mauritius, disappeared rapidly due to invasive species and habitat destruction, with its last confirmed sighting in 1662. Steller's sea cow was discovered in 1741 and hunted to extinction within just 27 years, leaving only bones and fossils as evidence. The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, was last confirmed in the wild in 1930, and the last one in captivity died in 1936 at Hobart Zoo. Credit:
Wild Barbary lion: By Marcelin Flandrin - http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0060174, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69361421
CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/:
Rau Quagga: By Oggmus, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33036992
Paradise Parrot: By Huub Veldhuijzen van Zanten/Naturalis Biodiversity Center, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42715466
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0:
Xanthium italicum: By Enrico Blasutto, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14643796
CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0:
Museum für Naturkunde: By Laika ac - https://flic.kr/p/hKyLfB, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31721368
CC BY 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5:
Chytridiomycosis: By Forrest Brem, Riders of a Modern-Day Ark. Gewin V. PLoS Biology Vol. 6, No. 1, e24 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060024, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0060024., https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3562467
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Wild Barbary lion: By Marcelin Flandrin - http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0060174, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69361421
CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/:
Rau Quagga: By Oggmus, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33036992
Paradise Parrot: By Huub Veldhuijzen van Zanten/Naturalis Biodiversity Center, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42715466
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0:
Xanthium italicum: By Enrico Blasutto, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14643796
CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0:
Museum für Naturkunde: By Laika ac - https://flic.kr/p/hKyLfB, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31721368
CC BY 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5:
Chytridiomycosis: By Forrest Brem, Riders of a Modern-Day Ark. Gewin V. PLoS Biology Vol. 6, No. 1, e24 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060024, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0060024., https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3562467
Animation is created by Bright Side.
#brightside
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FunTranscript
00:00Currently, there are approximately 20 billion animals inhabiting our world.
00:06If everything were ideal, we would have 5 billion more animals on Earth.
00:11But many species have gone extinct, and around 44,000 species are currently in danger.
00:18The largest, most recent mass extinction event in history occurred during the dinosaur era,
00:23leading to the eradication of 75% of species on Earth.
00:29The Tulaci wallaby is a long-lost relative of today's kangaroo.
00:34But they had a hidden superpower – night vision.
00:37That's why they were mostly active at night.
00:39They were 3 feet tall and fed on grass, fruit leaves, and other plants.
00:45Wallabies lived in grassy areas near swamps and other water bodies, but not for long.
00:50By the 19th century, their numbers had gone down, bringing them to the edge of extinction.
00:56Only 14 wallabies had been left in the wild by 1920.
01:00A rescue mission was launched – they tried to capture the last 14 animals to protect
01:05them.
01:06But the situation got out of control, and 10 wallabies lost their lives.
01:11The 4 remaining ones were transferred to a special facility, and in 1935, the last animal
01:17passed away.
01:19Only one picture of the Tulaci wallaby is left now.
01:22There were reports of the animal's sightings after that, but no proof was shown, and the
01:27creature was officially declared extinct in the 70s.
01:32Short-faced bears were a unique species that lived in North America, particularly Alaska.
01:38It was a massive bear, weighing around 1,500 pounds.
01:42When standing on its hind legs, it was around 12 feet tall – a whole foot taller than
01:47today's biggest beast in this family, the polar bear.
01:51This animal was different from today's bears because almost all of them are omnivores
01:56except for polar bears.
01:58But this monster was solely carnivorous, which was the reason for their extinction.
02:03During the end of the Ice Age, many herbivores were gone, and those bears did not have enough
02:08food to survive.
02:10They were the Usain Bolt of the bear world, the fastest bruins to have ever lived, reaching
02:16a top speed of 40 mph, which is 5 miles faster than grizzlies.
02:22There are around 400 million pigeons in the world now.
02:26Some time ago, in America, a species of birds called passenger pigeons were abundant throughout
02:32the country, especially in the eastern forests.
02:35There were more than a billion of them, but they went from a billion to zero in a few
02:40years.
02:41They had small heads and necks, but long tails and wings, and strong breast muscles that
02:47allowed them to fly super long distances.
02:50The last passenger pigeon passed away in captivity in 1914.
02:54It was named Martha.
02:56With that, the ecosystem in the US has never seen this bird again.
03:03Elks are enormous animals, but they look tiny when you compare them to long-gone Irish elks.
03:09That elk was around 7 feet tall at the shoulder with a humongous antler of 12 feet.
03:15Today, elk are only 4.5 feet tall at the shoulder and have around 4-foot-long antlers.
03:21Despite its name, this elk was found all over the world, from Asia to Europe.
03:26It got its name because, in Ireland near Dublin, researchers found a perfectly preserved specimen.
03:33Since then, it's been called the Irish elk.
03:36The last one passed away in Ireland.
03:38The main reason for their disappearance was their inability to adapt to changes.
03:43When the Ice Age ended, the elk could not survive and became extinct.
03:49Somewhere deep in the forests of Costa Rica lives the interesting-looking golden toad.
03:55It was discovered in 1966 in one particular spot where all toads would gather to mate.
04:01In 1967, a large population of this golden nugget was noted in that same spot.
04:08But the following year, only 10-11 toads were seen, and the year after that, in 1968, only
04:15one lonely male toad showed up at the spot.
04:19For years, there were searches for golden toads.
04:22In 2004, the toads were officially declared extinct.
04:27Humans were not responsible this time.
04:29The drought in the area in the 80s had a significant impact on the toads.
04:34Still, the last straw was the arrival of a new fungal species that caused the animal's
04:39skin to thicken, eventually leading to the toad passing away.
04:43This chytrid fungus is responsible for the extinction of more than 90 frog and amphibian
04:49species, becoming one of the biggest threats to their lives.
04:55Canada is a very cold country, no surprise there, and nobody would expect tropical birds
05:00like parrots to live there.
05:02However, there was a parrot species that lived in America and some parts of Canada.
05:08I'm talking about the Carolina parakeet.
05:11Those were truly beautiful birds with orange-yellowish heads and green bodies.
05:16Their favorite rest spots were big trees alongside rivers.
05:20This parrot's favorite food was cockle-birth seeds, which are poisonous to us.
05:25But the bird had no problem eating them.
05:27Also, they used the dangerous cockle-births as a defense mechanism.
05:32After they ingested loads of them, their meat became poisonous, and predators do not enjoy
05:37eating toxic birds.
05:39Carolina parakeets were abundant, there were millions of them.
05:43But since the Ice Age, their numbers had been gradually going down because of natural reasons,
05:49mainly temperature.
05:50By 1935, no such parakeets were left in the wild.
05:56Today's African lion had a much more prominent and notorious cousin, the Barbary lion.
06:03Those cats were mentioned in many famous old books.
06:06They were described as mean, terrifying beasts.
06:09It's believed that they were the largest lion species ever.
06:12Those big cats weighed around 600 pounds and were 9 feet from the head to tail.
06:18Unfortunately, this lion was declared extinct in the 90s due to many factors.
06:23Today, we only have one photo of this animal taken from a plane.
06:29Paradise parrots were native to Australia.
06:32They were genuinely amazing birds with captivating colors.
06:36What was unique about them was their nesting habits.
06:39They only nested in termite mounds.
06:42This parrot was always on the edge of extinction, and the reason for that is still unknown.
06:47Mice, rats, and other animals also hunted them, and it added fuel to the fire.
06:52The last bird was spotted in the year 1972.
06:56Since then, paradise parrots have only been seen in museums.
07:01The Gulf of Mexico was once home to Caribbean monk seals.
07:05This species of seals enjoyed spending time in the warm subtropical climate of the Caribbean.
07:12Most of the time, they were found near reefs and islands, foraging for food.
07:16Like most of us, they also loved sandy beaches and were usually seen in groups of 100 seals
07:23resting before the next adventure.
07:25In the year 1886, monk seals were declared extinct.
07:29You can still see this animal in two museums.
07:32Both are located in the UK.
07:36As we all know, zebras have black and white stripes.
07:39But once, a zebra species had only half the body covered with brown and white stripes.
07:45The rest was just brown, and the belly was white.
07:49It was called the quagga.
07:50They lived in the southern part of Africa in grass fields and wet pastures, like today's
07:55zebras, and ate grass and other plants.
07:58The last quagga perished in 1888.
08:01But not all hope is lost.
08:03Today, extensive research is being done to bring this animal back into the wild.
08:10Australia is home to many outlandish animals, but the craziest ones are probably gastric-brooding
08:16frogs.
08:17This species is not like your ordinary frog that lays eggs.
08:21They hatch their young inside their stomach and give birth by vomiting around 25 fully-formed
08:28young frogs.
08:30Sometimes their stomach becomes so bloated that they have to breathe through their skin.
08:34Two species of this frog were discovered in the northern and southern parts of Australia
08:39in the 1970s by Mike Taylor.
08:42A decade after their discovery, both species are gone.
08:45The main reason for their extinction is the chytrid fungus.
08:50Luckily for them, they're also part of a de-extinction program that's putting serious
08:54efforts into bringing them back into the wild.
08:58That's it for today!
09:01So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
09:06friends!
09:07And if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!