Extinction: 6 species we recently lost

Lonesome George had reached celebrity status before he died in 2012. The tortoise was the last of his subspecies and an icon of his native islands ― the Galapagos. The tortoises were driven to extinction by whalers and ship merchants in the 19th century using the animals as food, along with deforestation of the islands

In 2019, the Bramble Cay melomys was officially declared extinct due to human-related climate change. Warming ocean temperatures and higher seas washed away the vegetation the animals used for shelter and food. Bramble Cay melomys lived on Australia's isolated Bramble Cay island on the surface of the Great Barrier Reef's northern tip.

What you see here is a Chinese white dolphin. That species is still alive. But a very similar-looking animal, the baiji, can no longer be spotted. No one has seen the animal in 20 years, leading it to be declared extinct in 2019. China's rapid industrialization during the 20th century led to the baiji's population decline, and it never recovered.

The species had a last moment of fame in 2011 when it was featured in the animated film "Rio." The last Spix’s macaw in the wild was seen in Brazil in 2016. It was declared extinct in the wild in 2019, but there are around 160 in captivity. Hope remains that conservation work can lead to successful rewilding of the species.

Extensive poaching during the 19th and 20th centuries caused rapid population decline of this subspecies of the black rhino, leading it to be listed as critically endangered in 2008. It was declared extinct in 2011. No western black rhinos were known to be kept in captivity, meaning the species is likely gone forever.

The ivory-billed woodpecker is, or was, the largest woodpecker in North America. In 2021, the US government's Fish and Wildlife Service proposed that the species be declared extinct. The review period is still ongoing, but the last universally accepted sighting of an ivory-billed woodpecker occurred in 1987.