Died June 24, 2012
Pinta Island Tortoise
Chelonoidis abingdonii
Extinct in the Wild — 2012
"They were here for approximately 10,000 years, wandering the volcanic landscapes of the Galápagos. Their domed shells, uniquely shaped by millennia of isolation, told the story of evolution in slow, patient motion. When the last one died in a research station in Ecuador, he was 102 years old — and had no one left to remember him by."
Former Range
Pinta Island, Galápagos Archipelago, Ecuador
Declared Extinct 2011
Western Black Rhinoceros
Diceros bicornis longipes
Extinct — 2011
"They were here for five million years, carrying their two horns across the savannas of West Africa with the quiet inevitability of a species that had never known a predator capable of matching them. Until humans arrived. The last confirmed sighting was in 2001 in Cameroon. By 2011, the IUCN made it official: no reasonable doubt remained. The horns that drove their extinction now sit in pharmacies that never needed them."
Former Range
Cameroon, Central Africa (historically across West Africa)
Functional Extinction 2006
Baiji Dolphin
Lipotes vexillifer
Functionally Extinct — 2006
"They were here for 20 million years, navigating the brown waters of the Yangtze with a sonar system so refined it could detect a single fish in total darkness. They were the sole remaining member of their family, a lineage stretching back to the Miocene. The river that sustained them became a highway. The noise was constant. Qiqi, the last known individual, died in 2002 in an enclosure — the only place left in the Yangtze where the noise had finally stopped."
Former Range
Yangtze River, People's Republic of China
Died January 6, 2000
Pyrenean Ibex
Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica
Extinct — 2000
"They were here for hundreds of thousands of years, leaping across the Pyrenees with the casual precision of an animal that had evolved specifically for these cliffs. In 1999, a team of Spanish and French scientists attempted something extraordinary: they cloned the last living Pyrenean ibex using genetic material stored in a Madrid laboratory. A surrogate mother carried the pregnancy to term. The kid was born alive on July 30, 2003. It died seven minutes later, from a lung defect. A second extinction followed the first. No stored genetic material remains viable."
Former Range
Pyrenees Mountains, France / Spain
Extinct in the Wild 2000
Spix's Macaw
Cyanopsitta spixii
Extinct in the Wild — 2000
"They were here for at least 500 years in the canopy of the Bahia interior, Brazil, known to science since 1630 but known to the indigenous people of the region far longer. The bright blue plumage that made them famous in captivity was, in the wild, a flash of cobalt against the green — a rare sight even when they were plentiful. The last known wild Spix's macaw was a male named Complet, named for the final syllable of his species' call. He disappeared in 2000. Approximately 160 remain in captivity worldwide, in a breeding program that represents the only hope for reintroduction."
Former Range
Cerrado Biome, Bahia, Brazil (historically)
