Extinct and endangered animals since 1500
Australia is one of the world’s major centers of reptile diversity. Around 10% of all known lizard and snake species live on the continent, and about 98% of Australia’s species occur nowhere else. Yet comparatively little is known about the conservation status of many of these animals. A Pacific Conservation
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For more than two decades, there had been no confirmed record. Now it is certain: The Mindoro bleeding-heart (Gallicolumba platenae) lives on. In August 2026, a camera trap photographed a single bird on the Philippine island of Mindoro—the first confirmed image of the Critically Endangered species since 2005. This predominantly
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For more than four decades, the spinach pipefish (Microphis spinachioides) had not been scientifically documented. Known only from Papua New Guinea, this freshwater fish belongs to the pipefish family and is therefore related to seahorses. In June 2026, the long-lost species resurfaced: On the lower Sepik, New Guinea’s longest river,
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How many species of Galápagos giant tortoises are there, exactly? There is probably no simple answer to this question. On the archipelago’s different islands and volcanoes, separate populations evolved, some of which differ markedly in body shape, behavior, and genetic makeup. One classification system commonly used today groups them as
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A bird about which almost nothing is known The coppery thorntail is known from only two male museum specimens. Only fragmentary information survives about where and when the two birds were found: The type specimen must have been collected before the scientific description was published in 1852, while the collection
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A tragic story Like the dodo, the Stephens Island wren or Lyall’s wren is one of the best-known symbols of human-caused extinction. Its story is often told with dramatic simplicity: a cat that arrived on Stephens Island with the lighthouse keepers discovered a previously unknown, flightless bird there—and single-handedly wiped
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Hamburg is not only a port city, but also a city of waterways. The Elbe, Alster, and Bille rivers, along with numerous streams, canals, tidal channels, and marsh waters, provide habitat for a diverse community of fishes and cyclostomes. However, the new Red List of Hamburg’s Freshwater Fishes and Cyclostomes
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Why do some animal species face a particularly high risk of extinction, while others survive even major changes to their environment? Steller’s sea cow was hunted intensively, the crescent nail-tailed wallaby was driven back by introduced foxes and cats, and the Bramble Cay melomys ultimately lost what little habitat it
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A mysterious bird The Himalayan quail is one of Asia’s most enigmatic bird species. It has not been conclusively recorded since December 1876, and all subsequent targeted searches failed to produce a confirmed find. Yet it is still not officially considered extinct. The IUCN continues to list the Himalayan quail,
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More than one million insect species have been scientifically described to date. That sounds like an enormous number, but it may represent only a small fraction of the true diversity. A new PNAS study concludes that at least 14 to 20 million insect species may exist worldwide. Previous estimates, by
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