Mammals - Artensterben

Äthiopische Wassermaus (Nilopegamys plumbeus) - W. H. Osgood (1928)

Illustration of the Ethiopian amphibious rat by Leon L. Pray from the first description from 1928: It is based on field studies by the nature painter Louis Agassiz Fuertes and is one of the few contemporary illustrations of the species. Its close connection to bodies of water is clearly visible. Image: L L. Pray in Osgood 1928

12. June 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Ethiopian Amphibious Rat: Only one specimen—and lost since 1927

A particularly remarkable novelty It is known from a single specimen: an adult male that the American zoologist Wilfred Hudson Osgood collected on March 20, 1927, in the Ethiopian highlands—in a small mountain stream near the source of the Little Abbai. This animal later became known as the Ethiopian amphibious

The Christmas Island pipistrelle was Australia's smallest bat and occurred exclusively on the remote Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. It had dark brown fur, hunted insects in flight, and showed no striking sexual dimorphism — males and females looked alike. (© Lindy Lumsden, verwendet mit freundlicher Genehmigung)

20. August 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

Christmas Island pipistrelle – an avoidable extinction

In the middle of the Indian Ocean, around 350 kilometers south of Java, lies remote Christmas Island—an Australian external territory just 135 square kilometers in size. Despite its small size, it once harbored a remarkable diversity of endemic species found nowhere else on Earth. One of them was the Christmas

Illustration of the Chinese river dolphin (baiji)—once a characteristic resident of the Yangtze. With its long, narrow snout and the sickle-shaped dorsal fin, the baiji was unmistakable. Today, the species is considered “functionally extinct”. (© Doc Taxon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

1. August 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

Chinese river dolphin: Is the baiji still alive?

The last confirmed sighting of the baiji, also known as the Chinese river dolphin, is now more than 20 years ago. The IUCN therefore classifies the species as “Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct)”. Scientifically, its continued existence is considered extremely unlikely, but occasional sighting reports and video recordings at least leave

Östliches Irmawallaby oder Greys Wallaby

Its external features gave the toolache wallaby a distinctly elegant appearance, which was described appreciatively even by settlers who otherwise had little interest in Australian animals. (© John Gould, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

13. July 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

Toolache Wallaby: The most beautiful, elegant and agile of all wallabies

British naturalist Frederic Wood Jones, who spent many years in Australia, called Grey’s wallaby, also known as the toolache wallaby, “probably the most beautiful and elegant of all wallabies” in 1924. The high-contrast facial markings, the banded fur on the back and the overall fine gray tone of the coat

The kouprey is among the most enigmatic wild cattle in the world. First described scientifically in 1937, it was already extremely rare at that time. Characteristic features include the frayed horn tips of mature bulls and the pronounced dewlap. Today, according to the IUCN, the kouprey is probably extinct. (© Illustration aus Coolidge, H. J. (1940). The Indo-Chinese forest ox or kouprey. Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 54(6), via Biodiversity Heritage Library)

27. June 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

The Kouprey: A Zoological Mystery

The kouprey is considered one of the most mysterious wild cattle in the world. First described by Western scientists only in 1937, this shy animal from the tropical forests of the tri-border region of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia remained scarcely studied for decades. Many zoologists saw the kouprey as a

One of the few photographs of the extinct Schomburgk's deer. The picture was taken in 1911 at the Berlin Zoological Garden. (© Lothar Schlawe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

9. June 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

Schomburgk’s deer — Could it still exist?

The riddle of Schomburgk’s deer “No one seems ever to have seen this animal; all that we think we know about it is the existence of its antlers”, noted Phya Jolamark Bhicharana wrote in 1932 about Schomburgk’s deer. The American biologist Francis Harper also wrote in 1945 that this deer—which

Nacktbrustkänguru (Caloprymnus campestris)

Desert rat-kangaroo at the Museum of Central Australia: at 25 to 28 centimeters in body length (excluding the tail), the species was slightly larger than a house rat. (© Mark Marathon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

25. February 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

The Desert Rat-kangaroo—Found, Lost, Found and Lost Again…

For the Wangkangurru, an Aboriginal people, the desert rat-kangaroo (Ngudlukanta) had been known for thousands of years. But Western science only became aware of the marsupial from the rat-kangaroo family (Potoroidae) in the 1840s, when the then governor of South Australia, George E. Grey, sent three specimens to the naturalist

The extinct quagga was about 257 centimeters long and reached a shoulder height of 125 to 135 centimeters. Unlike other zebras, its brown and white stripes were located on the front part of its body, while the rear part of the body was unstriped. (© Nicolas Marechal, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

17. November 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Quagga

Half zebra, half horse The British naturalist William Burchell is often regarded as the discoverer of the animal that travelers described as “half zebra, half horse” or “unfinished zebra“—the quagga. However, the species had already been mentioned earlier by explorers. Even before Burchell’s “discovery” in 1812, the English naturalist George

Illustration der Schwaneninseln-Ferkelratte (Geocapromys thoracatus)

The extinct Little Swan Island hutia resembled a guinea pig in appearance and reached a body length of 30 to 40 centimeters. The weight of adult animals is estimated at about one kilogram.

8. November 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Little Swan Island hutia

Survival under extreme conditions As early as 1942, the American zoologist Glover Morrill Allen warned in Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Western Hemisphere about the threats that could endanger the survival of the Little Swan Island hutia, which occurred only on Little Swan Island: “At present the species seems

The Yemen gazelle, which was described solely on the basis of skins, was probably similar in size to or larger than the mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella), which reaches a body length of up to 1.2 metres. (© The Great Mule of Eupatoria, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

4. October 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Yemen Gazelle

Named after Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba The scientific species name of the Yemen gazelle, bilkis, are derived from Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba, a legendary figure in Islamic, Jewish, and Christian traditions. Her kingdom, renowned for its wealth and cultural flourishing, lay in southern Arabia, in what is now