Caribbean - Artensterben

Extremely rare species: northern sportive lemur, Devils Hole pupfish, and cherry-throated tanager (© Wikimedia Commons – Lemur: Edward E. Louis, Jr, CC BY-SA 4.0 / Fish: Olin Feuerbacher, Public Domain / Bird: Jens Bokelaar, CC BY-SA 4.0)

7. April 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Which animals are threatened with extinction? These 8 species have fewer than 100 individuals

Species extinction is rarely an abrupt event. In many cases, the decline stretches over decades until only small, isolated remnant populations remain. Some of these species now survive with fewer than 100 individuals worldwide. Such extremely small populations are especially vulnerable to chance events, genetic impoverishment, and ongoing habitat loss.

One of the few museum specimens of the extinct Guadeloupe ameiva. (© Laure Pierre, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

15. January 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Guadeloupe ameiva—isolation, colonization & the end of an island species

Islands under pressure The West Indies—including the Lesser Antilles—are among the most species-rich regions in the world. Many lizard and snake species are found exclusively there. These endemic species have adapted over millennia to the conditions of individual islands. Yet this very specialization makes them particularly vulnerable: when habitats are

Photo of the head of a Jamaican giant galliwasp in the Natural History Museum in London. The specimen of the lizard was probably collected in the 19th century. (© Simon J. Tonge, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

20. February 2022 Doreen Fräßdorf

Jamaican giant galliwasp

Last seen in 1851 The Jamaican giant galliwasp, endemic exclusively to the Caribbean island of Jamaica, belongs to the family of diploglossids (Diploglossidae)—lizards with small but well-developed legs. A report written around 1850 by the English naturalist Philip H. Gosse indicates that the Jamaican giant galliwasp was still commonly found

A photo of the Antigua racer (Alsophis antiguae), native to the Lesser Antilles island of Antigua, which was considered the rarest snake in the world in the 1990s. Like the Jamaican racer, it belongs to the colubrid family and the subfamily Dipsadinae. (© Wallamalloo69 at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

20. February 2022 Doreen Fräßdorf

Jamaican racer

Rare or extinct? The English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse described the black racer or Jamaican racer in the mid-19th century as one of the most common snakes in Jamaica. It occurred both in the lowlands and in the mountains of the island. By the mid-20th century, the Jamaican racer had

Sloane's Urania, drawn by William Swainson and published in 1829 in Zoological Illustrations (Volume 3). (© William Swainson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

26. July 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Sloane’s Urania

Sloane’s Urania: a day-flying moth Sloane’s Urania, a strikingly beautiful moth with a wingspan of up to 7.6 centimeters, probably died out at the beginning of the 20th century because it could no longer find food plants for its caterpillars. What was special about Sloane’s Urania was not only that,