Extinct and endangered animals since 1500
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
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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
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It is said that between 11,000 and 58,000 animal and plant species irreversibly go extinct each year, but there is also good news: around 18,000 new species are described and named by taxonomists each year; this number includes extinct or fossilized organisms, as well as bacteria and viruses. Even in
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Poisonous stubfoot toad from Chiriquí Province The Chiriqui harlequin frog was once widespread in the Cordillera de Talamanca, a mountain range in Costa Rica, and in western Panama. The species was last seen in 1996. The IUCN Red List has listed the frog from the stubfoot toad genus (Atelopus) as
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Wanted: Oophaga speciosa The not particularly shy, diurnal, strikingly red splendid poison frog was hard to miss, especially since its range in western Panama was quite small. This is probably exactly what proved fatal for the amphibian from the family of poison frogs (Dendrobatidae): The splendid poison frog was extremely popular
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Toughie—another endling A few treefrogs — among them a male named Toughie—arrived in 2005 from the montane cloud forest of central Panama at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, where they were cared for and where attempts were made to breed them. In vain: the tadpoles died every time before metamorphosing into
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Honduran frog species with a small range The Corquin robber frog lived in the constantly misty and humid montane rainforest, at an elevation of 1,400 to 1,840 meters above sea level, in Montaña de Celaque National Park in western Honduras. Its former range in the Cordillera de Celaque mountain range,
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McCranie’s robber frog: An unfortunate name The biologist James McCranie was not at all happy with the common name McCranie’s robber frog or McCranie’s Robber Frog that was given to the frog species Craugastor chrysozetetes. He would have preferred a name that reflected the species’ locality, such as Cerro Búfalo Streamside Frog. The
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