ScienceToday

It’s very sad how we see certain species going extinct, knowing that there’s nothing we can do to save them. But let’s not forget that their extinction is also caused by humankind, mostly due to hunting or climate change.

We had to say goodbye to animals such as the male northern white rhinoceros, the black rhino of Cameroon, the dodo, the woolly mammoth, the Pinta Island tortoise, the Tasmanian tiger, the saber-tooth cat, and others. Sudan, the last male northern white rhino died on 19 March 2018. In fact, Sudan was euthanized because he had a lot of health problems and complications related to age.

He was 45 years old and had been infertile for years, so he could not save the northern white rhino as a species. The sad thing, however, is that there are only two northern white rhinoceros on Earth, both female.

And we’re definitely the ones to blame for their death, since we used our powerful weapons, hunted them, and seen them as trophies. And even though they are so big and strong, they didn’t stand a chance.

Extinction is also caused by habitat loss. And even though we didn’t use weapons and hunted them, we’re still responsible for building malls, soccer fields, farms, highways, factories, which can be considered weapons as well.

It’s important to understand that these big species also need big wild spaces for them to thrive, and we haven’t left almost anything untouched. This is very sad and I really hope we’re going to do something about it unless we want to lose almost all animal species in a century or less.

However, there are also certain species that are considered exciting even though they aren’t. Read on to discover the 12 species thought extinct but actually aren’t!