10 Rare and Unseen Photos of Animals Driven To Extinction

The onslaught of the human population is slowly taking a toll on its natural resources. The first to suffer of course is wildlife among which rare species of animals have gradually declined in number and gone extinct. Today man can only enjoy the pleasure of seeing such creatures in stone or through replicas created by studying fossils which are all that is left of them. Fortunately, there have been animals that have been driven to extinction in recent times whose records do exist even on video so take a look at 10 extinct animals.

1Quagga – Extinction in 1883

The quagga lived in South Africa as a sub species of the zebra. It appeared during the Pleistocene period till the 19th century and looked like a combination of a horse and Zebra. Quaggas existed in great numbers in karoo of Cape Province and southern Orange Free State of South Africa. Their numbers began dwindling after the Dutch began settling in South Africa. Heavy hunting caused their ultimate extinction where the last animal died in captivity in Amsterdam in 1878.

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2Bubal Hartebeest – Extinction in 1925

The Bubal Hartbeest was a sandy colored herbivore that roamed the entire north of the Saharan Desert surrounding Morocco and Egypt. They existed in herds of at least two hundred and thronged areas with adequate vegetation. During the French occupation of Algeria in the 19th century, their numbers dwindled because of hunting bringing the herds down to just one group of 15 which was observed in Morocco in 1917. The last recorded bubal hartebeest was killed in the wild in 1925 at Missur, Morocco.

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