Extinct Animals: Alive Only in Photographs

Many extinct animals are seen only in drawings or fossil reconstructions, and it’s left up to the viewer’s imagination to piece together what they must have actually looked like before they passed into oblivion. But there are quite a few animals now extinct that can still be experienced on at least a limited scale by seeing them in photographs. Here are three particularly fascinating animals that will never be seen alive again.

Tasmanian Tiger
The Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine - actually became extinct twice. It originally lived on the mainland of Australia thousands of years before Europeans settled the continent, but a small population survived on the island of Tasmania alongside several other native species including the more widely known Tasmanian Devil. The tiger wasn’t actually a tiger and wasn’t even a remote relative of cats or dogs at all. Instead, if was the biggest carnivorous marsupial in the modern world, and it carried its babies in a pouch like a kangaroo. The closest living relative to the Tasmanian Tiger is the Tasmanian Devil.

The strongest cause of the extinction of the Tasmanian Tiger was a huge hunting campaign launched by the government of Tasmania between 1888 and 1909. The hunt was instituted because officials believed the tigers were threatening sheep and hens. The last known wild Tasmanian Tiger was shot and killed by a farmer who spotted the tiger near his hen house. The last one to die in captivity was living at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania. Even though the tiger, named Benjamin, was the last known living Tasmanian Tiger, he was locked out of his sheltered cage during bad weather and died from neglect.

Quagga
The Quagga was a very unique species of Plains Zebra that was photographed only once, in 1870 at the London Zoo. The Quagga was quite a distinct animal because it had striped on only the front half of its body rather than all over. Midway along the hair transitioned to a solid light brown or beige along its belly and rear, and was white along the legs. Because of its unique hide coloring, the Quagga was a popular target for poachers and hunters, who killed the beasts rampantly. The last wild Quagga in existence was killed in the late 1870s. The species was officially declared extinct when the last Quagga died at a zoo in the Netherlands in 1883.

Baiji River Dolphin
One of the most recently extinct species was also one of the most peaceful and lovely. The Baiji River Dolphin had lived in the Yangtze River in China for at least 20 million years. Since the increase in Chinese industrialization in recent decades, the population of the Baiji River Dolphin had been declining steadily because China uses the Yangtze River as one of its primary trade routes and shipping arteries, and as a source of hydroelectric power. As a result of this heavy use, the river is now one of the most polluted waterways in the world. About 12% of the population of the world works and lives inside the catchment zone of the river.

Chinese tales of history refer to the Baiji River Dolpin as a symbol of peace and prosperity. But that honor was stripped from the majestic creature during the "Great Leap Forward" in China, when officials called on people to hunt the animal for the purpose of redefining the prosperity of China and doing away with traditional symbols of prosperity. Unfortunately, the Chinese government may have gotten what they wanted by doing away with their symbol. Although there have been unconfirmed sightings since the dolphin was declared extinct, it is highly unlikely that any surviving creatures would be able to locate each other and breed. The demise of the Baiji Dolphin is the first documented cetacean extinction in today’s world.