List of Mammals Extinct after 1500 AD

The table below shows the complete list of mammal species classed as extinct since 1500 AD (the past 500 years). Subspecies are included at the end of the table. The data comes from the 2008 Red List of threatened species maintained by the World Conservation Union — also known as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It’s possible that other mammal species became extinct during that period without their disappearance having been recorded. The rate of extinction for all animals has increased in recent centuries.

There are 247 Critically Endangered mammals in the 2008 database — 188 mammal species and 59 subspecies. Just one example is the Baiji dolphin, or Yangtze river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer). The database entry states: “The preponderance of evidence indicates that the baiji is very close to extinction or may already be extinct.” Critically Endangered species of any taxonomic group can be tagged as “Possibly Extinct” or “Possibly Extinct in the Wild.”

Click on the scientific names to go to the database entries for the species.

 
Regionally extinct subspecies:

The table below shows four regionally extinct mammals which are often described as extinct ‘species’ — 2 varieties of lion and 2 varieties of brown bear. Some zoos believe they have descendants of Cape lions and Barbary lions in their present day collections. Further information about lion species is available at the University of Michigan’s Animal Diversity website.

 
When did they die out?

The pie chart on the right is a rough guide only. There are many species in the list with no recorded sightings since they were first described. Others are only known from skeletal remains and haven’t been seen alive. For example, the database entry for Hippopotamus lemerlei says: “Madagascan hippopotami may have survived until recent times … notably on the basis of local oral tradition…” Species first described in the late 19th century and never seen again have been divided between the 19th and 20th centuries in the pie chart.