7 Extinct Animals I Wish Still Existed

The colors seen among the feathers of this large parrot remind me of autumn. Hues of orange, gold, brown, and accents in black grace the wings of this beautiful bird. It was a relative of the New Zealand bird known as the Kākā. The Norfolk Island Kākā was first described in the year of 1836 and the last bird died in 1851 in captivity.

This rodent was found in the woodlands of Australia and grew to be the size of a kitten. These nocturnal mammals lived in trees and the mothers carried their babies around attached to their teats. A combination of disease and predation brought about the extinction of these larger rodents around the 1930s. They were a dark gray on top with a white along the underside of the body and the tail as well.

This beautiful species of finch was commonly found on the island of Moloka’i in Hawaii. The claws were rather long for its small body size. The males were a beautiful scarlet color and the females had a little bit of brown on their bellies. Their call sounded a bit like a person cutting wood a ways off in the distance. An ornithologist accidentally discovered them when he became lost in the fog in the late 19th century. The last Molokai Creeper disappeared around 1963.

The quagga was like a zebra, but with fewer stripes. They almost looked like a donkey that had the head of a zebra instead, since this was the only striped portion of the animal. These small mammals were abundant in the Cape Province of South Africa. The last wild quagga is thought to have been shot towards the end of 1870 with the last captive quagga dying in 1883 at a zoo in Amsterdam. The plains zebra is the closest related living animal to the quagga.

3 Feet tall and weighing more than 40 pounds, the dodo lived off of fruit. The doves and pigeons of today are related to this large flightless bird. It used to be prevalent on the island of Mauritius, but has been extinct since the end of the 17th century. Dodos were such an odd looking bird that many people thought they were a myth, due to the description given by people who had actually seen dodos.

A Caucasian Wisent resembled a small bison and was hunted by not only mankind, but also by bears, wolves, the Asiatic Lion and the Caspian Tiger in the Caucasus Mountains in Eastern Europe. The population dwindled from 2000 at the end of the 19th century to 600 in 1917. The last few bison were poached in 1927.

The thylacine was a large marsupial with both sexes having pouches and it was also carnivorous. They looked like a combination of a tiger and a dog. The rear end of the thylacine was striped and ended in an extremely long and slender tail. The head was fox-like, but with a shorter nose and rounded ears. Two common names used for this animal were the Tasmanian wolf and the Tasmanian tiger. The Tasmanian devil is supposed to be related to this animal. Rock art shows pictures of this animal from as far back as 1000 BC, but the first encounter documented was in the year of 1792. A farmer killed the last thylacine in 1930.

There’s no way to bring back any of these animals, which is sad to me. From these 7 extinct animals I wish still existed, I’m glad there are at least a few current species alive that are related to them. It always makes me sad when I hear about extinct animals. What animal do you wish you could bring back from extinction, if you could?

Top Photo Credit: Naturalis: dichter bij de natuur