Cataloging the Detritus of my Life
Goff’s Pocket Gopher was a true gopher endemic to Brevard County Florida in the United States. Like other pocket gophers, Goff’s created burrow systems and were ecologically important as prey and in influencing soil, plant and habitat diversity.
The last time Goff’s Pocket Gopher was seen in the wild was 1955. It is believed that human encroachment on its habitat the species is now extinct.
The Formosan Clouded Leopard was a subspecies of the cloud leopards native to southeast Asia. The Formosan clouded leopard was endemic to the island of Taiwan. Where it was revered by the aboriginal people.
The fur of the Formosan clouded leopard was a dark grey or earthy yellow-orange color, often largely obliterated by black and dark dusky-grey blotched pattern. The animals had spots on their heads with the blotches continuing down the spine. Hence the “clouds” that gave them their name. The tail of the Formosan clouded leopard was noticeably shorter than clouded leopards on the mainland. Females are slightly smaller than males.
The animal was hunted for its pelt as far back as the 13th century. Habitat loss due to logging and other human industries drove the animals into ever smaller wild areas. The last confirmed sitting by a human was in 1983 and the last known body, the pelt of a juvenile, was from 1989. The animal is assumed extinct.
Taiwanese conservation programs and the restoration of populations of predation species on the island has the some on the island considering the reintroduction of clouded leopards onto the island from the mainland.
The Falkland Islands Wolf, also known as the Warrah, Falkland Islands Fox, Falkland Islands Dog, or Antarctic Wolf, was the only mammal native to the Falkland Islands off the eastern coast of the southern tip of South America. The animal was a medium-sized, fox-like canine, with a soft, thick coat, tawny on the upperparts with fine white speckling, and pale brown on the underparts. The head was relatively short and broad, with small ears, while the tail was short and bushy, with a distinctive white tip. The wolf’s habits and diet are unknown.
The wolf was first documented in 1690. Charles Darwin wrote of them when he visited the islands in 1833 he noted that while present on the two major Falklands the wolf was already rare. The animal was gone by 1880.
National Museum of Natural History Naturalis, LeidenEncroachment by humans into the animals’ habitat and its fearlessness of humans all contributed to the Falkland Wolf’s extinction. The animal was also hunted for its valuable fur and its perceived threat to sheep herds.
The Dwarf Hutia is one of a very small number of modern animals that was first described through fossil remains. Such fossil remains have been found across Cuba and the nearby Isle of Pines (or the Isle of Youth, if you prefer).
Hutias are medium to large-bodied stocky rodents with broad, round heads, small eyes and short, rounded ears. Hutias have short legs and five toes on each foot with strong, curved claws. Their brown fur is thick and coarse. The Dwarf Hutia was the smallest of hutia species.
The last specimen of Dwarf Hutias was collected 80 years ago in 1937. Tracks and droppings found in the remote Zapata Swamp has given some hope that the species has survived. But, the consensus of experts is that this small rodent is now extinct.
Primary causes for their extinction were habitat loss due to the encroachment of humans and human-related activities, such as farming and ranching, and the introduction of mongooses to the islands.