Tag: Extinction

Chadwick Beach Cotton Mouse (Peromyscus gossypinus restrictus)

The Chadwick Beach Cotton Mouse was a subspecies of Cotton Deermouse endemic to the Manasota Key peninsula in Florida. The subspecies is only known from a few sample speciments collected in the 1930s.

The Chadwick Beach Cotton Mouse was smaller and paler than the parent species; being about 7 inches in length with a cinnamon colored coat.

The animal is considered extinct after extensive surveys in 1984, 1985, 1988, and 1989 failed to find any specimens in the wild. Deforestation of its habitat, maritime forests and predation by feral cats are likely contributors to extinction.

More Information

• It Was Very Good
• Wikipedia
• NatureServe Report
• Chadwick Beach Cotton Mouse May be Extinct, JSTOR

Cebu Warty Pig (Sus cebifrons cebifrons)

The Cebu Warty Pig was a subspecies of the Visayan Warty Pig. The Visayan Warty Pig is endemic to the Philippine Islands, though it is now extinct on four of the major six.  The Cebu Warty was restricted to the island of Cebu.

Warty pigs have medium-sized, barrel-shaped bodies and short legs. They have short necks, longish heads, small eyes, prominent snouts, and tusks. Males generally have both larger tusks and warts than females and are much larger in size and weight. Sparse bristles cover their bodies, dark gray or black in females and young males, and silvery or light-brown in adult males.

Warty pigs receive their name from the three pairs of fleshy “warts” present on the face of the boar.

The Cebu Warty Pig was driven to extinction by loss of habitat due to commercial logging and agricultural expansion and overhunting.

More Information

• It Was Very Good
• Wikipedia
• IUCN Red List

Caucasian Wisent(Bison bonasus caucasicus)

The Caucasian Wisent was a subspecies of the European Wisent, or bison, native to the Caucasus Mountains of Eastern Europe. This subspecies of wisent. No secure resources describing the differences between this subspecies and the European bison exist.

Loss of habitat, overhunting, and illegal poaching all lead to the extinction of the Caucasian wisent. Human settlement in the Caucasus Mountains intensified in the 18th century and the range of the Caucasian wisent became reduced to about one tenth of its original range by the end of the 19th century. In the 1860s the population numbered about 2000 but was reduced to only 500 or 600 by 1917, and the population was further reduced to only 50 animals in 1921. The last three known wild Caucasian bison were killed in 1927. Captive purebred Caucasian bison lived and bred to create hybrids, until about the 1930s.

The offspring of these hybrids (various strains of European bison bred with the American bison) were reintroduced to Eastern Europe in the latter half of the 2oth century.

More Information

• It Was Very Good
• Wikipedia
• Ultimate Ungulate
• IUCN Red List

Caspian Tiger (Panthera tigris virgata)

The Caspian Tiger was native to the sparse forests and river corridors east of the Black Sea, around the Caspian sea and extending eastwards through Turkey, Iran, and through Central Asia into western China. The Caspian Tiger averaged 10 feet in length. Males were much larger than females with an average weight of 450 pounds. Females were averaged 250 pounds.

The Tiger’s coat was brighter and more uniform than that of the Siberian tiger. The stripes were narrower, fuller and more closely set than that of other tiger species. Pure black patterns were found only on the head, neck, the middle of the back and at the tip of the tail. The contrast between the summer and winter coats was sharp, Caspians had the thickest fur of all tigers.

The Caspian Tiger almost made it into the 21st century. The last documented and confirmed killing was recorded in 1970 in Turkey. The last sighting of the animal in the wild was in 1998 in the wilderness between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The animal was driven to extinction through over-hunting of them and their prey. The conversion of their habitat into farmland also contributed to the species’ demise.

More Information

• It Was Very Good
• Wikipedia
• Cat Specialist Group
• IUCN Red List
• The Tiger Foundation