Tag: Extinction

Bluebuck – It Was Very Good

Bluebuck
Mounted Bluebuck, Frank Lane – Arkive.org

Bluebuck (Hippotragus leucophaeus)

The Bluebuck or blue antelope was a small antelope indigenous to South Africa. The tallest mounted specimen (there are only four) is nearly four feet at the shoulder with horns that are almost two feet long and curved back toward the animal’s body. The Bluebuck’s coat was a uniform grey-blue color with a white belly. The forehead was brown and darker than the face, its ears were shorter and blunter, not tipped with black; and, it had a darker tail tuft and smaller teeth. It also lacked the contrasting black and white patterns seen on the heads of its relatives. Its mane was not as developed and it lacked the black and white patterns seen in its nearest relatives the roan and sable antelopes.

“Discovered” by Europeans in the 17th century, but already uncommon, the Bluebuck’s range was confined to the southwestern cape of South Africa. Its original entire historic range has been estimated to be only 1,700 square miles. The first published mention of the bluebuck is from 1681, and few descriptions of the animal were written while it existed. The few 18th-century illustrations appear to have been based on stuffed specimens. Hunted by European settlers.

bluebuck
Bluebuck, Allamand, 1778

Due to the small range of the bluebuck at the time of European settlement of the Cape region of South Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries compared to the much wider area evidenced by fossil remains, it is thought the species was already in decline before this time. The blue antelope was hunted to extinction by European settlers, Hinrich Lichtenstein claimed that the last bluebuck was shot in 1799 or 1800. The antelope was the first large African mammal to become extinct in historical times.

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Big Eared Hopping Mouse – It Was Very Good

Big Eared Hopping Mouse
Not the Big Eared Hopping Mouse, Unknown

Big Eared Hopping Mouse (Notomys macrotis)

The big eared hopping mouse was a small rodent resembling a tiny kangaroo about the size of a rat. The mouse had large eyes and ears with a brush-tipped tail. It moved on its four legs when moving slowly or by hopping on its large, padded hind feet when moving quickly. Their habitat is believed to have been the sand dunes of Western Australia.

We only know about the Big Eared Hopping Mouse from two damaged specimens. The last record of the animal dates from July 19, 1843, and was collected in Perth around the Moore River and King George’s Sound.

There are believed to have been many contributing factors to the extinction of macrotis: the introduction of nonnative species – particularly cats; exotic diseases; habitat loss and degradation; resource depletion due to livestock and feral herbivores. The systematic destruction of their burrows, resources, food supply, and the animals themselves lead to the species’ extinction.

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Barbary Lion – It Was Very Good

Barbary Lion
Male Barbary Lion, 1893. Photographed by Alfred Edward Pease

Barbary Lion (Panthera leo leo)

The Barbary Lion, also known as the Atlas lion or Nubian lion, was a lion subspecies formerly native to North Africa. The lions inhabited the range countries of the Atlas Mountains including the Barbary Coast. In Algeria, they lived in the forest-clad hills and mountains between Ouarsenis in the west, the Pic de Taza in the east, and the plains of the Chelif River in the north. There were also many lions among the forests and wooded hills of the Constantine Province eastwards into Tunisia and south into the Aurès Mountains.

Barbary Lions lions had the most luxuriant and extensive manes amongst lions.  The Barbary lion was considered the largest lion. Museum specimens of the species are described as having very dark and long-haired manes that extended over the shoulder and to the belly. Head-to-tail length of stuffed males varies from seven to nine feet, and females around 8 ft. The weight was documented as being as heavy as 600 to 660 lbs in males.

Barbary Lion
Sultan, a Barbary Lion, of the New York Zoo, circa 1897

The Barbary Lion is extinct in the wild. Some Zoos and wildlife preserves believe they have Barbary Lions in their care, though the minimal genetic diversity of the alleged remaining animals ensures that the subspecies is effectively extinct.

Hunting, habitat loss, and desertification in Northern Africa all contributed to the extinction of the species. The Romans used Barbary Lions in the Colosseum to battle with gladiators. By the early 1800s, it was already being reported that they were extinct from coastal North Africa.  The last known report of Barbary Lions in Tunisia dates to the 1890s. The last of the subspecies was shot in the Moroccan part of the Atlas Mountains in 1942. There were a few sightings in Morocco and Algeria in the 1950s. The last remaining wild population of the lion may have survived into the early 1960s in the remotest areas.

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Bali Tiger – It Was Very Good

Bali Tiger
Skin of a female Bali tiger held at the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense in Indonesia. It is one of four preserved Bali tiger skins in the world.

Bali Tiger (Panthera tigris balica)

The Bali Tiger was native to the Indonesian island of Bali. It was one of three subspecies of tigers found in Indonesia, together with the Javan Tiger, which is also extinct, and the critically endangered Sumatran Tiger.

Bali tigers had short fur that was a deep, dark orange and had fewer stripes than other tiger subspecies. Occasionally, between the stripes, were small black spots. Bali tigers also had unusual, bar-shaped patterns on their heads. The white fur on their underbellies often stood out more than that of other tiger subspecies. It was the smallest of the tiger subspecies.

Bali Tiger
Adult male Bali Tiger shot by Mr. Zandveld on Bali (1912)

Considering the small size of Bali the original population of Bali Tigers could not have been large. The tiger was driven to extinction through habitat loss and hunting. During the Dutch Colonial period (1840s – 1940s) the animal was highly sought after by European sportsmen.

The last specimen definitely recorded was a female shot at Sumbar Kima, west Bali, on September 27, 1937. The Bali Tiger was never captured alive on film or displayed in a public zoo. But a few skulls, skins, and bones are preserved in museums.

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