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5 Extinct Animals That May Still Exist
1. Thylacine
Reported extinct around 1936 (pictured above in a public domain photo at the Beaumaris Zoo)
Thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian Tiger, means “the dog-headed pouched one” in Greek. Thylacines were found throughout the Island of Tasmania in Australia and was the largest flesh eating marsupials of modern times.
Based on fossil records, its immediate family members are known to have existed as early as 23 million to 5 million years ago.
In late 2013, a team of british naturalists from the Centre for Fortean Zoology traveled into the wild terrains of Tasmania where the human population is near non-existent. Even though they haven’t been able to capture any live footage of the animal with their camera traps, the researches are optimistic that some specimens still exists.
The group claims that they’ve interviewed some fairly credible witnesses and gathered sources of what could be the animal’s feces for DNA analysis.
“[One witness] was a government licensed shooter who controls wallaby numbers. He saw the animal twice, he also knew a forestry worker who saw one. All these were in the north-east. The owner of a team rooms and garden saw one in central Tasmania. Many more sightings uncovered by Tony Healy [one of the expedition members] ranging from 1982 to 2012,” reads a post on Fortean Zoology by one of the expedition team members.
2. Passenger Pigeon
Reported extinct in 1914 (shown before that in a public domain photo).
Traveling in flocks up to a mile wide and 300 miles long, the passenger pigeon was once the most numerous bird on the planet during the 19th century until its extinction in the early 20th century due to hunting and loss of habitat.
According to the Encyclopedia of Smithsonian Institution, passenger pigeon may have constituted 25 to 40 percent of the total bird population of the United States and could have had a population of 3 billion to 5 billion at the time Europeans arrived in America.
Passenger pigeons are one species of extinct animals that could be resurrected by cloning. According to senior business editor Antonio Regalado of MIT Technology Review, the Long Now Foundation is financially supporting an effort known as Revive and Restore, to bring the passenger pigeons back to life.
Regalado quoted Hendrik Poinar, a researcher at McMaster University of Canada that “not only is sequencing of extinct genomes a reality, but revival of extinct species is within reach.”
It’s also possible some passenger pigeons may still roam, according to reports by some bird watchers. However, none have been confirmed and the scientific consensus is that they are extinct—though they may be the best candidates for being brought back.
3. Woolly Mammoth
Reported extinct around 2,000 B.C (depicted in a public domain image above).
Standing at 11 feet tall and weighing up to 6.6 tons, the Woolly Mammoth lived alongside early humans around 200,000 years ago in Eurasia and North America.
Due to a combination of hunting and climate change, the last known mainland Mammoths died in Siberia nearly 10,000 years ago.
However, isolated populations survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until 4,000 years ago, raising the possibility that some may still survive in remote wilds of Siberia yet to be explored by humans.
Recovered Mammoth carcasses raise the ethical question of whether we should clone the animal back to life. According to an article on TheConversation.com by Ian Wilmut, an Emeritus Professor of the University of Edinburgh known for the first clone of a mammal, conventional cloning technique may not be feasible due to the degraded state of the carcass’ genetic remains.
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