The magical nature has given birth to countless wonderful species in the long process of development. However, with the continuous changes of the ecosystem, many species are on the verge of extinction and even many species have become extinct and can no longer be found. their traces. Among those extinct species, there are many animals with cute looks. We will take stock of the top ten cute animals that have become extinct, leading everyone to appreciate their beauty, and at the same time arousing everyone's awareness of protecting the ecological environment! 1. Baiji Dolphin
The baiji dolphin is a freshwater whale unique to China and found only in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The spindle-shaped baiji has a long and narrow snout, extremely small eyes, a crescent-shaped tail fin and a rounded trunk. These appearance features make the baiji cute and naive. Many people often think that the Chinese white dolphin jumping out of the water is a white-tip dolphin, but it is not. Baiji dolphins are shy by nature and rarely jump out of the water. Most of the common photos of them jumping out of the water with their writhing strips are of Chinese white-sided dolphins.
At the beginning, the distribution range of the white-tailed dolphin was still very wide, from 35 kilometers upstream of Gezhouba in Yichang in the Three Gorges area to the estuary of the Yangtze River near Shanghai, including Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake, with a total length of about Baiji dolphins are distributed in the 1,700-kilometer river. However, as the development of human society accelerates, the damage to the ecological environment continues to intensify, resulting in the baiji dolphin's living environment suffering extremely serious damage. As the number and distribution area of ??the white-tip dolphin group gradually shrank, its distribution range was later limited to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, Qiantang River and other waters connected to it, especially in Hunan, Hubei and Anhui below Shashi in Hubei Province. , there are many in the Yangtze River section of Jiangsu.
By the 1990s, the white-tip dolphin had become extinct in the Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake areas. In recent decades, industrialization has accelerated and large-scale fishing has made the white-tip dolphin almost extinct. From November 6 to December 13, 2006, nearly 40 scientists conducted a carpet search on the 1,700-kilometer section of the main stream of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River from Yichang to Shanghai. No single white-tip dolphin was found, and many scientists concluded that the white-tip dolphin was extinct. 2. Sickle-winged Chicken
It is named Sickle-winged Chicken because the primary flight feathers on its wings are sickle-shaped. The upper body of Sickle-winged Chicken is olive brown with black spots, and its belly is white with black spots. The center of the tail feathers is brown, the outer tail feathers are black with wide white tips, and the red eyebrow tumors are very conspicuous. All these characteristics make the sickle-winged chicken look very gorgeous.
Different from ordinary domestic chickens, sickle-winged chickens live in coniferous forests at an altitude of 700-1600. They are typical forest birds and mainly feed on plant seeds and some Lepidopteran insects. , beetles, snails and ants. The sickle-winged pheasant is only distributed in the Russian Far East from Siberia, Lake Baikal and the upper reaches of the Lena River to the coast of Okhotsk, the Ussuri River and Sakhalin Island. In China, it is only distributed in the Lesser Khingan Mountains and Heilongjiang Province. It is a very rare species in the lower reaches of Heilongjiang.
As humans have intensified their efforts in deforestation, scientists could no longer find any trace of the sickle-winged chicken during surveys in 1986 and 1987. Xinhua News Agency announced in 2001 that after a five-year investigation by the Heilongjiang Zoological Institute, no sickle-winged pheasant was found, thus officially announcing that the wild animal sickle-winged pheasant was extinct in China. 3. Dolphin Deer
Dolphin deer, also known as sage deer, got its name because of its short limbs, round buttocks, and overall body shape similar to that of a pig. The habitat of dolphin deer is mainly located on both sides of rivers at an altitude of 500 to 800 meters and in nearby swamp wetlands with wormwood and reeds. It is mainly distributed in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and China.
With the increasing human damage to the swamp environment and excessive hunting activities, wild dolphin deer in China have been hard to find since 1960. When scientists conducted another investigation in the 1980s, they found that they had become extinct. 4. Small-toothed Civet
Small-toothed Civet, also known as Small-toothed Coconut Cat, is a small civet. There is a tail that is obviously longer than the body, an obvious thin white stripe in the center of the face, and three longitudinal dark brown stripes from the center of the back to the waist and buttocks. There is a brown neck stripe from behind the ears to the shoulders, the back of the body is brownish yellow, the lower body is light creamy yellow, the center of the back of the tail is black, and the toes and the back half of the tail are black.
Small-toothed civets mainly inhabit tropical valley rain forests and monsoon rain forests as well as forest edge shrubs and grasses. Therefore, they are mainly distributed in the Xishuangbanna area in southern Yunnan, with a very small population. In the 1970s and 1980s, due to large-scale mining of rainforests by humans, the environment in which small-toothed civets depended on was greatly damaged. Scientists have not found traces of small-toothed civets since the 1980s, and they have become extinct. 5. West Asian tiger
West Asian tiger, also known as Caspian tiger, is a large carnivore with a long and strong body. The West Asian tiger lives in areas covered with forests, shrubs and weeds all year round. It is mainly distributed in the western part of the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains and the Gasbio region. West Asian tigers generally live alone and have no fixed dens. Both male and female West Asian tigers have their own areas of life. They only come into contact with each other during the estrus period and separate immediately after mating.
But under special circumstances, male tigers will stay longer. Because tigers are very valuable in the eyes of humans, humans hunt tigers on a large scale in order to obtain tiger bones, tiger skins, etc., and West Asian tigers are not immune. Due to excessive hunting, by the 1970s, there were less than 10 West Asian tigers left. In 1980, the last West Asian tiger also died in the jungle of Gasbio. At this time, the West Asian tiger was officially declared extinct. 6. Eurasian mink
Eurasian mink belongs to the carnivorous order Mustelidae. It has short, smooth and dense body hair all over its body. Its back is reddish brown, and there are some white spots on its chin, chest and throat. . Eurasian minks like to live in dense vegetation on the banks of streams, rivers and lakes. They are good at swimming and snorkeling. They mainly feed on water rats and are active mainly at dusk and night, but only in diving areas.
The crazy hunting of Asian and European minks by humans in order to obtain their precious fur, coupled with the pollution of water sources, has caused a sharp decline in the number of Asian and European minks that were originally distributed in various European countries. In 1999, the last one With the death of a single Eurasian mink, this precious species has also been declared extinct. 7. Javan tiger
The Javan tiger is a tiger species that mainly lives in the mountain jungles of southern Java Island, Indonesia. It is about 155 cm long and 80 cm high at the shoulder. It is a small tropical island tiger with the largest body shape. The second smallest tiger. Javan tigers have extremely keen hearing, smell and vision. They are not picky about climate conditions and can survive as long as they have water, prey and hiding places. Like most tigers, except for the fact that male and female Javan tigers stay together during estrus, The rest of the time they are solo activities.
In the 19th century, the number of Javan tigers was still very large. Therefore, they were considered a scourge by local people and were hunted aggressively. As a result, the number of Javan tigers was greatly reduced within half a year. By the 1960s, there were fewer than 30 Javan tigers on the island of Java, and in the 1970s, there were only four magnetic Javan tigers left in zoos on the island. In June 1983, the last Javan tiger in captivity also died at the Jakarta Zoo. In 1988, the Indonesian government declared the Javan tiger extinct. 8. Golden Toad
The golden toad, also known as the ring-eyed toad, is a type of American toad. Because the male body is golden yellow, it is called the golden toad. In 1966, herpetologist Jay Savage first discovered and named the golden toad. Golden toads live primarily underground, emerging into the rainforest only during the mating season. Because it only took a few decades from discovery to extinction, people's understanding of the golden toad is very limited. The golden toad was once abundant in the Monteverde cloud forest in Costa Rica and was a powerful demonstration of local species diversity at the time.
There are also different opinions on the reasons for the extinction of the golden toad. Some scholars believe that the golden toad is extinct due to intensified global warming; some believe that it is due to climate change caused by El Ni?o, which led to its extinction. But whatever the reason, scientists have never found a female golden toad since its discovery in 1989. In August 2007, it was officially declared to have disappeared from the earth. 9. Tecopa killifish
Tecopa killifish mainly lives in the Mojave Desert and Inyo County, California, USA. It is a member of the large family of silverfish. It has an exquisite and petite body, aggressive males and rich and beautiful patterns. The Tecopa killifish was first discovered in 1948 at North Tecopa Hot Springs. Later, as Tecopa Hot Springs was developed into a tourist resort in the 1950s and 1960s, the living environment of Tecopa killifish was greatly damaged. In 1973, the U.S. Endangered Species Act officially declared the Tecopa killifish extinct.
10. Pyrenean goat
The Pyrenean goat is a kind of goat that lives in the mountains of the Pyrenees Mountains in northern Spain. Because the Pyrenean goat lives among the cliffs, It moves extremely quickly, hence the name "Hanging Sheep". Pyrenean goats have a majestic look because their horns resemble two scimitars, and they also have extremely sensitive hearing and vision. As typical alpine animals, they like to live in groups on treeless rocky slopes and feed on various weeds and shrub twigs.
Due to excessive hunting, the Pyrenean goat cannot escape the fate of extinction. The last Pyrenean goat born naturally died on January 6, 2001. Although biologists have used A new goat was cloned from its skin cells, but it only lived for seven minutes due to weakened lungs. Finally, the Pyrenean goat, one of the ten most extinct animals, was also declared extinct.
The above are the top ten cute animals that have become extinct. In fact, it is a cruel thing to watch these cute animals become extinct one by one. It reminds humans that we must care for the environment we rely on to survive, and we can no longer destroy it wantonly, otherwise we will eventually perish. Protecting the environment is everyone’s responsibility!