Maybe you heard about the Tasmanian Tiger. It was hunted to extinction in 1936. The last one died in the Hobart Zoo. Our unsustainable human activities have consequences to the environment and some animals that lived for centuries are now extinct. Therefore knowing about extinct animals, relating them to the ones alive allow us to prepare conservation strategies.

Besides the well-known Tasmanian Tiger, what Australian animals are extinct?

This article from ScienceDirect concludes that 100 Australian endemic species (one protist, 38 vascular plants, ten invertebrates, one fish, four frogs, three reptiles, nine birds and 34 mammals) are validly listed as extinct (or extinct in the wild) since the nation’s colonization by Europeans in 1788.

ScienceDirect – Reading the black book: The number, timing, distribution and causes of listed extinctions in Australia

Out of all extincts, mammals have suffered the most. The main reasons of such extinctions are mainly by introduced predators; plant extinctions by habitat loss; frog extinctions by disease; reptile extinctions by an introduced snakes.

At the same time, according to Wikipedia, the list below includes a total of:

• 32 mammal species (25 from mainland Australia), including 31 extinct and one possibly extinct.
• Ten extinct bird species (one from mainland Australia)
• Two reptile species (one from mainland Australia), including one extinct and one possibly extinct.
• Five amphibian species (all from mainland Australia), including three extinct and two possibly extinct.

Although different sources arrive to different total number of extinct species, it is clear that the trend is alarming and conservation strategies are highly beneficial.