There are thousands of animal species in the world, but none of them are superfluous. Before the birth of human beings, everything in the world followed the most basic laws of nature, and species went through tens of thousands or even hundreds of millions of years of evolution, experiencing the rise and fall process from birth to prosperity to extinction, and in this process, countless new species were evolved, so the earth will become more diverse and more vibrant.
After the birth of human beings, it has had a huge impact on the natural world, becoming the only high-grade species that can affect the natural process, thus changing the evolutionary process of many animals and accelerating the extinction of wild animals. Especially in the colonial period, as the darkest years in human history, not only people of color around the world have suffered deep suffering, but even wild animals have experienced the same encounter, and a large number of wild animals have no chance to say goodbye to future generations, disappearing forever in the long river of history, not even leaving photos.
1. Laughing owl
The Laughing Owl is a unique bird living in New Zealand, because there is no predator competition, the laughing pride of life attitude is more loose, they are not good at flying, the nest is built on the ground. Its most famous feature is that it is cute, often forgetting that it cannot fly, and sometimes jumping from a high place, only to fall to its death.
In addition, the whispered voice is also more peculiar, often laughing loudly, like the voice of a mentally ill person. Beginning in the 16th century, the Dutch first arrived in New Zealand, followed by a large number of colonists and brought animals such as cats and dogs, which had a devastating impact on the survival of the laughing owl. In 1914, the laughing owl went extinct.
2. Dodo
The dodo is a unique bird on the island of Mauritius, and as the national bird of Mauritius is loved by people, in Mauritius, the image of the dodo can be seen everywhere, but unfortunately, most of this logo is a scandalized dodo image, which looks fat and stupid.
The origin of this image begins with sketches by colonizers, who discovered Mauritius by sea in 1598 and then colonized the area, deforestation and hunting local wildlife. The dodo is one of them, because it cannot fly, is hunted, preyed by cats and dogs brought by the colonizers, and even captured and raised, and is fed very fat, which is the source of the dodo in the pen of European painters. The real dodo is larger, but not obese, a type of pigeon that became extinct around 1690.
3. Tasmanian Tiger
Also known as the thylacine, the world's last marsupial carnivore, is a native Australian predator, before the arrival of the colonists, the thylacine in the competition of the dingo fell into the inferior, the number was greatly reduced. With the arrival of British colonists, the thylacine was not protected, but was considered a threat to animal husbandry and hunted in large numbers, eventually suffering a catastrophe, and in 1936, a thylacine named Benjamin died in the zoo, declaring the extinction of the species.
4. Pyrenees goats
A wild goat living in the Spanish Pyrenees, the early population was about 50,000, but in the early days of colonization, before the Europeans set foot in Africa, Spain, the closest to Africa, became a test field, a large number of wild animals were the first to suffer, and the Pyrenees goat was hunted in large numbers, and the number was sharply reduced, until it became extinct in 2000.
5. Western black rhinoceros
The Western Black Rhino was once very common in the Midwest of Africa, with a maximum number of more than 1 million heads, and in the 18th century, as European colonists deepened their colonial rule in Africa, the hunting of the Western Black Rhino became more frequent. The subsequent rise of trade such as rhino horn intensified the poaching of black rhinos, and neither the colonists nor the local population took protective measures against them, but hunted them in a big way, and finally in 2011, the International Union for Conservation of Nature declared the extinction of black rhinos.
6. Pinta Island tortoises
A large turtle living in the Galapagos Islands, one of the 11 species of tortoises native tortoises, and the Pinta Island tortoise is a species that lives on Pinta Island and is huge. During the Early Colonial Age of Discovery, when European adventurers came to the islands, they supplemented this huge tortoise as food, resulting in a sharp decline in its number.
Subsequently, breeding was developed on the island, and a large number of goats were introduced, and the goats trampled on the eggs laid by the tortoises on the ground, which eventually led to the extinction of the pinta island tortoises.
7. Heather chicken
Heather is a common pheasant on the American continent, europeans arrived in the Americas, attracted by the rich local products, and heather chicken because of its delicious meat, is regarded as a high-end restaurant delicious. As a result, a large number of hunting was triggered, and as the number of heather chickens plummeted, it was difficult for the colonists to make new discoveries, and a European searched around, eventually finding some remnants of heather on an island.
So, he wanted to protect them on a whim, he rented the island and established a protection mechanism, but unfortunately, due to poor management, a fire burned the female heather who was not good at flying, and the male heather who escaped the disaster could only continue the short-lived fate of the heather chicken alone, and the few protective acts of the colonists eventually became a tragedy.
8. Northern white rhinoceros
In northern Africa lives a huge rhino with white skin, so it is called the northern white rhinoceros, and while the black rhino is being hunted in large numbers, the smaller number of white rhinos is not spared, and finally in 2018, the last male white rhino died in Kenya.
9. Blue Oryx
The blue oryx is a large mammal living in the African region, and it is also one of the earliest disappeared animals, its fur in the sunlight, showing a beautiful blue, so it is called the blue oryx, is one of the most beautiful animals in Africa.
But this beautiful fur did not bring luck, but caused disaster, in the early days of colonization, the more beautiful animals were targeted, the blue oryx is one of them, unfortunately hunted out.
10. Great sea cattle
The largest known manatee is the largest known manatee, and it is also a manatee with high social attributes, generally living in groups near the mouth of the Bering Strait. In 1741, the naturalist George Stella first discovered the great sea cattle in the Bering Strait, but then the colonists flocked to them, who ate them all in just 27 years, leaving no trace, and now only exist in some records.
11. The great auk
The great auk was actually not the first name, the original name was called penguin, after the extinction of the great auk, people found similar-looking penguins, and gave this name to the latecomers.
The great auks, which could not fly, once spread across the islands along the Atlantic coast, became a source of food for adventurers in the Age of Discovery, and these islands became the supply depots of the colonists, and the food was these great auks.
12. Passenger pigeons
The North American passenger pigeon is the world's largest bird, and colonists have even lamented that passenger pigeons are the least likely animal to be extinct, but in just a hundred years, passenger pigeons have been extinct.
The methods of extinction were also extremely cruel, with the burning of nests, the establishment of special train tracks for transportation, and the large number of passenger pigeons were used as the cheapest food, filling all corners of the city, just like chicken today.
13. Antarctic wolf
The Antarctic wolf is the only terrestrial mammal in the Falkland Islands of South America and the southernmost wolf on earth, but this wolf is docile and poses no threat to humans, and the local residents can booby trap them with meat bones in one hand and a large stick in the other.
With the advent of the colonial period, there were a large number of pastures in the area, and antarctic wolves were forced to hunt livestock and eventually hunted, but then because rodents lost their natural enemies and the pastures deteriorated, the pastures were gone.
14. Kenai Mountain Wolf
The Kinai mountain wolf is the world's largest subspecies of modern wolf and canine, and is one of the largest beasts of prey in North America. North America is rich in dozens of wolves, including the dream white wolf, the Texas red wolf, the black wolf, etc., but unfortunately, except for the most common gray wolf, other wolves have now been slaughtered by the colonists.
The impact of humans on animals is enormous, the colonial period as the darkest years in human history, wild animals have also suffered heavy losses, borrowing from ancient times to the present, later people should better protect the diversity of nature.