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Species Extinct

Map No. 267

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Extinction is when there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual of a species has died. Shown here is where over 700 species known to have become extinct last existed. Included are mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and plants.

Many more species recorded as recently becoming extinct lived in the United States than anywhere else, followed by the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda and Mauritius.

A large number of species live in Ecuador. The Galapagos Islands, where Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution, are part of Ecuador. Many islands are prominent because islands are often home to unique species.

"current extinction is being precipitated by the widespread loss of habitats because of human activity ... remaining habitats are small and fragmented, and their quality has been degraded ..." Anil Ananthaswamy, 2004

Territory size shows the proportion of species worldwide that became extinct between 1500 current era and 2004, that became extinct there.

• Open PDF poster, designed for printing. You need Acrobat Reader.
• View labelled territory map or population map for comparison
• Data files: Excel (large with map), Excel (small no map), Opendoc format (see notes)
• Technical notes for this data.
• High Resolution image (see copyright conditions)
• All of the data we use is estimated; see data page