Extinction can sometimes be a natural process. However, extinction due to human activity is occuring at at an alarmingly fast rate. Over the past couple of hundred years, humans have been responsible for the extinction of almost 700 species and scientists say we are currently in a 6th mass extinction event. See below for a couple of examples of animals which have become extinct due to human activity in the past 500 years...
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The Tasmanian Tiger
The Tasmanian Tiger used to live in the area from Papua-New Guinea to Tasmania. However, after dingos (a sort of Wild Dog) were introduced into Australia they were outcompeted and became extinct.
However they still roamed Tasmania as the apex predator. In the 18th century Europeans arrived in Tasmania and saw the Thylacine/Tasmanian Tiger as a threat to their livestock. The last one died on Monday September 7th 1936, after it was neglected and exposed to freezing temperatures during the night after he was locked out of his inside enclosure. It's Scientific name was "Thylacinus Cynocephalus"
The Dodo
The Dodo lived in Mauritius for several million years. After Dutch and French Sailors began using this island as a place where they could take a break on their journey towards (for example) Indonesia they began to see the Dodo as an important source of food. The last Dodo was killed somewhere around 1681. Their scientific name was "Raphus cucullatus"
The Great Auk
The Great Auk was a flightless sea bird which used to be the only ''penguin" living in the Northern Hemisphere, as you might recognise from their scientific name: "Pinguinus Impennis". Fishermen hunted down these birds because there was a high demand for their eggs, skins, fat and taxidermies. As this bird became more rare so did the demand for their taxidermies, eggs, skins and fat which in turn lead to a higher numbers of kills. The last colony of Great Auks lived on a rock known Geirfuglasker, Iceland (which literally meant 'Great Auk rock'). This island was inaccessible to people so the birds could thrive here safely out of reach of humans but unfortunately the island exploded and submerged forcing them to flee the island.
The surviving birds headed towards the island of Eldey, Iceland. This was where the last pair of Great Auks on Earth were strangled and slaughtered by humans while the egg they were incubating was crushed by one of the fishermen's boots on July 3rd of 1844. Even if Geirfuglasker wouldn't have erupted it was likely the birds would have still become extinct due to unsustainable populations.
Check out my Youtube video about the Tasmanian Tiger!
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