10 Animals That Humans Have Hunted to Extinction and 10 Others We Almost Lost

In the past, migratory pigeons roamed North America in flocks so vast that they could darken the sky. Then humans turned this abundance into cheap meat, slaughtering and capturing thousands of birds with nets before shipping them by rail. By 1914, the last known migratory pigeon had disappeared. 

The great auk was a large, flightless seabird, which made it disconcertingly easy to catch. Sailors and hunters hunted it for its meat, eggs, oil, and feathers, relentlessly plundering the same colonies until there was almost nothing left to plunder. The last confirmed pair was killed in Iceland in 1844. 

The Steller’s sea cow was enormous, slow-moving, and, apparently, very tasty—a dangerous combination when faced with starving sailors. Russian fur traders used its meat and blubber while sailing in the cold waters of the North Pacific. Less than thirty years after its discovery by Europeans, the animal had disappeared. 

Moas were giant, flightless birds that lived in New Zealand before the arrival of humans turned everything upside down. They had no experience with hunters, dogs, or the speed with which humans could devastate a territory. Within a few generations, these imposing birds had disappeared. 

The dodo has become the butt of jokes, but its story is no laughing matter. Sailors hunted it, and animals introduced to the island destroyed its eggs and disrupted its habitat. It wasn’t stupid; it was simply adapted to a world that changed too quickly. 

The Rodrigues solitaire was a cousin of the dodo, another large island bird that had nowhere to go. It was hunted to extinction on the island of Rodrigues until even that isolated island could no longer protect it. By the 18th century, it existed only in drawings, bones, and a few rare accounts.

In the past, the Caribbean monk seal used to rest on the warm beaches of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. This made it easy for hunters to kill them for their meat, oil, and blubber, often while the animals were resting in groups on the shore. After decades without any confirmed sightings, the species was declared extinct. 

The Landes partridge was once so widespread along the Atlantic coast that it was considered a common food source. Settlers hunted it relentlessly, and the destruction of its habitat eventually confined the last remaining birds to an increasingly small area. The last known Landes partridge died on Martha’s Vineyard in 1932. 

The tortoises of Pinta Island were built for endurance, which made them very useful to sailors who wanted fresh meat during their long voyages. They could survive for months on very little food and water—a trait that should have protected them but, on the contrary, made them easy-to-transport provisions. This lineage became extinct with Lonesome George, the last known member of his species.

The aurochs was the wild ancestor of domestic cattle, a gigantic animal that once roamed Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Hunting and habitat loss drove it into increasingly confined areas, until the last known aurochs died in Poland in 1627. This is a good place to start, because the following ten animals also ended up on people’s plates but escaped total extinction. 

Here are 10 animals we nearly lost after humans hunted them for food.

American bison, which once numbered in the tens of millions, nearly went extinct in the 19th century. They were hunted for their meat, their hides, for sport, and as part of a brutal campaign that devastated Indigenous communities. Protected herds have saved them from extinction, although they have not yet regained their former abundance. 

The Galápagos giant tortoises were nearly perfect shipboard provisions, which proved to be a real misfortune for them. Sailors could cram them alive into the holds to eat later, and it is estimated that 100,000 individuals were taken from the islands between 1774 and 1860. Some island subspecies have gone extinct, while others survived only because humans eventually stopped treating them as commodities. 

For generations, green sea turtles have been hunted for their meat and eggs, particularly near nesting beaches. The problem is that a turtle laying eggs is slow, highly visible, and is exactly where hunters expect to find it. Conservation efforts have been successful, but illegal hunting and egg collection continue to threaten the species’ recovery in some regions. 

Wild turkeys seem so common today that it’s easy to forget how close they came to extinction. Unregulated hunting and habitat destruction had driven them to the brink of extinction across much of North America in the early 20th century. Their comeback is one of the most inspiring stories of wildlife recovery, but it all began with a bird that people had nearly wiped out of the forests. 

The American alligator was heavily hunted, both for its meat and its skin. In the 1960s, the species was on the brink of extinction, and many believed it would never recover. Federal protection has allowed its population to rebound, turning this swamp predator into a conservation success story. 

In the past, pronghorns roamed in great numbers across western North America. By 1900, rampant hunting for their meat and hides had nearly wiped them out across most of their range. Hunting laws, reserves, and reintroduction programs have helped bring back an animal that seems too swift to have ever been cornered by us. 

White-tailed deer are now ubiquitous, which makes this story almost unbelievable. Commercial hunting for their meat and hides had once driven them to the brink of extinction in certain regions of North America. Their recovery shows just how quickly populations can rebound when hunting is no longer a free-for-all. 

The Arabian oryx was hunted for its meat, hide, and horns until it disappeared from the wild in the early 1970s. It is thanks to captive breeding programs that the species has managed to avoid becoming nothing more than a memory of the desert. Reintroduced herds now live once again in protected areas—a development that seems almost impossible when you consider how close this story came to ending.

Musk oxen have a prehistoric look because, in a way, they are survivors from another world. But even these imposing Arctic animals were vulnerable when whalers, explorers, and local hunters killed them for their meat, their hides, and to feed their dogs. Reintroduction programs have helped bring them back to regions where they had been wiped out. 

Commercial whaling nearly silenced the humpback whales. Their bodies were turned into meat, oil, and profit, and their populations plummeted across much of the world. Conservation measures have allowed many populations to recover, making their songs one of the most beautiful sounds in conservation.