Dodo – The poor dodo is almost a symbol for extinction. It was a kind of pigeon that lived on the Pacific island of Mauritius. It had no predators, and so gave up the ability to fly, and the fear of strange animals. European sailors hunted it and brought alien species like pigs and rats to the island. Now, more than half of Mauritius' original bird species are extinct.

Passenger Pigeon – "Martha", a 29 year old captive-born Passenger Pigeon died at the Cincinnati Zoo in September 1914.
Passenger pigeons had once been N. America's most abundant bird. We have reports of flocks of a BILLION birds that would darken the sky for half a day as they flew overhead. Hunting wiped them out in the wild by 1900.

The Age of Discovery — Columbus' arrival in America is just one example of European expansion and colonization at this time. Europeans were exploring new territories and expanding trade across the world. In the process they brought not only people but also new diseases and animals that disrupted stable ecosystems.

Invention of the Steam Engine —The Industrial Revolution totally changed the way people grow food and make things. Inventions like the Steam Engine allowed machines to do work for people. Machinery took over the labor of farming, and people who had previously worked the land moved to cities to take jobs in the new factories. With these dirty factories came terrible pollution.

Giant Moas go extinct—The moa was a giant flightless bird from the islands of New Zealand that was hunted to extinction. During the 1800's people claimed to have seen these great birds, but no scientific evidence suggests they survived past 1770. The tricky thing about extinction is that there's no 100% certain way to prove it. The only evidence is the lack of evidence: the animal hasn't been seen.

Gold-crested Manakin goes extinct – This little bird was first discovered and declared extinct in the same year. The ornithologist (bird scientist) Helmut Sick first reported observing 5 individuals of this very distinct species in Brazil. But years followed without a sighting, leading people to believe that the bird was extinct.

Gold-crested Manakin is rediscovered! — In May of 2002, two Brazilian scientists reported seeing one bird, but this has lead scientist to believe that there are more of them out there! There are maybe thousands of undiscovered species in the rainforests of the Amazon Basin, which is why it is so important to protect these unexplored places from being cut or burned down.

All dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago, unless you consider birds to be modern dinosaurs. Dinosaur extinction may have been caused by an asteroid, but modern animals mostly go extinct due to the impact of a growing human population. Roll over the events below to see a few famous episodes. And we've given it a happy ending.