7) Hawaiian Crow

Image VIA

Hawaii is known as the Extinction capital of the world. It accounts for just 0.2% of the entire area of the US of A, but harbours 25% of their endangered species. Already Hawaii has lost more than half of its bird species. Half of them. The Hawaiian crow is one of their more recent losses, the last wild one was seen in 2002. There is a breeding program underway but they are unsure whether it can work with so few individuals.

The main cause of the crow’s extinction seems to have been avian malaria, but they aren’t 100% sure. Another factor is, guess what… HUMANS! We love messing it up. When Western explorers first set foot on the Hawaiian islands they took with them cats and rats. The bird-life of Hawaii had never encountered such beasts and many of them became tasty morsels for the new invaders.

Obviously, humans hunted a lot of the snazzier birds too, which didn’t help. Early Polynesian islanders used some types of bird feather as currency.