Many animals have made remarkable comebacks from near-extinction, including the Giant Panda, American Alligator, Gray Wolf, Bald Eagle, and Coelacanth (a fish thought extinct for millions of years), thanks to intense conservation efforts like habitat protection, hunting bans, and captive breeding programs, though some, like the Coelacanth, remain critically endangered.
In 2003, scientists achieved a milestone by using nuclear transfer to bring back a subspecies of the Pyrenean ibex known as the bucardo (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica), which had gone extinct in 2000. A baby bucardo was successfully born, although it died just minutes later due to a lung defect.
The woolly mammoth is a current prime candidate for de-extinction through cloning or genome editing. The existence of preserved soft tissue remains and DNA from woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) has led to the idea that the species could be recreated by scientific means.
The vaquita is the most endangered cetacean in the world. With as few as around 10 left, the species will become extinct without a fully enforced gillnet ban throughout their entire habitat.
Relying on deft genetic engineering and ancient, preserved DNA, Colossal scientists deciphered the dire wolf genome, rewrote the genetic code of the common gray wolf to match it, and, using domestic dogs as surrogate mothers, brought Romulus, Remus, and their sister, 2-month-old Khaleesi, into the world during three ...
The woolly mammoth is the animal most prominently linked to a 2027 return, with biotechnology firm Colossal Biosciences aiming to have a cold-resistant elephant hybrid with mammoth traits walking the Earth by then, using gene-editing to help restore Arctic ecosystems. While not a true resurrection, this project aims to create a functional woolly mammoth-like creature, with other efforts also underway to de-extinct animals like the Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) and dodo.
The Vaquita (Phocoena sinus), a small porpoise from the Gulf of California, is widely considered the world's rarest animal, with only around 10 individuals left, pushed to extinction by illegal gillnet fishing for other species like the totoaba. Other contenders for rarest include the Northern White Rhino (only two females remain) and the elusive Saola (Asian Unicorn), though population numbers for many extremely rare animals are uncertain.
Here are four animals at risk of extinction by 2050.
The Northern White rhino is on the brink of extinction. In the chart, you can see the collapse of this beautiful animal's population as a result of poaching, habitat loss, and conflict. Now, only two individuals are left — Najin and her daughter, Fatu.
I have named the mayfly Dolania americana the shortest lived among the Ephemeroptera with females typically living for less than five minutes (Sweeny & Vannote 1982).
However, she died several minutes after birth of a lung defect. The Pyrenean ibex is the first animal to have been brought back from extinction through cloning and also the only one to become extinct twice.
Nope. Even if we could, it'd be a baaad idea. Bringing back animals that went extinct based on environmental factors that they weren't equipped for/they evolved into something better is really bad. Wastes resources, and they'd die out again anyway, or cause disaster for our modern ecosystem.
From 'psychedelic' spiders to European eels: 10 species heading into 2026 on the brink of extinction
Since Colossal Biosciences' founding, it has set its sights on resurrecting the woolly mammoth – the large, hairy elephant species of the arctic Pleistocene ice-age that went extinct roughly 4,000 years ago. The company hopes to have its first mammoth calf born in 2028.
Amur leopard. The Amur leopard is one of the rarest big cats in the world, with only around 130 individuals left in the wild. Although their wild population seems to be stable and increasing, these leopard subspecies are still critically endangered since 1996.
Top Five Extinctions
Reptiles have on a number of occasions evolved into limbless forms – snakes, amphisbaenians, and legless lizards (limb loss in lizards has evolved independently several times, examples include the families Pygopodidae and Dibamidae, the subfamily Anguinae and the species Isopachys).
As of March 2018, there are only two rhinos of the northern white rhino left, both of which are female. They live in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya and are protected round-the-clock by armed guards. Their near extinction is due to decades of rampant poaching for rhino horn.
Polycephaly is the condition of having more than one head.
To date, there's only one species that has been called 'biologically immortal': the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii. These small, transparent animals hang out in oceans around the world and can turn back time by reverting to an earlier stage of their life cycle.
The planet's biodiversity is plunging, with a quarter of species facing extinction, many within decades. Numerous experts believe we are living through, or on the cusp of, a mass species extinction event, the sixth in the history of the planet and the first to be caused by a single organism—us.
Over five billion species are estimated to have died out. It is estimated that there are currently around 8.7 million species of eukaryotes globally, possibly many times more if prokaryotes are included.
It is now widely accepted that there are two fundamental elements to rarity: low abundance and restricted geographic range (Harper, 1981; Gaston, 1994a, 1998). However, rarity has many other connotations that are prevalent in the literature.
The Secret Seven – Africa's Elusive Safari Animals
According to the American Kennel Club, which tracks some 200 breeds, the rarest breed, ranking 197 out of 197 in popularity, is the Norwegian Lundehund. This dog was initially bred in Norway in the Middle Ages for the specific job of hunting puffins, a bird found in Iceland and northern Norway.