The animals in these stories are all victims of human exploitation.
In the 20th century, hundreds of different kinds of animals have disappeared from the wild.
Lost Animals of the 20th Century, also known by its abbreviated title Lost Animals, is an 16-episode documentary series shown on the Discovery Channel first aired in 1995. The series chronicles the extinction of various species and subspecies of animals during the early half of the 20th Century due to human exploitation, carelessness, and greed. The first eight episodes of the series were narrated by Greta Saatchi, while the remainder of the series was narrated by Lin Sagovsky.
Many of the episodes are themed after a specific aspect of human action that led to their extinction: ruthless exploitation, the fur and feather trade, habitat loss, and introduced species. One episode featured species that either weren't extinct after all or could still be revived in some way due to their closeness to extant animals.
A few vignettes of the series can be found in YouTube here
, here, and here.
This series contains examples of:
- Adam and Eve Plot: Heartbreakingly averted. Some species, like the passenger pigeon and the pink-headed duck, were kept in captivity but never bred. The last Carolina parakeets were also down to a mated pair.
- Beastly Bloodsports: The Barbary lion was the population of lions used by the Romans in their arenas.
- Downer Ending: For most episodes. Human activities invariably cause the entire species to die out, and attempts to save them come too late. A few segments are fortunately retroactively averted
thanks to recent rediscoveries. - Death by Falling Over: The fate of what had once been thought of as last living Marion's Giant Tortoise. The last specimen, the mascot of a military camp, died by falling off a gun turret rather than just old age.
- Dying Race: Many of the animals featured became one for a time. In most segments, humans only started caring when it was almost too late.
- Fantastic Medicinal Bodily Product: The Schomburgk's deer perished because in part due to demand for its antlers, which were used in traditional medicine.
- Fur and Loathing: The fur and feather trade was responsible for wiping out several animals because of their beauty as fashion accessories. Often, the rarity of the animal would make it more appealing and valuable, and the killing continued.
- Gotta Kill 'Em All: Many species of animals featured in the program were the victims of organized persecution by governments out of the fear farmers and ranchers had that they would steal livestock.
- Green Aesop: The entire show frames the extinctions of individual species as heartbreaking tragedies, and the actions humans did to put them on the brink as abominable acts of callousness and cruelty.
- Hope Spot: An entire episode was dedicated to species that weren't quite extinct. The one exception is the quagga, which was extinct, but could be bred back from very closely related zebras. Since 2016, the Quagga Project had made many strides in breeding back zebras that have had reduced striping in their hindquarters, making them resemble their extinct relative.
- Shortly before the series was released, an unconfirmed sighting claimed that the Gilbert's Potoroo may still have been alive. The narrator claims that even if it were true, this small hope of survival could still be faint. Although the potoroos are confirmed to be alive today, they are still a critically endangered species.
- Hostile Terraforming: Many species met their demise due to habitat loss as humans begin to build settlements and farms.
- In the case of the Japanese wolf, all it took was a change in the Japanese people's way of life for them to go from revered to reviled.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: The callousness and greed of humans is a recurring theme in the series, and the narration often spites the level of indifference and greed people have done in the past.
- In the story of the Barbary Lion, the narrator mentions that the last wild member was probably shot for the fun of it.
- For the Assyrian Onager, the narrator laments that many humans only care about animals that are dumb, slow, and useful to them, and refuse to share the planet with anyone else.
- Introduced Species Calamity: Another common disaster to befall the many species featured in the program.
- It's Quiet… Too Quiet: The program points out that many of the now extinct species of songbirds had very distinctive calls, and were once so abundant that the forests were filled with their song. Today, their songs are gone, and no one will ever hear them again.
- Last of Their Kind: The show often features the story of some of the famous endlings of the species and often tells the sad end of the species as they died. In some cases, they were zoo specimens who lived their lives in captivity.
- The footage of the thylacine segment was the endling himself, Benjamin (he was not named in the episode). He died in the Hobart Zoo.
- The passenger pigeon, once The Swarm, ended with Martha, a specimen who died in the Cincinnati zoo. Her death left everyone at the time questioning where the rest of them went.
- The Carolina parakeet ended with just one pair. When the female, Lady Jane, died, her mate Incas became increasingly distraught. He died several months later.
- The Hawaiian O'o segment mentions that the last member of the species was recorded in Mauna Loa in 1934. It was a male making a courtship call for a female that would never come.
- Outside-Context Problem: The arrival or encroachment of humans to their habitats are often what does in many species. In some situations, the species lived fine with indigenous peoples, but European colonizers later upended their environments to the point of no return.
- This Bear Was Framed: The thylacine famously took the onus for attacks on livestock done by domestic dogs.
- You Are Too Late: Some species received government protection from exploitation and abuse only when they were too far gone to save. Narrowly averted with the species that were rediscovered later, but for how long?
