Have you ever seen an extinct species?

No, not personally,
(and here comes the heartbreaking qualifier)
yet.

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Not in the wild, but I was able to see Lonesome George, last of the Pinta Island Giant Tortoises, two years before he passed. Unfortunately, my group quickly left me behind at his exhibit, so I wasnā€™t able to spend as much time as I would have liked.

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This. So much this. I always wonder about all the little critters I used to see while gardening and just being outside as a kid and if those species are still around. I took no photos and couldnā€™t tell you what they were so Iā€™ll never know. But I wonder.

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In the northeastern US, there are quite a few American chestnut resprouts, because the chestnut blight doesnā€™t really damage the root systems

And I see how strict the auto-obscure is! I doubt that someone knowing where these two birds were 44 years ago will put them in danger of poaching.

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As with others, I have not personally seen a species that later went extinct, but I did work in a conservation lab with Atelopus zeteki. These toads are now almost certainly extinct in the wild due to chytridiomycosis. I feel lucky that I had the opportunity to be in the presence of this species. There is an effort to increase diversity and population within captivity but little hope for reintroduction.

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Another amphibian that was almost killed by the chytridiomycosis:
Perhaps If Iā€™d been born a few years earlier, I would have seen the ā€œJambato Harlequin Frogā€ (Atelopus ignescens) in its heyday. According to my parents and grandparents, it was very abundant in the area where I live (Ecuadorian Andes). It was considered extinct for almost 30 years until in 2016 a population was rediscovered near here.
A couple of observations have been uploaded to iNat before its almost extinction: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=21708
Now, many efforts are being made to conserve this last population: https://www.amphibians.org/news/harlequin-toad-ecuador-project/

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Iā€™ve found lots of bones of small mammals that have gone locally extinct, and totally extinct, since the European invasion of Australia. And of 16 photopoint sites I manage, 3 have remains of sticknest rat nest material within 20 meters. Iā€™m always gobsmacked at how stuff that was really common was wiped out so quickly.

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Sort of: https://inaturalist.ca/observations/52407494

The discussion in the comments reflects the strangeness of the status of the putatively extinct species, Coregonus nigripinnis. The fish in this photo were caught during a survey by the organization I work for.

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Yes, I have. Jer Thorpeā€™s first podcast in his ā€œOnce Upon a Checklistā€, at
https://ouac.substack.com/p/episode-1-the-saddest-checklist-in#details
[should run from there or it is free on signing up]
is about my 29 August 1978 checklist of birds from Guam that includes one bird extinct in the wild, and another that is sadly now totally extinct. I interviewed for the story but Jer did an excellent story of pulling all the threads together. Thanks, Don Roberson

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I saw the last surviving Texas Henslowā€™s Sparrows of the race A. h. hustonensis before the railroad destroyed the habitat of the only place they were known to occur. Also saw the last surviving Lappet-faced Vulture T. t. negevensis the year before they were thought to be extinct in Israel. However there have been some recent sightings and I believe the race survives in remote areas in Saudi Arabia.

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Our green lizard and green ā€œrain frogsā€ here in Florida are heading that way, Iā€™m afraid. The Cuban frog and Cuban lizard, sorry I donā€™t know scientific names, are eating them all. If there is something Iā€™d love to see itā€™s the Ivory Billed Woodpecker.

I totally agree. Here in South Florida, the Cuban Tree frog seems to be out-competing all our native species of frogs. All the invasive lizards also seem to be pushing out the native Green Anole. The lizards that I thought were Green Anoles in be yard happen to be invasive Hispaniolan Green Anoles.

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