Every Animal That Was Declared Extinct In 2018 (And Those Likely To Go In 2019)

6. Poʻo-uli - Extinct

The poʻo-uli, Melamprosops phaeosoma, was a species of passerine bird found on the island of Maui in Hawaii until it was declared extinct in 2018. The poʻo-uli was discovered only recently when students from the University of Hawaii described it for the first time in 1973.

The poʻo-uli were a unique form of Hawaiian honeycreeper bird in that they were the last surviving member of its lineage and had no closely-related relatives. It was truly the last of its kind.

Nobody had seen a poʻo-uli since 2004, which suggests they went extinct sometime that year or shortly afterwards. It was classified as extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2018 following a study, which determined no populations of the poʻo-uli remained anywhere on the island.

The last known individual was captured and taken to the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda with the hopes of breeding it, but no mate could be found. Samples were taken at the time and preserved with the hope of one day cloning the animal and potentially returning it to the wild.

The poʻo-uli succumbed to a number of factors including habitat loss, predation by invasive species (rats, pigs, cats, and Asian mongooses), and a decline in tree snails, their preferred food.