12 Animals The Human Race Tragically Killed Off

12. Western Black Rhinoceros (Extinct 2007)

Once widespread in the savanna of sub-Saharan Africa, poaching by humans rapidly killed off the western black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis longipes) during the later-half of the 20th Century.

Found primarily in the Cameroon but also in countries including Angola, Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa, this type of rhino was heavily hunted in the first thirty years of the 20th Century - before preservation action in the 1930s steadied their population.

However, by 1980 the population of the two-horned rhino was back into the hundreds, and then illegal poaching for the ivory from their tusks saw their numbers rapidly decline before they eventually became extinct in 2007.