General Knowledge
Endangered or Extinct Quiz
Dodos, quaggas, kakapos — can you tell which species are gone and which barely cling on?
Dodos, quaggas, kakapos — can you tell which species are gone and which barely cling on?
On September 1, 1914, a passenger pigeon named Martha died in the Cincinnati Zoo — the last of a species that once numbered in the billions. This 50-question quiz challenges you to determine which animals have already vanished from Earth and which are still hanging on, sometimes by just a handful of individuals.
The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was last reliably sighted around 1662 on the island of Mauritius. The flightless bird was driven to extinction by hunting, habitat destruction, and invasive species introduced by European sailors — all within less than a century of its discovery.
As of 2016, the giant panda was downgraded from "Endangered" to "Vulnerable" on the IUCN Red List, thanks to decades of conservation efforts by China. The wild population has grown to over 1,800 individuals, though habitat fragmentation remains a concern.
The kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) is a flightless, nocturnal parrot native to New Zealand. It is critically endangered, with a population of roughly 250 individuals as of recent counts. An intensive breeding program has slowly increased their numbers from a low of just 51 birds in 1995.