Have you ever seen the Barbary lion or the white-handed gibbons? I know I haven’t.

Did you know that we lose an average of 1,200 acres of forest every 20 minutes? Every 20 minutes a species is predicted to become extinct as more forests are destroyed.

The good news is that this is just a prediction. It is our job to protect the animals that live on Earth with us. There’s still time to save the remaining endangered species before it’s too late!

To find out what we have lost, these are just some of the animals that have disappeared from Earth:

Barbary Lion – Panthera leo leo

The Barbary lion was the largest lion of the subspecies. Barbary lions had a large black mane that covered their belly and ran down their back and shoulders. The Barbary lions lived in the mountains of North Africa. They were much larger than the lions we see today. Large male lions weighed over 500 pounds and grew up to eleven feet long. The Barbary lion has been officially declared extinct in the wild.

Its black mane that reached halfway down its back is one of the differences between this extinct species and the modern African lion. The tips of the lion’s ears were also black. The last known wild Barbary lion was killed in 1922. Long ago, Roman emperors took thousands of Barbary lions from their natural habitat to fight in gladiatorial battles.

Javan Tiger – Panthera tigris spondaic

The Javan tiger got its name from the tiger’s home on the Indonesian island of Java. The tiger was last seen in 1972 and has been extinct for the last thirty years. The Bali and Caspian tigers are two other subspecies of tiger that have become extinct in the last seventy years. The largest male cats weighed more than 300 pounds and were more than eight feet long.

North American Short-faced Bears – Arctodus Simus

The North American short-faced giants, sometimes called “bulldog bears,” are the largest bears that ever lived. Short-faced bears stood eleven feet tall on their hind legs, with an arm reach that could easily sink a basketball goal! Its short face, forehead, and wide snout made the extinct bears look more like a lion than any living North American bear.

The Florida cave bear- Tremarctos floridanus- also no longer exists.

White-handed gibbons – Hylobates lar yunnanensis

This lovable member of the ape family is now considered extinct in China. A scientific team conducted a survey of all Chinese forests that reported sightings of white-handed gibbons over the past twenty years. These endangered species were last sighted in 1988, and their loud calls have not been heard since 1992. Scientists’ search for white-handed gibbons turned out empty-handed. Researchers believe that due to forest destruction and hunting, this endangered species is gone forever. An even bigger loss is because this subspecies of white-handed gibbon has never been found anywhere else on the planet. The end of the Chinese white-handed gibbons is an urgent wake-up call before other endangered ape species become extinct.

Announced in the annual Red List of Threatened Species, more than 40,000 endangered species, including gorillas, dolphins, corals, many birds and fish, are on the list. We do not want these animals to end up being seen only in museums. Share this information with all your friends and let’s make the endangered list disappear!