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Extinct Animals That Might Still Be Alive!
From monster sharks and dinosaurs … to enormous prehistoric sloths and apes … Here are 13 extinct animals that might still be alive!
#13 Japanese Wolf
It’s also known as the Honshu wolf because it was endemic to that island among others in the Japanese archipelago. It was a subspecies of gray wolf that was smaller than its relatives in North America and other parts of Asia. The last of these animals was caught and killed in 1905. Did you know these wolves had a long history of being hunted? That was due to their behavior of preying on horses. When rabies spread from dogs to the wolf population in the 18th century, the infected animals gained a reputation as man-killers. As a result, Japan made killing wolves a national policy, and they were thought to have been exterminated. But sightings of them have been reported ever since their alleged extinction. That’s led many people to speculate if some of the animals might have managed to survive in the wild.
#12 Megalodon
In 2019 Australian fishermen found a huge Mako shark head that weighed about 220 pounds (100 kg) off the coast of Sydney. That prompted speculation about what sort of sea beast could have killed the shark. It didn’t take long until someone name-dropped Megalodon. Whenever there’s a report of a monster shark, the legendary creature is always considered as a suspect. That’s understandable, since it was the original monster shark. Measuring more than 50 feet (15 m) it was about the size of a school bus and weighed some 75,000 pounds (34 metric tons). With one of the most devastating bite forces ever, it was powerful enough to take down whales. A combination of climate change and diminishing food sources made them go extinct about 3.5 million years ago. Then again, with so many sightings of monster sharks, maybe a few of them managed to survive. Tell us what you think in the comments!
#11 Japanese River Otters
These marine mammals were once widespread throughout Japan, but their numbers started dwindling in the 1930s. That’s when a combination of hunting and diminishing food sources pushed them to the point of near-extinction. The animals had essentially vanished by the 1970s. In 2012 Japan declared the otters officially extinct. But within a year of that declaration, there were at least a dozen unverified sightings reported! And in 2017, a creature resembling the Japanese River Otter was caught on camera. Some sources think a population of them may still exist somewhere in the wild.
#10 Triceratops
Allegedly found in the savannah region of Cameroon, Ngoubou (nuh-GOW-boo)is said to be roughly the size of an ox and is fierce enough to fight elephants for land. Ngoubou is a regional word for ‘rhino’. But this hooved animal is said to have six horns. From descriptions provided by pygmy locals, the creature sounds like it could be a surviving ceratopsian (sara-top-see-un), or a group of beaked dinosaurs of which triceratops is likely the best known. There’s one problem with that theory, though: Ceratopsian (sara-top-see-un) fossils haven’t been found in Africa. The pygmies did note the animals had become more difficult to locate, due to a decline in their population. Could Triceratops have once existed in Africa?
#9 Caribbean Monk Seal
The last confirmed sighting of these marine mammals occurred in 1952. They had inhabited the waters of their namesake Caribbean for a long time. The first time they were documented by Europeans was in the late 15th century. It didn’t take long until the animals were hunted and killed for their meat, skin, and oil. That aggressive tradition was continued by subsequent generations of whalers and fishermen. They were driven into extinction by overhunting, habitat destruction, and the animal’s docile nature. Their lack of flight instinct made it easy for humans to kill them. They’ve been declared officially extinct since 2008. But unconfirmed sightings of the seals have still persisted over the years.