This list of African species extinct in the Holocene covers extinctions from the Holocene epoch, a geologic epoch that began about 11,650 years before present (about 9700 BCE) and continues to the present.
Africa is highly biodiverse; it is the continent with the largest number of megafauna species, as it was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna. However, a few species have disappeared from Africa as part of the ongoing Holocene extinction, driven by human activity.
Madagascar and the Indian Ocean islands, Macaronesia, and Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha are biogeographically distinct from mainland Africa and have a much greater number of Holocene extinctions. Recently extinct species from these regions are listed in separate articles.
Many extinction dates are unknown due to a lack of relevant information.
Mammals (class Mammalia)
Elephant-like mammals (order Proboscidea)
Elephants and mammoths (family Elephantidae) Common nameScientific nameRangeCommentsPicturesNorth African elephantLoxodonta africana pharaoensisNorth AfricaNeolithic rock art indicates that the African bush elephant inhabited much of the Sahara desert and North Africa at the beginning of the Holocene, and Ancient authors wrote that it was present in the Atlas Mountains, the Red Sea coast, and Nubia until the first few centuries CE.Happold, D.C.D. & Kalina, J., Ed. (2013) Mammals of Africa: Introductory chapters and Afrotheria. Bloomsbury, 352 pages. It was also present in much of Egypt, except for the Sinai Peninsula, during the Late Paleolithic or early Holocene.Riemer, H. & Pöllath, N. (2007) Desert animals in the eastern Sahara: status, economic significance, and cultural reflection in antiquity. Proceedings of an interdisciplinary ACACIA workshop held at the University of Cologne December 14–15, 2007 However the validity of separate subspecies in Loxodonta africana has been called into question, including the purported North African subspecies L. a. pharaoensis.
Ptolemy II Philadelphus (r. 284-246 BC) founded the cities of Berenice Troglodytica and Ptolemais Theron as hunting bases to provide himself with African raw ivory and war elephants, replacing the costlier imports from India. This caused the depletion of elephant populations along the Red Sea coast and northern Somalia in less than two or three decades. These "Eritrean" elephants were at one point identified as African forest elephants due to Polybius's claim that they were smaller than the Asian elephants they faced at the Battle of Raphia, but genetic analyses show they were bush elephants.BollóK, Á., & Koncz, I. (2020). Sixth- and Seventh-Century Elephant Ivory Finds from the Carpathian Basin. The Sources, Circulation and Value of Ivory in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Archaeologiai Értesítő, Vol. 1: 39-68. In the Roman Empire, the Maghreb and possibly Western Africa through the Garamantes became additional sources of ivory and live elephants for the circus games. The last clear mention of wild elephants in the former is a speech of the orator Themistius delivered in 370 CE, where he mentions that "elephants have been removed from Libya".
Rodents (order Rodentia)
Old World rats and mice (family Muridae)
Possibly extinct Common nameScientific nameRangeCommentsPicturesTogo mouseLeimacomys buettneriAdele, Togo and possibly GhanaLast collected in 1890. Natives of Shiare, Ghana and the Kyabobo Range National Park in Togo identified photographs of museum specimens as an animal called "yefuli" in the 1990s.Ethiopian amphibious ratNilopegamys plumbeusLittle Abbai river, Northwestern EthiopiaKnown from, and described from a single specimen captured on March 20, 1927. The species is believed to be semiaquatic due to adaptations shared with aquatic rodents from South America that are not known in other African rodents. If this is correct, this is probably an extremely solitary species as similarly adapted rodents are, which increases the difficulty of detection. However the area where the original individual was captured has been also altered by extensive overgrazing by livestock, which may have caused its decline and extinction.
Primates (order Primates)
Lorises, pottos, and angwantibos (family Lorisidae)
Possibly extinct Common nameScientific nameRangeCommentsMount Kenya pottoPerodicticus ibeanus stockleyiMount Kenya, KenyaKnown from a single specimen collected from montane forest in 1938.Richardson, M. (2023) Threatened and recently extinct vertebrates of the world: A biogeographic approach. Cambridge University Press, 750 pages.
Old world monkeys (family Cercopithecidae)
Possibly extinct +Common nameScientific nameRangeCommentsMiss Waldron's red colobusPiliocolobus waldronaeRainforests of Ghana and Ivory CoastLast observed in 1978. A skin was found in possession of a hunter in 2002 and possible calls were heard by researchers in 2008. In addition to hunting, the species's range has been largely deforested since the 1970s for logging, charcoal production, and agricultural use.
True insectivores (order Eulipotyphla)
True shrews (family Soricidae) Common nameScientific nameRangeCommentsBalsam shrewCrocidura balsamiferaLower Nile, EgyptDescribed from mummified remains from Ancient Egypt dating to 821-171 BCE. Presumed to have been a swamp or gallery forest specialist whose natural habitat was cleared for agriculture.
Locally extinct Common nameScientific nameRangeCommentsGüldenstädt's shrewCrocidura gueldenstaedtiiSouthern Europe and Western AsiaMummified remains from the beginning of the Ptolemaic Period at Quesna, Egypt indicate that it once occurred in the Nile Delta, where it no longer does, supporting a moister regional environment at the time.
Carnivorans (order Carnivora)
Cats (family Felidae)
Locally extinct Common nameScientific nameRangeCommentsPicturesCape lionPopulation of the southern lion (Panthera leo melanochaita)South AfricaLast individual was killed in KwaZulu-Natal in 1865.Rossi, L., Scuzzarella, C. M., & Angelici, F. M. (2020). "Extinct or Perhaps Surviving Relict Populations of Big Cats: Their Controversial Stories and Implications for Conservation". In Problematic Wildlife II (pp. 393-417). Springer, Cham. Though widely recognized as a subspecies since being named in 1842, modern molecular studies indicate that there is not enough difference with extant lions of southern and eastern Africa to warrant separate subspecies status, and as a result the taxon P. l. melanochaita is not extinct.Kitchener, A. C., Breitenmoser-Würsten, C., Eizirik, E., Gentry, A., Werdelin, L., Wilting, A., ... & Tobe, S. (2017). A revised taxonomy of the Felidae: The final report of the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group. Cat News.Barbary leopardPopulation of the African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus)Atlas MountainsLast recorded in 1996. Though named as the subspecies P. p. panthera in 1777, it was later included in P. p. pardus on morphological and molecular grounds.Zanzibar leopardPopulation of the African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus)Unguja, TanzaniaOnly African insular population of leopards. Subjected to an extermination campaign after the Zanzibar Revolution of 1964, the last confirmed sighting happened in 1986. Though named as the subspecies P. p. adersi in 1932, it was included in the African leopard P. p. pardus in 1996 on morphological grounds.Miththapala, S., Seidensticker, J., & O'Brien, S. J. (1996). Phylogeographic subspecies recognition in leopards (Panthera pardus): molecular genetic variation. Conservation Biology, 10(4), 1115-1132. There was an unconfirmed recording of a leopard in Unguja in 2018.
Extinct in the wild +Common nameScientific nameRangeCommentsPicturesBarbary lionPopulation of the northern lion (Panthera leo leo)North AfricaLions existed throughout Egypt in ancient times. The last recorded lion in Libya was killed in 1700,Bartosiewicz, L. (2009) A lion's share of attention: archaeozoology and the historical record. Acta Archaeologica, 60(1), 275-289. in Tunisia in 1891, in Morocco in 1942 (on the Tizi-N'Tichka pass of the High Atlas), and in Algeria in 1943, though there was an unconfirmed sighting of a lion by the passengers of a bus in a remote wooded area of the Béni Ourtilane District in 1956. Despite being the first subspecies named by Linnaeus in the 18th century, modern molecular studies indicate that there is not enough difference with the lions of India, western and central Africa to warrant separate subspecies status, and as a result the taxon P. l. leo is not extinct. Descendants of this population exist in Rabat Zoo, but these individuals are genetically impure.Yamaguchi, Nobuyuki & Haddane, B.. (2002). The North African Barbary lion and the Atlas Lion Project. International Zoo News. 49. 465-481.
Dogs (family Canidae) Locally extinct Common nameScientific nameRangeCommentsPicturesGray wolfCanis lupusEurasia and North AmericaLived in the Nile Delta in prehistoric times. The African wolf has considerable genetic admixture from the gray wolf.
Bears (family Ursidae) Common nameScientific nameRangeCommentsPicturesAtlas bearUrsus arctos crowtheriNorthern MaghrebThis subspecies was named after the second-hand description of a female killed in the Rif near Tétouan in 1834 and its pelt, which is now lost. The presence of brown bears in Morocco and Algeria was confirmed with the finding of several bones ranging from the Pleistocene to 662-778 CE,Ouchaou, B., & Bougariane, B. (2015). Les extinctions totales et régionales des grands mammifères durant le Quaternaire terminal au Maroc. Travaux de l'Institut Scientifique, 8, 5-20. mostly in high mountains around 1200–2000 meters above sea level. Bears were of similar size to the small southern populations of Spain, Italy, and the Middle East. Native knowledge of bears was also documented in Algeria in the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century.Hamdine, W. et al. (1998) "Histoire récente de l'ours brun au Maghreb". C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Sciences de la Vie / Life Sciences, Vol. 321, pp. 565-570. mtDNA studies revealed that two highly distinct lineages of bears existed in North Africa through the Holocene: one identical to Cantabrian brown bears from Spain, and another that was basal to all European brown bears. The North African bear could have disappeared due to increased habitat fragmentation.
Locally extinct Common nameScientific nameRangeCommentsPicturesSyrian bearUrsus arctos syriacusNear EastLived in the Nile Delta in prehistoric times and possibly in northeastern Egypt in early historical times.
Odd-toed ungulates (order Perissodactyla)
Horses, asses, and zebras (family Equidae)