Conservation

The last of their kind

198 species in these cabinets are gone from the wild, by the IUCN Red List, and 834 more are critically endangered. Beside each is the year the Museum last collected it, and — where the living world still answers — the latest research-grade sighting on iNaturalist. A specimen is a record of where something lived and when; for some of these it is the last record there will be.

Extinct and critical All threatened (adds endangered and vulnerable)

Extinct: 164
Extinct in the wild: 34
Critically endangered: 834
Endangered: 1,285
Vulnerable: 1,129
Least concern: 11,489

Gone

Extinct · 164

The IUCN Red List calls these extinct. For some of them, the specimens in these cabinets are all that remains of the species.

Gone from the wild

Extinct in the wild · 34

Alive only in captivity or cultivation. The cabinets hold them as they were in the wild.

On the edge

Critically endangered · 834

Critically endangered: still out there, barely. Where iNaturalist has a research-grade sighting, the date of the latest is given.

Endangered

Endangered · 168

Facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

About these lists

Categories come from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, matched by scientific name through GBIF; 46,924 names in the collection have been checked, most recently 2026-11-07. A name the Red List has not assessed is simply absent here, not safe.

“Last collected” is the latest year on a Bishop Museum label for the name. “Last seen” is the latest research-grade observation on iNaturalist, which began in 2008; an absence there means no one has posted one, not that the species is gone.

Some of the extinct are known only from these specimens. Each card links to the species page, the specimens behind it, and the islands they came from.