In the Black Garden 2

When you will not see again
The whale calves trying the light
Consider what you will find in the black garden
And its court
The sea cows the Great Auks the gorillas
The irreplaceable hosts ranged countless
And fore-ordaining as stars
...
- Excerpt from 'For a Coming Extinction', a poem by William Stanley Merwin

Normally I don't like uploading photos of taxidermied animals from museums because its not something I did myself. And many skins on display look well.....dead. It's more rewarding to find and photograph the live animal.

However there have been no conclusive sightings of the Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger Thylacinus cynocephalus since the last captive individual died in 1936. Previously it lived on mainland Australia and Tasmania, although it might have been extinct or extremely rare on the mainland before european arrival due to the introduction of dingoes. The last reported shooting of a wild one was in 1930. Its extinction has been blamed on relentless hunting, competition with dogs and disease, however I would also add that sheer neglect had a part to play as well.

After 20 years of bounties offered by the Tasmanian government for thylacine heads, and multiple recommendations, never implemented, for conservation measures, the last zoo specimen died from being locked out of its den during a freezing night.

'In 1998 the American Museum of Natural History conducted a poll of biologists that revealed that the vast majority of biologists believe that we are in the midst of an anthropogenic extinction. Numerous scientific studies since then—such as a 2004 report from Nature, and those by the 10,000 scientists who contribute to the IUCN's annual Red List of threatened species—have only strengthened this consensus.' - Wikipedia

How many more species will only exist as specimens in the next 100 years?

Photographed at the Melbourne Museum.