The 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species shows that at least 1141 of the 5487 mammal species on Earth are known to be threatened with extinction. According to the IUCN at least 76 mammal species have become extinct since the year 1500. However, the real situation could be much worse, as 836 mammal species are listed as Data Deficient. As information improves, more mammals may well prove to be in danger of extinction or already extinct. This website lists 80 species and 42 subspecies as extinct.
The latest mammal extinction may soon be the Baiji or the Yangtze River Dolphin. Some scientists declared it "functionally extinct" on 13 December 2006 as fewer are likely to be alive than are needed to propagate the species, after a search expedition failed to find one. On 19 August 2007 a businessman in Tongling City in east China’s Anhui Province filmed “a big white animal” with his digital camera. Professor Wang Ding, a leading scientist at the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences later confirmed that the footage showed the Baiji dolphin. So at least one survives for now....
Fearing the worst, Spanish biologists captured the last Pyrenean Ibex in spring 1999 and took a tissue sample from her ear. Photo © Advanced Cell Technology.