A startling number of birds have become extinct over the last 400 to 500 years. Perhaps the most famous is the dodo was a flightless bird that was found on island in the Indian ocean. The moa lived in New Zeland and looked like an ostrich. Gradually, it grew too heavy to fly. Thus, it became easy prey for hunters. The last specimens had been killed by the eighteenth century. The passenger pigeon became extinct as lats as 1914 when the last surviving bird died in an Ohio zoo.
Recently people have seen the need to save thinning animal populations. Scores of bird and mammals have been placed on the endangered species list. The bald eagle heads the list of bird. The japanese crane in also protected. Atone time it was found throughout northern Asia. Now it exists only Japan. Soe endangered mammals are the bule whale and the humpback whale, the orengutan, and the eastern ocongar