The announcement felt less like policy and more like a eulogy.
On October 16, 2023, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed that 21 species long listed under the Endangered Species Act would be formally removed. Not for recovery, but for extinction. Their protections no longer matter because the creatures themselves are gone. The roll call stretched across birds, fish, mussels, and even a bat, each one tied to ecosystems now left poorer without them.
Most of these species hadn’t been seen for decades, their absences whispered about among scientists and birders. Yet the delisting put finality to what many feared but wouldn’t say aloud. Extinction is not only happening in distant rainforests or oceans; it is unfolding within U.S. rivers, islands, and forests. This decision is more than an administrative update. It is a reminder that delay in conservation often writes an obituary instead of a recovery story.
1. Hawaii loses nearly all of its forest voices.
Seven Hawaiian honeycreepers were all declared extinct: the Kauai akialoa, Kauai nukupuʻu, Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, Maui ākepa, Maui nukupuʻu, Molokai creeper, and Poʻouli. Each of these birds was tied to a specific island, adapted to unique flowers and habitats. Mosquito-borne avian malaria, habitat loss, and invasive predators combined to push them past the point of survival.
Hawaii has long been a center of extinction, but losing this many honeycreepers at once feels like a collapse of an entire chorus. These species defined the islands’ biodiversity and culture. Their disappearance highlights how fragile isolated ecosystems are when confronted with disease and climate change. The forest canopy of Hawaii is now permanently quieter.
2. A single bat disappears from Guam’s forests.
The little Mariana fruit bat, once an essential pollinator and seed disperser in Guam’s woodlands, has been declared extinct. Its decline was driven by hunting, habitat destruction, and invasive predators, particularly the brown tree snake that decimated the island’s birds and mammals. Without bats to pollinate and spread seeds, Guam’s forests face cascading losses in plant diversity.
This extinction matters far beyond one species. Bats are ecosystem engineers, and their absence changes how forests grow, flower, and regenerate. For Guam, losing the bat is losing a silent partner in the island’s survival. The delisting put official punctuation on decades of quiet disappearance, but the ecological consequences are still unfolding across the Pacific canopy.
3. A warbler once common in southern swamps is gone.
The Bachman’s warbler, a tiny golden-throated bird of the Southeast, vanished after its swamp forests were logged and drained. By the mid-20th century, sightings had become rare, and by the 1980s, none could be verified. As stated by the Fish and Wildlife Service, extensive surveys in its former range produced no evidence of survival, leading to its delisting.
Its extinction reflects how quickly habitat loss erases vulnerable species. Where cypress and canebrakes once echoed with birdsong, silence now prevails. The Bachman’s warbler becomes part of a long list of southeastern species lost to aggressive land use. Its absence signals what happens when ecosystems are fragmented faster than wildlife can adapt.
4. Guam’s small white-eye vanishes from the canopy.
The bridled white-eye, a bird once found in Guam’s forests, has also been declared extinct. Its decline followed the same path as Guam’s bats: predation by brown tree snakes, habitat destruction, and competition from invasive species. The white-eye played a role in controlling insects and dispersing seeds, but its ecological role is now empty.
For island ecosystems, every missing piece has outsize consequences. Unlike continental species, there are no backup populations elsewhere. Once the white-eye disappeared from Guam, the entire species vanished from Earth. Its loss illustrates the vulnerability of island birds to invasive predators that transform ecosystems in just a few decades.
5. The San Marcos gambusia vanishes from Texas waters.
The San Marcos gambusia was a tiny fish that lived only in the San Marcos River. It fell victim to habitat modification, water pumping, and competition from introduced species. By the early 1980s, biologists could no longer find it, and now it is officially gone.
Its extinction highlights how vulnerable single-river species can be. When flows shift or habitats are altered, they simply have no refuge. For Texans, the loss marks another reminder that spring-fed rivers carry not just recreational value but species whose entire existence depends on their stability.
6. The Scioto madtom disappears from the Midwest.
The Scioto madtom, a small, nocturnal catfish, once darted through the Scioto River in Ohio. It had such a limited range that when water quality declined from pollution and sediment buildup, it had nowhere to go. Despite surveys over several decades, no confirmed specimens have been found since 1957, leading to its official delisting as extinct.
The madtom’s disappearance illustrates how freshwater species can blink out of existence largely unseen. Few outside ichthyology circles ever knew the fish, yet its absence signals the broader vulnerability of river ecosystems. Losing such a species is a reminder that obscurity does not shield life from extinction.
7. Mussels vanish from southern and midwestern rivers.
Eight freshwater mussels were declared extinct: the flat pigtoe, southern acornshell, stirrupshell, upland combshell, green-blossom, tubercled-blossom, turgid-blossom, and yellow-blossom pearly mussels. Once abundant in southern and midwestern rivers, they filtered water, stabilized stream beds, and supported fish. As discovered by the Fish and Wildlife Service, dams, channelization, and pollution destroyed their habitats beyond recovery.
The quiet disappearance of mussels rarely makes headlines, yet their ecological role is profound. Without them, rivers lose resilience, clarity, and biodiversity. Their extinction is not just about species lost but about weakened river systems that serve millions of people. Their absence leaves a warning etched into waterways across half the country.
8. The Large Kauai thrush is silenced forever.
The Large Kauai thrush, or kāmao, was not a honeycreeper but one of Kauai’s distinctive forest birds. Its disappearance mirrors that of its honeycreeper cousins: disease, invasive predators, and shrinking habitat. For decades, surveys turned up nothing but silence in the dense forests where its song once echoed.
The thrush’s extinction connects the Hawaiian story of loss, showing how an entire guild of forest birds collapsed in parallel. While each species had its own niche, their disappearance collectively unravels the web of life that once defined the islands’ highland forests. Losing the thrush is losing part of Kauai’s cultural and ecological soul.
9. Climate change and invasive species created perfect storms for extinction.
Rising global temperatures have fundamentally altered disease dynamics and habitat conditions, creating deadly combinations that native species cannot survive. In Hawaii, warming temperatures now allow mosquitoes carrying avian malaria and avian pox to reach mountain elevations that once served as disease-free refuges for native birds. Meanwhile, invasive species like brown tree snakes, feral pigs, and non-native plants continue spreading across fragile island ecosystems with devastating results.
These environmental changes happen too quickly for species to adapt naturally, especially those with small population sizes or highly specialized habitat requirements. The interaction between climate change and invasive species creates cascading effects that can collapse entire ecosystems within decades. Native species that evolved in isolation, particularly on islands, lack the behavioral and biological defenses needed to cope with rapidly changing conditions and aggressive invasive competitors.