List of African animals extinct in the Holocene

However, a few species have disappeared from Africa as part of the ongoing Holocene extinction, driven by human activity.

Madagascar and the Indian Ocean islands, Macaronesia, and Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha are biogeographically distinct from mainland Africa and have a much greater number of Holocene extinctions.

Ptolemy II Philadelphus (r. 284-246 BC) founded the cities of Berenice Troglodytica and Ptolemais Theron as hunting bases to provide himself with African raw ivory and war elephants, replacing the costlier imports from India.

This caused the depletion of elephant populations along the Red Sea coast and northern Somalia in less than two or three decades.

[5] In the Roman Empire, the Maghreb and possibly Western Africa through the Garamantes became additional sources of ivory and live elephants for the circus games.

Map of Africa
The quagga ( Equus quagga quagga ), extinct since 1883, was zebra-like in the front but more horse-like in the rear. A breeding program aims to create similar-looking animals, but these are not true quaggas.