Zanzibar Leopard

One of several subspecies of leopard, the Zanzibar leopard made its home on the Zanzibar archipelago of Tanzania. It’s still unclear whether this large cat is technically extinct—there are occasional unconfirmed sightings.

Cause of Extinction: the leopard went extinct thanks to the belief that these animals were kept by witches; for this reason, locals aggressively hunted them.

It didn’t help that the government was in on the campaign to exterminate the creatures. In the mid-’90s there was a short-lived conservation effort but it was deemed too little, too late.