Surviving

Still here, with ranges or numbers that shifted after people spread: hunting, farms, later recovery, or a boom. The dates differ by continent.

Size scale

Each animal is shown at full size, with the smaller animals behind it.

1 of 14

Bald eagle

Standing height

about 0.8 m

Bill to tail tip

0.9 m

Standing height about 0.8 m, bill to tail tip 0.9 m

Photo: GlacierNPS, public domain file on Wikimedia Commons

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Sources

National Audubon Society, Audubon Field Guide: Bald Eagle. https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/bald-eagle
University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Animal Diversity Web: Haliaeetus leucocephalus (bald eagle). https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Haliaeetus_leucocephalus/
National Wildlife Federation, Wildlife Guide: Bald Eagle. https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Birds/Bald-Eagle
US Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District: The Bald Eagle, An Educational Activity Guide. https://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Portals/48/docs/Recreation/ODM/pdf/Bald%20Eagle%20Activity%20Guide.pdf

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1 of 14

Bald eagle

Standing height about 0.8 m

Bill to tail tip 0.9 m

Standing height about 0.8 m, bill to tail tip 0.9 m

Photo: GlacierNPS, public domain file on Wikimedia Commons

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2 of 14

Iberian lynx

Shoulder height about 0.5 m

Nose to tail tip 0.9 m

Shoulder height about 0.5 m, nose to tail tip 0.9 m

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3 of 14

North American beaver

Shoulder height 0.4 m

Nose to tail tip 1.1 m

Shoulder height 0.4 m, nose to tail tip 1.1 m

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4 of 14

Wild boar

Shoulder height 0.8 m

Nose to tail tip 1.7 m

Shoulder height 0.8 m, nose to tail tip 1.7 m

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5 of 14

Gray wolf

Shoulder height 0.8 m

Nose to tail tip 1.7 m

Shoulder height 0.8 m, nose to tail tip 1.7 m

Photo: Joyki, CC BY 3.0. Background removed file on Wikimedia Commons

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6 of 14

Brown bear

Shoulder height 1.2 m

Nose to tail tip 1.8 m

Shoulder height 1.2 m, nose to tail tip 1.8 m

Photo: lwolfartist, CC BY 2.0 file on Wikimedia Commons Background removed from the original photo. Image mirrored.

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7 of 14

Arabian oryx

Shoulder height 0.9 m

Nose to tail tip about 2.1 m

Shoulder height 0.9 m, nose to tail tip about 2.1 m

Photo: Zoozkyn, CC BY-SA 4.0. Background removed file on Wikimedia Commons

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8 of 14

Red deer

Shoulder height 1.1 m

Nose to tail tip 2.2 m

Shoulder height 1.1 m, nose to tail tip 2.2 m

Photo: Gareth James, CC BY-SA 2.0. Background removed file on Wikimedia Commons

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9 of 14

Lion

Shoulder height 1.2 m

Nose to tail tip 2.7 m

Shoulder height 1.2 m, nose to tail tip 2.7 m

Photo: flightlog, CC BY 2.0 file on Wikimedia Commons Background removed from the original photo.

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10 of 14

American bison

Shoulder height 1.7 m

Nose to tail tip 3.1 m

Shoulder height 1.7 m, nose to tail tip 3.1 m

Photo: Graham Morazán, CC0 1.0 file on Wikimedia Commons

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11 of 14

European bison

Shoulder height 1.8 m

Nose to tail tip about 3.2 m

Shoulder height 1.8 m, nose to tail tip about 3.2 m

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12 of 14

White rhinoceros

Shoulder height 1.7 m

Nose to tail tip 4.3 m

Shoulder height 1.7 m, nose to tail tip 4.3 m

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13 of 14

African savanna elephant

Shoulder height 3.1 m

Head to tail tip (trunk hanging) about 5.7 m

Shoulder height 3.1 m, head to tail tip (trunk hanging) about 5.7 m

Photo: Hobbyfotowiki, CC0 1.0 file on Wikimedia Commons

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14 of 14

Humpback whale

Body depth about 3.3 m

Snout to tail tip 16.2 m

Body depth about 3.3 m, snout to tail tip 16.2 m

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Surviving

Gray wolf

Canis lupus

Still widespread in the far north, after vanishing from much of Europe and the United States.

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Source: IUCN Red List: Canis lupus

Surviving

Brown bear

Ursus arctos

A Holarctic survivor whose European range is now a scatter of mountain and forest remnants.

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Source: IUCN Red List: Ursus arctos

Surviving

American bison

Bison bison

From tens of millions on the Great Plains to a few hundred by the 1880s, then a managed return.

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Source: IUCN Red List: Bison bison

Surviving

African savanna elephant

Loxodonta africana

Still the largest land animal: listed Endangered in 2021 after decades of ivory and habitat loss.

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Source: IUCN Red List: Loxodonta africana

Surviving

Lion

Panthera leo

Gone from Europe and almost all of Asia; surviving in African fragments and one Indian forest.

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Source: IUCN Red List: Panthera leo

Surviving

Red deer

Cervus elaphus

A European Ice Age survivor that is now common where forestry and hunting keep it that way.

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Source: IUCN Red List: Cervus elaphus

Surviving

Wild boar

Sus scrofa

Hunted out of some countries, then returned, and became a farmland boom species.

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Source: IUCN Red List: Sus scrofa

Surviving

Eurasian beaver

Castor fiber

Hunted to a handful of refuges, then brought back across Europe by reintroduction.

Read entry

Source: IUCN Red List: Castor fiber

Surviving

Humpback whale

Megaptera novaeangliae

Industrial whaling removed more than 90 percent of most stocks; many have since rebounded.

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Source: IUCN Red List: Megaptera novaeangliae

Surviving

European bison

Bison bonasus

Wiped out in the wild in the early 1900s, then rebuilt: free-living herds grew from about 1,800 animals in 2003 to 6,244 across 47 subpopulations by 2019, and IUCN moved the species from Vulnerable to Near Threatened.

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Source: IUCN Red List: Bison bonasus

Surviving

North American beaver

Castor canadensis

Almost erased across much of its range by about 1900 for felt hats; regulated trapping and mid-century reintroductions rebuilt a continent-wide keystone: IUCN now lists it Least Concern, with modern totals commonly estimated in the tens of millions (often ~10-15 million).

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Source: IUCN Red List: Castor canadensis

Surviving

Bald eagle

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Down to 417 known nesting pairs in the lower 48 U.S. states in 1963. After the ban on dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and work under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service counted about 316,700 individuals and 71,467 occupied nests in the survey for 2018 to 2019.

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Source: USFWS: bald eagle

Surviving

White rhinoceros

Ceratotherium simum

Southern white rhinos were hunted to a single South African refuge a century ago; IUCN/TRAFFIC now put African white rhinos at about 15,752 at end-2024: Near Threatened, and still the main living white-rhino stock.

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Source: IUCN Red List: Ceratotherium simum

Surviving

Arabian oryx

Oryx leucoryx

Declared extinct in the wild in the early 1970s, then returned from captive “world herds”; by the 2016 IUCN assessment about 1,220 animals lived wild again (850 mature), and the species became the first to move from Extinct in the Wild back to Vulnerable.

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Source: IUCN Red List: Oryx leucoryx