In 2011, the word was used in the Earth Island Journal, in an essay by Eric Freedman entitled 'Extinction Is Forever: A Quest for the Last Known Survivors'. In The Flight of the Emu: A Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001, author Libby Robin stated that 'the very last individual of a species' is 'what scientists refer to as an 'endling''. A printed description of this exhibition offered a similar definition, omitting reference to plants: 'An endling is the name given to an animal that is the last of its species.' In the exhibition, the definition, as it appeared in Nature, was printed in large letters on the wall above two specimens of the extinct Tasmanian tiger: 'Endling (n.) The last surviving individual of a species of animal or plant'. The word endling appeared on the walls of the National Museum of Australia in Tangled Destinies, a 2001 exhibition by Matt Kirchman and Scott Guerin, about the relationship between Australian peoples and their land. The 23 May issue of Nature published several counter-suggestions, including ender, terminarch, and relict. The 4 April 1996 issue of Nature published a correspondence in which commentators suggested that a new word, endling, be adopted to denote the last individual of a species. The word relict may also be used, but usually refers to a population, rather than an individual, that is the last of a species. Alternative names put forth for the last individual of its kind include ender and terminarch. The word was coined in correspondence in the scientific journal Nature. Once the endling dies, the species becomes extinct. The last known thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), photographed at Hobart Zoo in 1933.Īn endling is the last known individual of a species or subspecies.

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