This is a list of Hawaiian animal species extinct in the Holocene that covers extinctions from the Holocene epoch, a geologic epoch that began about 11,650 years before present (about 9700 BCE) and continues to the present day.
The Hawaiian Islands include the eight major islands (the Windward Islands) and the small islands and atolls of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. They are all part of the U.S. state of Hawaii, except Midway Atoll, which is a separate U.S. territory.
The Holocene or Anthropocene extinction is an ongoing extinction event caused by human activity during the current geological epoch, impacting diverse families of plants and animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, as well as both terrestrial and marine species. It is sometimes also called the sixth mass extinction (or seventh if counting the Capitanian and End Permian extinctions separately).
Current extinction rates are estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background extinction rates and are accelerating. The Holocene extinction was preceded by the Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions (lasting from 50,000 to 10,000 years ago), in which many large mammals – including 81% of megaherbivores – went extinct, a decline attributed at least in part to human (anthropogenic) activities. There continue to be strong debates about the relative importance of anthropogenic factors and climate change, but a recent review concluded that there is little evidence for a major role of climate change and "strong" evidence for human activities as the principal driver. Examples from regions such as New Zealand, Madagascar, and Hawaii have shown how human colonization and habitat destruction have led to significant biodiversity losses.