The lastest extinction to hit the headlines is the Javan Rhino in Vietnam, poached for its horn last year (International Rhino Foundation and WWF).  There's only 50 left in Java and conservation efforts are struggling to protect remaining population from poaching. 

Large, rare mammals with limited ranges, specialised habitats and long generation times are going to be particularly hard-hit by poaching and habitat loss: mainly because they're not resilient against perturbations caused by humans.  This also means they're really expensive and difficult to conserve.  This is a great point of contention in the conservation world, what is spent on conserving a potentially doomed species like the Javan Rhino could be spent better elsewhere on beasts which have a better chance of survival, and play more important roles in [e.g.] ecosystem functioning.  I'll discuss this more later.  First, more about fossils...