Have the Borg ever destroyed a species rather than assimilate them?

Question

With their signature greeting;

We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

they assimilate entire species and cultures. The Borg desire to assimilate entire species but for whatever reason have they ever literally destroyed any species?

Answer 1

There are no known cases of the Borg wiping out a species without assimilating them.

Either a race contains unique mental, physical or technological attributes which makes them ripe for assimilation, or they have nothing of value to the Collective and are ignored (like the Kazon).

If a species was capable of resisting the Borg such that they presented a clear and present danger to the Collective as a whole, then the Borg would try to assimilate them to make that resistance quotient part of the Collective, rather than lose it. If the Borg were unable to assimilate such a species then they would probably be wiped out (see 8472 before Voyager intervened).

Answer 2

Once a race has no further utility to the Borg Collective, the are absorbed effectively destroying that species. Numerous species may have met their end this way.

• While the Borg do not boast of destroying species, we do know they are not above that sort of thing with their attempts to destroy the Fluidic-space dwelling Species 8472.

The Borg-Species 8472 War decimated the Collective from 2373-2374. Voyager's liberation of Seven of Nine allowed Unimatrix Zero to create an active resistance movement in 2377.

• Species 8472's capacities to resist Borg nanoprobes with their aggressive biology and the destructive capacity of their organic ships made them a true threat to the Borg.

Species 8472 Destruction of Borg Cubes

• It is suspected the Borg may attempt to subtly coerce a species into developing new technologies through interactions on the fringes of their Empire. Once that species produces no new technologies, they are absorbed and their planetary infrastructures put to use by the Borg.