15 ANIMALS ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION

It's not too late, but the future looks bleak for these species as they are on the verge of extinction.

1.Black Rhino

Location:Namibia,Coastal East Africa

Bit by bit, the black rhino is disappearing from the world. Most recently, the western black rhino was declared extinct in 2011. Only one subspecies ,the south-western black rhinoceros is managing to hold on beyond the threat of being considered endangered. (The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers it “near threatened.”)

The entire wider species has fallen in population by 96 percent in just the last 60 years. Poaching represents one of the biggest threats to the survival of the rhino, as its horn is used in traditional folk medicine in China. Only 5,500 rhinos remain on the African continent, though there are concerted efforts to boost those numbers.

2.Amur Leopard

Location: Russian Far East and North East China

The subspecies ,which is also known as the Fast East Leopard,the Manchurian Leopard or the Korean Leopard ,despite being nearly extinct outside of the Amur River basin in eastern Russia ,can run upwards of 37 miles an hour and jump as high as 19 feet in the air. 

According to a 2015 census, there are only around 60 Amur leopards left, all living at Russia's Land of the Leopard National Park.

3.Pangolin 

Location: China,Sunda,India,Philiphines(region in which they are critically endangered)

Found in forests and grasslands, pangolins are solitary, nocturnal creatures with scales covering their bodies and long sticky tongues to slurp up ants and termites. They are about the size of a house cat, and look a little bit like artichokes on legs. When frightened, they defend themselves by rolling up into a ball.

These critters, found in Asia and Africa, are endangered because they are increasingly the victims of wildlife crime for their meat and scales. In fact, according to CNN(Cable News Network), they are believed to be the most trafficked animal in the world. It is estimated that 1,00,000 of them are captured every year.

4.Tapanuli Orangutan

Loaction: Sumatra ,Indonesia

The orangutan, along with humans, gorillas, and chimpanzees, are members of the great ape family. The orangutans are the only Asian great ape, and are a bit more distantly related to us than the gorilla or our very close cousins, the chimps and bonobos. All three species of orangutans :the Sumatran, the Bornean, and the recently discovered Tapanuli are critically endangered, with around 60,000 surviving across all three species.

The Tapanuli is perhaps the most endangered, estimated to only have around 800 individuals surviving in the wild. 

There are ongoing efforts to save our intelligent cousin species, but poaching and deforestation stand largely in the way.

5.Sumatran Elephant

Location:Borneo and Sumatra(Indonesia)

The Asian elephant, which is distantly related to the African elephant, is in even graver danger. There are 700,000 African elephants left in the world, but only 40,000 Asian elephants across three subspecies. The bulk of the surviving Asian elephants are the Indian subspecies, while the Sri Lankan subspecies has only around 6,000 elephants still alive, and that’s after concerted conservation efforts.

Of gravest concern is the Sumatran elephant, with less than 2,800 spread out across several pockets in the country. Some have been poached, while others get caught up in traps meant to keep foraging animals out of palm oil plantations.

6.Sumatran Tiger 

Location:Sumatra,Indonesia

The Sumatran tiger is the last of the Sunda Island tigers, a group of Indonesian tigers. The other two:the Bali tiger and the Javan tiger went extinct in the 20th century. Now, the Sumatran tiger has less than 700 individuals left in the wild. 

Deforestation remains one of the biggest issues for the tiger, who prefer unkempt wilderness to even modestly developed areas. Lax enforcement of conservation efforts has sustained such poaching practices.While some efforts are underway to bolster the population, it still may disappear in the coming decades.

7.Red Crowned Roofed Turtle

Location:India,Bangladesh,Nepal

Natural to southeast Asia, this river turtle has been driven from areas like Nepal and Bangaledsh through heavy water contamination and extraction projects. They've also drowned in illegal fishing nets, and irregular water flow from dams have killed them. Now they find themselves limited, scientists believe, to a single river in India, the Chambal. The IUCN estimates that there are only 500 left, with a population decreasing. That's enough to list them as critically endangered.

8.Saola

Location:Greater Mekong(South East Asia)

They are already on the edge of being extinction, with populations predictable to be as low as only a few dozen. Saola look like antelopes with two black horns that are long and smooth that are parallel and are curved backward a little. 

The biggest risk to the saolas is hunting done for their meat and horns that are used as trophies. Another threat is habitat loss because humans are clearing forests for infrastructure and agriculture and this is the home for these saolas.

9.Javan Rhinoceros

Location:Java,Indonesia

It is the rarest and most susceptible species of rhinos. With only approximately 60 of them remaining in the National Park of Ujung Kulonin Indonesia. The most recent rhino died in Vietnam in 2010.

The main things that dangers the Javan rhino are:The major explosions of the Anak Krakatau volcano and the tsunamis that kill them in large numbers. Rhinos have also died from diseases in the recent years that are known to have been transmitted by the wild livestock.

10.White-rumped vulture

Location:Bangladesh,India(South East Asia)

One of three critically endangered species of vulture, the white-rumped vulture has suffered what the IUCN classifies as a “catastrophic decline”across thre Indian Subcontinent to the point that it is highly threatened with extinction.Over 99% of its population has been wiped out since the 1980s,making it the fastest decline of any bird species in recorded history.

“Vultures play an important role in the ecosystem.” In India, the vultures played a key role in cleaning up the remains of fallen cows  and in doing so,they were poisoned because they ingested the livestock drug diclofenac  from the animal carcasses. The loss of vultures as a result of this drug has had a cascading effect.

11.Vacquita

Location:Gulf of California

The vaquita is the rarest marine mammal in the world, and critically endangered,according to IUCN. In 2016, it was estimated that there were only 30 of these porpoises left in existence. But new research suggests that the number has been cut down by more than a third with less than 20 vaquitas left on Earth. Which is likely too small a population for the vaquita to successfully reproduce and replenish its population. 

The greatest threat is accidental deaths when they get got in gillnets that are meant to catch other marine species. 

12.South China Tiger

Location:Central and Eastern China

The South China tiger population was estimated to number 4,000 individuals in the early 1950s. In the next few decades, thousands were killed as the subspecies was hunted as a pest. The Chinese government banned hunting in 1979. By 1996 the population was estimated to be just 30-80 individuals.Today the South China tiger is considered by scientists to be “functionally extinct” .

13.Mountain Gorilla

Location:Congo Basin

As their name implies, mountain gorillas live in forests high in the mountains, at elevations of 8,000 to 13,000 feet. They have thicker fur, and more of it, compared to other great apes. The fur helps them to survive in a habitat where temperatures often drop below freezing. But as humans have moved more and more into the gorillas’ territory, the gorillas have been pushed farther up into the mountains for longer periods, forcing them to endure dangerous and sometimes deadly conditions.Their population is estimated to be around 880 individuals.

14.Hawksbill Turtle

Location:Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean

Hawksbills are found mainly throughout the world's tropical oceans, predominantly in coral reefs.They feed mainly on sponges by using their narrow pointed beaks to extract them from crevices on the reef, but also eat sea anemones and jellyfish. Sea turtles are the living representatives of a group of reptiles that have existed on Earth and traveled our seas for the last 100 million years.Hawksbill Turtles are one of the species that are considered to be "critically endangered."

15.Cross River Gorilla

Location:Congo Basin

Cross River gorillas live in a region populated by many humans who have encroached upon the gorilla’s territory clearing forests for timber and to create fields for agriculture and livestock. Poaching occurs in the forests as well, and the loss of even a few of these gorillas has a detrimental effect on such a small population. Efforts to protect these animals are focused on securing the forests that house them.There are about  200-300 Cross River gorillas left.

It is therefore evident that the greatest enemy that contributes to wildlife extinction are the humans:through pollution, habitat depletion and degradation. Thus it is our responsibility to conserve animals, and the best way to do this is by first saving the environment around us.