Which animals face extinction

The natural habitats of mountain gorillas even lands within protected areas have been cleared by humans for agriculture and livestock. Along with poaching, the lands of mountain gorillas have been destroyed by people illegally harvesting charcoal to fuel their houses. The black rhinoceros is a rare species located in Africa and is also another animal facing extinction and listed as critically endangered.

With around 5, black rhinoceros left on earth, poaching remains their biggest threat. The horns of one of the oldest groups of mammals on earth are a top demand for cold remedies in Vietnam and China.

Another reason for the decline in this species includes the loss of their habitat due to human activities including agriculture, settlement and infrastructure development. In recent years, these amazing sea creatures, who are also extremely dependent on land for nesting, have seen an incremental loss and damages to their habitat due to vehicle traffic on beaches, coastal development and other human activities disturbing their way of life.

The homes of these great apes are slowly disappearing due to human activity and the search for oil palm plantations.

Scientists cautioned against focusing exclusively on flagship endangered animals when the wider and closer risk was the demise of once common species, such as bees and fish, that are crucial to the food chain. A separate study coordinated by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew suggested that just over one-fifth of plant species are threatened — mostly in the tropics — due to man-made habitat loss. But the extent of the risk remains unclear. During the period , the Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae has been downlisted from Vulnerable to Least Concern.

Even optimistic scenarios for this century consistently predict extinctions and shrinking populations of many species. Email Tweet Share. The causes? The disappearance of its habitat caused by l ogging companies and, most of all, once again, poaching.

More than park guards have been murdered in the National Park of Virunga, where most of these animals live, an indication of the struggle for their preservation. It dies due to elevated salinity in the water, the short life span of offspring, contamination in the area and the methods used to fish the recently famous panga fish.

In , only 85 of these animals could be found. Hunting and sale as pets and the large palm oil industries are the reasons for its critical situation. These consider the orangutan as an enemy of their crops and kill them without pity. Indonesia has lost more than half the surface of its tropical forest in the last 50 years to favor these plantations. These ape can only be found in Borneo and Sumatra. A species of sea turtle that is in serious danger of extinction along with the leatherback turtle.

Although they increasingly attract tourism, accidental fishing, water contamination and hunting for their shells, meat or eggs has nearly decimated these animals. After million years on the planet, they may not survive the effect of humans.

Human actions keep harming the biodiversity of Earth, so we add five animals in this ranking of endangered species. This extension confirms the abuse of man of the rest of the plane t and underlines the urgent need for protection campaigns for all species, especially the endangered ones. It is perhaps the most iconic image of the effects of climate change.

Their habitat has been seriously threatened for several decades by the melting of the Arctic pole, causing the isolation of the species , more difficulty in getting food and sometimes distances too long to swim. The general rise in global temperatures is causing the critical situation of this kind of native penguins in southern Argentina.

The fish that inhabit the icy waters of Antarctica are emigrating because of warming of ocean currents. These fish are eaten by penguins, who are forced to travel hundreds of kilometers to find new food, trips in which many die. One of the most iconic species in Africa such as the giraffe is a recent addition to this sad list. They spend most of their time in freshwater rivers, only leaving the water to bask in the sun and lay eggs.

Unfortunately, Gharial numbers have been in decline since the s and, sadly, this large crocodilian is now close to extinction.

There are only around to left in the wild. Their decline is due to several issues, though all human-made. Habitat loss , pollution and entanglement in fishing nets pose some of the biggest threats, along with poachers that target them for use in traditional medicine. Kakapos are nocturnal ground-dwelling parrots from New Zealand, and yet another example of an animal brought to the edge of extinction by humans.

They are critically endangered with only around individuals remaining, each one with an individual name. They were once common throughout New Zealand and Polynesia but now inhabit just two small islands off the coast of southern New Zealand. One of the main threats to Kakapos is predation from introduced species such as cats and stoats that hunt using scent.

It is effective against predators that rely on sight to hunt but not smell. Females also leave the nest unattended when finding food, leaving the eggs freely available to predators. Intensive conservation measures mean the population is on the increase now, which is positive. But, genetic diversity is low among the remaining kakapo, which could affect survival in the future, especially if they are struck by a disease.

That number is now estimated to be less than Like all species on our endangered list, humans are their biggest threat. Their beautiful coats are popular with poachers as are their bones which they sell for use in traditional Asian medicine. They are also at risk from habitat loss due primarily to natural and human-made fires.

Climate change is also changing Amur leopard habitat and leading to a decrease in prey availability.