Endangered Species

So many animals are becoming extinct today. Its seriously ridiculous!! However there are many groups trying to help save and decrease the amount of animals going into extinction. After reading this I hope you will think twice about what you do or what you buy; you never know when you could of just killed an animal because of the shirt your wearing...

The White rhinoceros is one of the largest Northern subspecies ever to be described by scientists. This subspecies was classified in 1908. Today, it is very close to extinction in the wild, and few have ever been brought into captivity. The first captive White rhinos were received at the Antwerp Zoo, Belgium, in 1950. However, while they grew to maturity, these animals never bred. They have only bred at the Vychodoc'eska Zoo at Dvur Kralove in Czechoslovakia. The first southern white rhino that was ever born in captivity was born at Pretoria on June 8,1967. The most successful breeding of the White rhino in captivity has occurred in the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Seventy-five white Rhinos have been born as of 1988. The white rhino is slightly larger than the black rhino with a larger head and body. They can weigh up to two tons and have a maximum age of up to fifty years. The horns of the rhino are the exact same substance as fingernails (keratin). The rhino is quite active and swift and can reach speeds of up to thirty m.p.h. This animal is surprisingly agile for its large size and can make sharp turns as it runs. With a very acute sense of smell, it plays a large role in their social life. Mothers can identify their children or members of a particular "home-range". Their sense of smell also helps identify the territory of others. The female rhinoceros has a gestation period of fifteen-sixteen months, in which only one calf is born.

Leopards are mainly found over nearly the whole of Africa, south of the Sahara, northeast and Asia. They are well known for their dark spots arranged in rosettes over much of their body without the central spot as found in jaguars. Besides being known for their spots, they are also known for running very fast with up to speeds of about one hundred kilometres per hour. They also have the agility to climb trees as well as swim. Their diet consist of antelope, wild pigs, monkeys, porcupines, birds and domestic livestock. They favour dogs as a meal. If they are unable to lure a dog out of the village, leopards are known to go right into the village to get the dog they want. They frequently store the remains of their kill up on trees for protection among the branches while they eat or rest. In the past, leopards were considered a nuisance to cattle and were frequently shot or hunted. But as man destroyed their habitat for cattle, farming and other human activities, the leopards had no where to survive and their prey decreased due to immigration and lack of food. Therefore leopards had no choice but to kill cattle and domestic livestock. As a result, man killed them to protect their livestock. This caused the leopards to decrease drastically. Besides that, the leopards were poached illegally for their valuable skin and body parts. In the 1980s and 1990s, the demand for their skins increased sharply due the furs’ popularity in fashion.

Gazelles are found in Africa and in Mongolia in Asia. They usually live in open plains and deserts. They are founds in herds of five to ten, but herds up to several hundred are found. Gazelles are known for their graceful movements and alertness. Their colour consists of a shade of brown with white underparts and a horizontal black band running along each side of their body. Most species have horns on both of the sexes, with the horns often lyre-shaped. They run with a skip and have an amazing swiftness. Gazelles are herbivores meaning they only eat plants. They forage among shrubs and short trees leaves. They are often hunted by other animals as a source of food. They use their swiftness to escape. These graceful animals are endangered due the poaching for their skins and horns. Their habitats are also being destroyed by human development such as farming and cattling. Conservation efforts such as making their habitat area an enclosure for them and banning illegal poaching has helped a bit in their increase.

An estimated seven hundred Giant Pandas are left in the world today, living in the high mountains in coniferous forests and bamboo thickets in central China. Since 1979 the San Diego Zoological Society has been working with Chinese zoos to spread the conservation message about the Chinese Giant Pandas. Before the Giant Pandas were exported as State gifts, but now they are "loaned" as "conservation Pandas." For example, two pandas visited for two hundred days in 1987 and 1988 at the San Diego Zoo and over two million people came and visited and enjoyed the Giant Pandas. The Giant Pandas primary food source is bamboo. They eat it almost twelve hours a day and for the rest of the day they sleep. In the course of a year they eat almost 10,000 pounds of bamboo. However the giant panda routinely eats birds, snakes and bamboo rats. Giant Pandas live up to an age of 15 years in captivity and when one gives birth only one baby is born.

Once flourishing in the forests of Asia, there are now fewer than five thousand tigers left in the world. Already the Caspian and Malinese tigers are extinct. However, there finally is a law that bans hunting of tigers everywhere. Unfortunately there is even a greater threat to them which they face, a far greater threat than hunters. Thousands of tigers have been killed in the last 50 years because their habitat has been destroyed by bulldozers and chainsaws. Already more than 80 per cent of India's forests have been destroyed. Still more forests are being cut down in order to sell firewood and lumber, plus to clear the land for farming. Despite all of the hardships and disasters that this animal has endured, the tiger population has actually risen over the last ten years. This has only been possible through strict laws protecting these magnificent animals and wilderness preserves around the world. However, this is just a small step in saving the tigers. New preserves must be added, but finding these preserves will not be easy. There must be enough water, prey, and plants for their prey to feed on. The people living near the tigers must manage and control the commercial use of the lands natural resources.

Tapirs are found in small groups in the tropical rain forests of Malaysia and Central America. They are short-legged and heavy-bodied with small eyes, rounded ears and small trunks protruding over their mouths. Their body hair are often short and usually sparse. The main source of food is grass and shrubs as well as certain roots. The central American tapirs are plain grey or brown in colour, but the Malaysian tapirs have a distinct black and white pattern. The heads, shoulders and legs are black while the rumps, backs and bellies are white. The young are completely different from their parents, with a dark brown colour and streaked as well as spotted with yellowish white. Tapirs are shy and often travel near water. When they are disturbed, they will crash wildly through the undergrowth and hide in the water. Tapirs are easy prey as they do not run fast and do not have special defences, therefore easily become victims to carnivorous animals and hunters. Their habitat, the rain forests are also depleting quickly destroyed by human activities, leading even more to their decline.

The bird of paradise is noted for its vibrant colours and bizarre shapes of the male birds’ plumage during the mating season. They are found in the New Guinea highlands and islands and some are also found in Australia. The males' colourful plumage is used to attract females during their breeding season. The females are dull brown with scattered brown specks. Courting males will strut around on a chosen perch or a cleared spacing on the forest floor for hours, showing off their magnificent feathers of different shapes and sizes. After mating, the females will go off and make a nest on their own, taking care of the young unaided. Some birds of paradise have extra long tail and flank feathers trailing behind as they fly while some are adorned with colourful feathers around the neck which can be erected to form ruffs. Naturally, when explorers from other countries came to the land, the brightly coloured birds caught their attention. A few were brought back to their homeland and the Bird of Paradise feathers soon became a fashion statement. By the nineteenth century, popular demand of the feathers had made the number of birds decline rapidly and almost caused extinction. Fortunately, conservation efforts managed to save the species before they were wiped out but the number of surviving birds are still small even today due to illegal poaching in their habitat.

Leatherback Turtles are found in most warm seas, often migrating from one continent to another. They are the largest of all turtles, sometimes weighing more than 1500 pounds. Their shells are covered by a thick layer of smooth leathery skin, instead of scales. Unlike other turtles, their ribs and backbones are not joined to the shell. These turtles have huge strong front flippers which can propel them in the water at high speeds. Leatherback Turtles have a very unique way of laying their eggs. From August to September, female turtles travel vast distances just to lay their eggs on the exact spot where they had laid their eggs previously. Without fail, their homing instincts are always right and rarely do they lose their way to their nesting site. As soon as they reach the shore, they will not rest until they have arrived at their nesting grounds. By using their giant flippers, they heave themselves up towards the spot and dig a deep hole in the sand. In this hole, they will lay about 100 to 200 soft rubbery eggs at one time. While they are laying the eggs, they will start shedding tears to excrete the excess salt from their bodies while swimming in the sea water. Once they are finished, the turtles will cover up the hole with sand and return to the sea, only coming next year to the same spot to dig another hole to lay eggs. The heat of the sun will warm the eggs and after a period of time, the hatchlings will climb out of the sand and crawl towards the sea. Even though many turtles are hatched, many do not survive the first few weeks of their lives. There are many predators such as seagulls who prey on the young turtles. The baby turtle's hard shell has not yet formed and has no hardened defence against the attackers. Some turtles are caught in fishermen's nets and left out to die. Other turtles are caught between the wastes man created such as plastic bags and eventually die of suffocation and strangulation. To make matters worse, Leatherback Turtles are hunted for their ornamental shell while their eggs are considered delicacies. Illegal gathering for eggs to be sold in markets also helps in the decline of these turtles. The coming ashore of the Leatherback Turtles to lay their eggs have become quite a spectacle and have drawn large crowds to witness this event. Unfortunately, the crowds created a large amount of noise and drove many turtles away. They also made campfires which scared them away.In order to protect them, the Malaysian government has declared it as a protected animal. Various rules and regulations have been made and huge fines imposed on those who break the law.

The Japanese Ibis has a white body with a red face. They often wade in shallow lagoons, bays and marshes. They use their long slightly curved bills to pick up any small fish and soft molluscs while wading. While they fly, their neck and legs are stretched out. They fly by alternately flapping and sailing through the air. Their nests are of compact size made out of sticks found in the branches of trees or bushes. These birds are considered to be on the verge of extinction and the Japanese government has build different programmes to increase the species such as breeding them in captivity. The Japanese Ibis is endangered due to the excessive hunting of the birds and the destruction of their habitat by man. They also face food problems as more of their feeding land is used up for human activities.

Polar Bears are found throughout the arctic region, often covering hundreds of miles in their range. They have heavy white fur which camouflage them against the white landscape in which they live in. Despite their size, they are extremely fast runners and wide-ranging travellers. They are also expert swimmers, with their thick layer of fur and fat insulating them against the extreme cold of their climate. They have hairy soles on their broad feet to protect them and insulate them from the cold, as well as help them move across the snow swiftly. Their diet consists of fish, seal, caribou, birds, seaweed, grass and an occasional whale which strayed too far from its course. Polar Bears are usually shy but they are known to be dangerous when attacked or confronted. They give birth to one to four cubs at a time in the winter and the cubs stay with their mother for up to three years. Polar Bears are endangered due to the man's excessive hunting for their priceless hide, tendons, meat, fat and flesh. Their numbers dwindled from several hundred thousands to a few hundred in a few years time. In efforts to protect Polar Bears, an international agreement was set up in 1973 whereby only traditional weapons were allowed to be used in the hunting of the Polar Bears.

Musk Oxen are roaming in parts of Europe, northern Canada and Greenland. They are stocky with large heads, short necks and legs. They are extremely huge in size with a bull weighing up to about 880 pounds. Both male and female have horns which can reach up to 2 feet as found in old males. They have long shaggy brown hair that cover the whole body that reach nearly up to their feet and conceal a short tail. Their face is further covered by short hair. Underneath their shaggy hair, they have a thick layer of wool which they shed during the summer. This wool will be collected by the Eskimos to be made into fine cloth, resembling cashmere. Musk Oxen travel in herds of 20 to 30. When attacked, the adults will form a circle with the young safe inside. The adults will face the outside and use their sharp horns as weapons against their enemy. The predator attacks young oxen who stray too far from their herd when they attack.Musk Oxen have become endangered due to the excessive hunting by man for food and sport. Their habitat also have been destroyed by human activities.

Koalas are found in the coastal regions of Eastern Australia. It is a marsupial mammal that gives birth to underdeveloped young and the young are carried around in their mother's pouch. Koalas have strong clawed feet and are able to grip the branches firmly. They are extremely fussy eaters and only feed very selectively on eucalyptus leaves. To aid in the digestion of these leaves, Koalas have a long caecum and extra long intestines. Koalas have only one young at a time and their young remains in their mother's pouch for up to 7 months. When it is 1 year old, baby Koalas cling to their mother's back constantly. Koalas have become endangered because it is valued for its soft fur. If a disease is spread among them, they have no resistance against it because of them having the same genetic pool. Therefore they are not immune to disease and if one Koala gets a virus, the whole community is infected by it as well. Often these diseases bring disastrous results and hundreds or thousands or maybe even millions can be wiped out because of a single virus. Their habitat is being destroyed. Besides having no living place, it has lost its source of food. As the Koala is an very fussy eater and almost only eats eucalyptus leaves, it has a limited supply of food choice.

This was a quote I found, "The only way to save a rhinoceros is to save the environment in which it lives, because there's a mutual dependency between it and millions of other species of both animals and plants." So seriously you need to help the environment in order to save an animal. Go out there and join a support group or work on a project to help save ENDANGERED SPECIES!!!!!!