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Here are some of the endangered animals in the world. These animals are facing extinction because of poaching, hunting, and losing their habitats because of deforestation.
🐾 Healthy ecosystems provide us with plants and animals that have medicinal properties. Many animals have unique body processes that provide perception in curing human diseases.
Proteus anguinus
Proteus anguinus is a snake-like amphibian living in the groundwater veins of central and southeastern Europe. It is the only creature of the Proteus anguinus family in Europe. Their bodies are like snakes, their tails are flat, and their eyes are hidden under the skin. Because they live in dark water for a long time, their eyes have deteriorated to be unable to see things normally, but their sense of smell and hearing are very developed. They can eat, rest and reproduce in the water like ordinary marine creatures.
However, due to years of water pollution, their numbers have been drastically reduced.
Red Panda
The red panda has a bear-like body and thick reddish-brown fur. It is slightly bigger than a domestic cat. The abdomen and limbs are black. The side of the head and above its tiny eyes have white markings. Red pandas are acrobatic and skilled animals who prefer to live in trees. They use their long, bushy tails for balancing and to keep warm during the winter.
The Eastern Himalayas are home to nearly half of the red panda's habitat. However, nesting trees and bamboo are cut down, causing a decline in the red panda’s population as their forest home is destroyed.
Black-footed Ferret
The black-footed ferrets are the only ferret species native to central North America. They are also known as the American polecat or prairie dog hunter. Black-footed ferrets are solitary animals except during the breeding season or when females are caring for the young. Their body colours and markings mix well with the soils and plants. They are slim and wiry animals with a black facemask, feet, and black-tipped tails. The rest of their body is short and sleek, with yellow-buff coloured fur, and their forehead, muzzle, and throat are nearly white.
Their legs are short with large front paws and claws for digging. Their large ears and eyes make them acute to hearing and sight. Their most important sense is smell, which helps them to hunt underground in the dark. Their main diet is prairie dogs, but they also eat mice, rats, ground squirrels, rabbits, birds, and irregularly reptiles and insects.
However, due to habitat loss and the shrinking numbers of prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets are endangered.
Pangolin
The pangolin is a solitary nocturnal mammal that lives in the forests and grasslands of Asia and Africa. We can find eight different pangolin species in Asia and Africa. Pangolins are uniquely covered with tough and overlapping scales. They have a long, sticky tongue that they use to eat ants and termites. When they feel attacked or threatened, they will defend themselves by curling up into a tight ball.
They are also incredibly popular and considered to be the most trafficked mammal in the world. People hunt them down for their scales and meat. Up to 100,000 pangolins are captured each year.
Orangutan
The name orangutan means "man of the forest" in the Malay language. They feed on wild fruits such as figs, lychees, and mangosteens. Besides that, orangutans get water from holes in trees. They build nests in trees to sleep in at night and rest during the day.
The Bornean and Sumatran orangutans differ slightly in appearance and behaviour. Although both of them have fluffy red fur, Sumatran orangutans have longer facial hair. Sumatran orangutans are reported to be more socially connected than Borneo orangutans. Bornean orangutans are more likely to come down from the trees and move around on the ground.
Both species have experienced a dramatic decline in numbers. A century ago, the total number of orangutans in the world may have exceeded 230,000, but according to the latest geographical distribution, there are now about 104,700 orangutans in Borneo (endangered) and 7,500 orangutans in Sumatra (critically endangered).
Asian Elephant
Asian elephants can be found in southern and southeastern Asia, from India to Thailand to southern China. There are three subspecies of the Asian Elephant: the Indian, the Sumatran, and the Sri Lankan. These elephants are very intelligent animals and are one of the only mammals that are able to recognize themselves in a mirror. They are also very social, forming groups of six to eight elephants which is led by an older female called a matriarch. Asian elephants are smaller than their African cousins. They also have much smaller tusks.
The biggest threats to the Asian elephant are poaching and habitat loss. Their tusks are worth a lot in the black market. Thus, elephants with large tusks are often at risk of poaching. Elephants are also captured alive for domestic use, such as tourist attractions. At the same time, as the rainforest they rely on is being cut down, they will start feeding on farmers' crops, and it puts them at risk of being killed.
Aren't these animals precious and beautiful?
We must try our best to raise awareness of these animals to prevent their extinction.
Check out our next blog on how to protect endangered animals here.
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