BY THE NUMBERS The International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN has assessed over 46,000 different animal species Its job is to determine the status of each animal species identifying those animals that are of least concern and drawing attention to those that are on the path to extinction It's not a pretty picture 4 IUCN RED LIST CATEGORY Least Concern Near Threatened Vulnerable Endangered Critically Endangered Extinct In The Wild Extinct 44,253
at risk animals There are 3,483 animal species that have been defined as critically endangered meaning they face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild All of the animals in this book are critically endangered BIRDS 223 AMPHIBIANS 540 ARTHROPODS 394 There are hundreds of critically endangered species that are actually thought to be extinct Until that can be confirmed their status isn’t changed But the true number of extinctions is likely much higher MAMMALS 225 FISHES 455 REPTILES 332 4655 6593 5426 3483 37 778 5
HABITAT THREAT GREATEST ASIA Amur Leopard LOSS GREATEST THREAT HUNTING FACT BOX NICE AND NIMBLE This rare leopard is perfectly adapted to hunt small deer and hares It is fast and agile able to run at speeds of almost 40 miles 64 km per hour Fewer than 35 Amur leopards survive in the wild making this one of the world’s most endangered big cats Its usual habitat is forests in northeastern China and southeastern Russia though it’s now thought to be extinct in China The Amur is prized for its stunning luxurious coat and its bones are used in Chinese medicine so poaching has been a major threat 6
THREAT GREATEST HUNTING SAIGA Between the early 1990s and 2005 the saiga population fell by more than 95 percent from one million to a few thousand This was mostly because of hunting for their meat and the horns of the males Overgrazing of their pastures dry grasslands and semi desert areas by introduced livestock particularly sheep has also played a big role FACT BOX Ice Age survivor This strange-looking nomadic herd animal partway between a sheep and an antelope is a relict of the last Ice Age when saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths roamed Earth SUMATRAN ORANGUTAN SUMATRAN AND SOUTH CHINA TIGERS Found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra this is the rarer of the two orangutan species Only 6,600 Sumatran orangutans now survive in the wild mainly because of habitat destruction The tropical forests the species calls home are being logged mostly to make way for palm oil plantations If this continues at current rates the Sumatran orangutan is likely to be extinct in the wild within 50 years A century ago there were eight tiger subspecies and about 100,000 tigers roamed Asia Three subspecies are extinct and the South China tiger is considered functionally extinct because it hasn’t been seen in the wild for 25 years Fewer than 400 wild Sumatran tigers survive Tigers are now protected and trade in their body parts is illegal But poaching particularly for Chinese medicine continues to have a huge impact SUMATRAN ELEPHANT This elephant became recognized as one of world’s most endangered animals in 2011 after half of its population disappeared in just 25 years Almost three-quarters of its habitat was destroyed over that time The only place it survives in the wild is Sumatra which has one of the world’s highest deforestation rates Because of that the elephants are forced into contact with villages where they’re killed when they raid crops trample homes or threaten people WILD COUSINS MEDICAL EXTINCTION IVORY TARGETS Orangutans are actually close relatives of humans They have a similar life span and like humans mother orangutans are pregnant for nine months There’s a Chinese medicine market for almost every part of the tiger’s body eyeballs are an epilepsy treatment whiskers a toothache remedy Only male Sumatran elephants have tusks They’re smaller than those of other elephants but still seen by poachers as a valuable source of ivory 7
