TOP TEN COUNTRIES WITH THE LARGEST NUMBER OF ENDANGERED SPECIES (aneki.com)

1.	Ecuador	2,151
2.	United States	1,143
3.	Malaysia	892
4.	Indonesia	833
5.	China	773
6.	Mexico	748
7.	Brazil	697
8.	Australia	621
9.	Colombia	593
10.	India	552

THE AFRICAN WILD DOG

The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) is a canid native to Sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest of its family in Africa, and the only member of the genus Lycaon, which is distinguished from Canis by its fewer toes and dentition, which is highly specialised for a hypercarnivorous diet. It is classed as endangered by the IUCN, as it has disappeared from much of its original range. The current population has been estimated at roughly 39 subpopulations containing 6,600 adults, only 1,400 of which are fully grown.

Challenges faced by this dog

Humans

Throughout Africa, wild dogs have been shot and poisoned by farmers, who often blame them when a leopard or hyena kills livestock.

Image: tusk.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evasion of space

As human populations expand, leading to agriculture, settlements, and roads, African wild dogs are losing the spaces in which they were once able to roam freely.

Inage: tusk.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Solutions

Our solutions to protecting the African wild dog:

Engage local communities

 African Wildlife Foundation educates community members on protecting their local wildlife and equips them to do so. In the Samburu Heartland, AWF, with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Dutch government, employed 12 scouts from five neighboring communities. These scouts monitor the African wild dogs, learning their movements and alerting herders when African wild dogs are present. By providing access to new employment, AWF is able to weave conservation and economic opportunity together to incentivize African wild dog protection.

Mitigate human-wildlife conflict

Retaliation is the primary reason for wild dog killings. We work with communities to help them construct bomas—livestock enclosures—that protect livestock from predators.

post source: African Wildlife Foundation

LEATHERBACK SEA TURTLE

The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), sometimes called the leathery turtle, is the largest of all living turtles and is the fourth-heaviest modern reptile behind three crocodilians. It is the only living species in the genus Dermochelys. It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell. Instead, its carapace is covered by skin and oily flesh.

Threats to leatherback sea turtles

Entanglement in fishing gear

Image: ryot

  

 











Over-harvesting of eggs 

Image: ryot

The Turtle’s Point of View

Scientists studying the behavior of endangered leatherback sea turtles put video cameras on their shells.

Source:  James Gorman and Poh Si Teng (nytimes.com)

WESTERN LOWLAND GORILA

Image: animalstime.com

 The western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) is one of two subspecies of the western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) that lives in montane, primary, and secondary forests and lowland swamps in central Africa in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. It is the gorilla most often found in zoos.The western lowland gorilla is the smallest subspecies of gorilla but nevertheless still a primate of exceptional size and strength. This species of gorillas exhibits pronounced sexual dimorphism. They possess no tails and have jet black skin along with coarse black hair that covers their entire body except for the face, ears, hands, and feet. The hair on the back and rump of males takes on a grey coloration and is also lost as they get progressively older. This coloration is the reason why older males are known as "silverbacks". Their hands are proportionately large with nails on all digits, similar to that of a human's, and very large thumbs. They have short muzzles, a prominent brow ridge, large nostrils, and small eyes and ears. Other features are large muscles in the jaw region along with broad and strong teeth.

The western lowland gorilla population in the wild is faced by a number of factors that threaten its extinction.

1. bushmeat hunting.
 

2. Infertility - Generally, female gorillas mature at 10–12 years of age (or earlier at 7–8 years) and their male counterparts mature slower, rarely strong and dominant enough to reproduce before 15–20 years of age. The fecundity of females, or capacity of producing young in great numbers, appears to decline by the age of 18. Of one half of captive females of viable reproductive age, approximately only 30% of those had only a single birth. The long, narrow, bony pelvis of the great apes, which further contributes to the potentially long distance from the apex of the vagina to the ovaries and therefore decreases the chance of successful fertilization

3. Expanding human settlements - the expansion of human causes animals to lose their land and their food thereby leading to their extinction.

ABUTILON EREMITOPETALIUM

Image: calphotos.berkeley.edu

This plant is commonly known as the Hidden-petaled Abutilon or Hiddenpetal Indian Mallow, is a species of flowering shrub in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is endemic to dry forests and low shrublands on the windward side of the island of Lānaʻi in Hawaii. It is classified by the IUCN Red List as critically endangered by habitat destruction. The species was first discovered in 1987.

This plant faces threats of extinction  from the following:

Alien plant competition

Alien plants tend to invade native plants space and take over their space leading to their extinction.
source:  alien plant competition

Browsing and trampling by axis deer

The axis deer which is found in Hawaii tramples and destroys this plant leading to its extintion.
source:  Browsing and trampling by axis deer

Stochastic extinction caused by low numbers  

Small populations are generally at a greater risk of extinction because environmental fluctuations due to variation in predation, competition, disease and food supply; and natural catastrophes that occur at irregular intervals, such as fires, floods, volcanic eruptions, storms and droughts. 
source:  Stochastic extinction caused by low numbers

 Source of this article: http://www.centerforplantconservation.org/

SUMATRAN RHINOCEROS

Image: wolvesonceroamed.com

The Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is a rare member of the family Rhinocerotidae and one of five extant rhinoceroses. It is the only extant species of the genus Dicerorhinus. It is the smallest rhinoceros, although it is still a large mammal.Members of the species once inhabited rainforests, swamps, and cloud forests in India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China. In historical times, they lived in southwest China, particularly in Sichuan.They are now critically endangered, with only six substantial populations in the wild: four on Sumatra, one on Borneo, and one in the Malay Peninsula. Their numbers are difficult to determine because they are solitary animals that are widely scattered across their range, but they are estimated to number fewer than 100. Survival of the Peninsular Malaysia population is in doubt, and one of the Sumatran populations may already be extinct. Total numbers today may be as low as 80^. The decline in the number of Sumatran rhinoceroses is attributed primarily to poaching for their horns, which are highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine, fetching as much as US$50,000 per kg on the black market.Many parts of its body are believed to have aphrodisiac and medicinal properties, but its distinctive horn is most in demand, and ends up either a powdered ingredient in medicines, or artistically carved . The populations of the Sumatran rhinoceros are now so small that breeding has become a rare activity and successful births are infrequent; as a result, inbreeding depression has become a real and serious risk. The small numbers mean that even the death of a single animal brings the species a step closer to extinction. This is one of the animals that are on the verge of extinction.

CAMOUFLAGE FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES

This documentary shows us how animals use camouflage to protect themselves and survive for more years. click on the link below to watch it

http://youtu.be/crn-uqOG8SY

Here is a song by Dianne Reeves to watch after the video about endangered species.

http://youtu.be/n7I8FDn2WDg