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Endangered Animals of Africa

Welcome to Africa

The continent of Africa is home to nearly 800 million people. It isalso home to countless animal species. Some of these animals, suchas driver ants, are plentiful. Other African animals are not doing aswell. There are very few of them left.

People have taken over many places to build roads, houses, and farms.Animals that once lived in these places no longer have food or places tolive. Some of them die. If enough animals in a species die, the speciesbecomes endangered. This means it is in danger of disappearing fromEarth completely.

Africa’s Climate

Africa is Earth’s second-largest continent. It hasmany different climate zones. Climate has to dowith the weather a certain place has over a longtime. In general, most of Africa is warm and dry.Grasslands called savannas cover 40 percent ofAfrica. Another 40 percent is made up of hot, drydeserts.

Many different animal species live on this continent.If the climate where they live changes too much,

THINKGREENThe lions that

live in Africa

have lost some

of their lands

due to people

building roads,

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Africa’s deserts have hot, dry climates.Hemera/Thinkstock

Ring-tailed lemurs are endangered animalsthat live in forest habitats in Madagascar.iStockphoto/Thinkstock

these animals can become endangered.

Africa’s Habitats

A habitat is the place in which plants and animals naturally live. Peopleare destroying many of Africa’s habitats. This has endangered some ofAfrica’s animals!

One of the world’s most famous desert habitats is the Sahara, innorthern Africa. Horned vipers, fennec foxes, and jerboas live there.The Kalahari and Namib deserts, in the southwest, are home to animalssuch as jackals, gazelles, and meerkats.

The central part of Africa has thick rain forests and grasslands.Monkeys, snakes, and birds live in these parts of Africa. The southernpart of Africa has savannas with many large animals, such as lions,elephants, wildebeests, and zebras.

Africa’sEndangeredAnimals

Africa is home to someamazing animals. Theanimals on these pages areendangered and could oneday become extinct.

African Wild Dog1.

houses, and

farms.

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African wild dogs live in packs of up to 20 animals. Today only3,000 to 5,500 of these animals remain in Africa.

Black Rhinoceros

The black rhinoceros population is spread across areas in thesouthern and eastern parts of Africa. There were once about100,000 black rhinos. Now there are only 3,100 or fewer.

2.

Chimpanzee

Chimpanzees live in rain forests and wet savannas. Chimpanzeenumbers are dropping due to people cutting down their foresthomes, taking chimps for medical studies, and from illnesses.

3.

Mountain Gorilla

The mountain gorilla lives in cloud forests only in parts of Uganda,the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda. There areonly 700 mountain gorillas alive today.

4.

Grévy’s Zebra

Grévy’s zebra is the largest of the three zebra species. Thenumbers of Grévy’s zebras has dropped by 83 percent since the1970s.

5.

Danger for AfricanWild Dogs

The African wild dog is alsocalled the painted dog. Itssoft fur is covered in spotsof brown, black, white, red,and tan. These hunters livetogether in groups, calledpacks. They live on thesavannas, grasslands, and

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Where Endangered Animals LiveJupiterimages/Photos.com/Thinkstock

The African wild dog’s coloring helps itblend in with the grasslands around it.Shutterstock.com

open woodlands of Africa.

A mother African wild dogcan give birth to as manyas 16 pups in a litter, butmost of these pups will die.Life is not easy for the adultdogs, either. People killmany wild dogs becausethey sometimes huntlivestock on farms. They arealso endangered because ofhabitat loss and illness.

Black Rhinos inTrouble

Black rhinoceroses, orrhinos, live in an Africanhabitat called bushveld.Bushveld is grassland thathas dense thickets. Manyof the bushes and trees inthese thickets have thornsthat bother other animals. They do not bother the thick-skinned rhinos,though.

The black rhino used to be widespread across half of Africa. There arenot very many black rhinos alive in the wild today, however. One of thebiggest reasons black rhinos are endangered is that people kill theblack rhino for its horns. Now it is extinct in some places. People arenow working hard to make sure it does not become extinct anywhereelse.

Save GeometricTortoises!

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Rhino horns are prized by some people.Sometimes people catch rhinos and cut offtheir horns so that the animals will not bekilled for their horns.© Eric Miller/Peter Arnold, Inc.

The markings on a geometric tortoise’sshell gives it its name. Its cool-lookingshell is the reason people sometimes tookthe tortoise from the wild to keep it as a

Geometric tortoises live inthe southern part of SouthAfrica. Their shells havemarkings, which give themtheir name. This shell helpsthe turtle keep safe.

Because of their beautifulshells, many geometricturtles were taken from thewild for the pet trade. In1951, this practice wasmade unlawful. People also liked to eat the tortoise’s eggs and makethings out of its shell.

These things are now against the law. Today the biggest problemfacing the geometric tortoise is habitat destruction. Today there arefewer than 5,000 geometric turtles left in the world.

Grévy’s Zebras

There are three kinds ofzebras. They are themountain zebra, Burchell’szebra, and the endangeredGrévy’s zebra. The Grévy’szebra’s numbers have fallento around 2,500.

Zebras are eaten by manyof Africa’s large hunters,such as lions and hyenas.People are zebras’ worstenemy, though. Peoplehave hunted them for theirskins and meat. Peoplehave also taken over their

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pet. This is against the law.Shutterstock.com

The stripes on a Grévy’s zebra are thinnerthan the stripes on other zebras.Shutterstock.com

habitat. Zebras mustcompete with livestock andpeople for food and water.

Grévy’s zebras migrate long distances for food and water. Today theyare a protected species, and it is hoped that they will come back fromthe edge of extinction.

Help EurasianPeregrine Falcons

Peregrine falcons live andnest around the world,including in Africa. Thesebirds mostly eat other birdsand can even catch them inmidair! Many people oncehunted peregrine falcons.When the number ofperegrine falcons droppedtoo low, laws were changedto protect the falcon from hunters.

In the 1930s and 1940s, a pesticide called DDT killed many peregrinefalcons. At one point there were only about 600 peregrine falcons inthe world. In the early 1970s, laws changed to control the use of DDT.Today the peregrine falcon is not endangered, but scientists pay closeattention to the bird’s numbers in the wild.

Save Africa’sAnimals!

Africa’s animals need ourhelp! Animals on theendangered list can make acomeback if people workhard to keep them safe. For

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Peregrine falcons dive out of the sky tocatch their prey. This bird’s dive can be asfast as 200 miles per hour (320 km/h)!© WILDLIFE/Peter Arnold, Inc.

Huge herds of wildebeests live in thegrasslands of southern Africa.iStockphoto/Thinkstock

example, elephants wereendangered in 1996, butnow their numbers aregrowing. This shows thatconservation efforts work.

In Africa land is being setaside for endangeredspecies. Thesesanctuaries, orconservation lands, helplimit habitat destruction.Laws have also been passed to keep these animals safe from hunting.There are also programs to educate people about why the animals areimportant to Africa’s ecosystems.

Find Out More

The Web sites and booksbelow can help you domore research on yourtopic.

Web Sites

African Wildlife Foundation:Chimpanzeehttp://www.awf.org/content/wildlife/detail/979/

A-Z Animals: Black Rhinoceroshttp://a-z-animals.com/animals/black-rhinoceros/

National Geographic: African Wild Dogshttp://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/african-hunting-dog/

Books

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Dennard, Deborah. Chimpanzees (Our Wild World). Lanham, MD:NorthWord Books for Young Readers, 2008.

Hamilton, Garry. Rhino Rescue: Changing the Future for EndangeredWildlife. Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books, 2006.

Hammond, Paula. The Atlas of Endangered Animals: Wildlife UnderThreat Around the World. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall CavendishCorporation,2010.

GLOSSARY

climate zones (KLY-mut ZOHNZ) Large places that have the samekind of weather.

conservation (kon-sur-VAY-shun) Keeping something from beinghurt.

continent (KON-tuh-nent) One of Earth's seven large landmasses.

ecosystems (EE-koh-sis-temz) Communities of living things and thesurroundings in which they live.

endangered (in-DAYN-jerd) Describing an animal whose species orgroup has almost all died out.

extinct (ek-STINGKT) No longer existing.

habitat destruction (HA-buh-tat dih-STRUK-shun) Great damageor ruin of the place where a plant or animal naturally lives.

migrate (MY-grayt) To move from one place to another.

pesticide (PES-tuh-syd) Poison used to kill a pest, such as an insector rodent.

sanctuaries (SANK-choo-weh-reez) Protected places, or placeswhere a living thing can be kept from being hurt.

species (SPEE-sheez) One kind of living thing. All people are onespecies.

thickets (THIH-kits) Bushes or small trees growing close together.

Article Citation in MLA (Modern

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Language Association) format:

"Endangered Animals of Africa."PowerKnowledge Life Science. RosenPublishing Group, Inc., 2013. Web. 8 Jan.2013 <http://www.pklifescience.com/article/322/endangered-animals-of-africa>

Article Citation in APA (AmericanPsychological Association) format:

PowerKnowledge Life Science. (2013).Endangered Animals of Africa. RetrievedJanuary 8, 2013, fromhttp://www.pklifescience.com/article/322/endangered-animals-of-africa

® The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. 2013.

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