Endangered Wildlife

Asian Elephant

• Fast Facts• Scientific NameElephas maximus Whereas both male

and female African elephants have tusks, in Asian elephants, only the males have them. In some Asian countries, many males also lack tusks.

• Tusks are elongated incisors that grow throughout an elephant’s life and are used in feeding, in displays during social encounters, and as weapons.

• Male Asian elephants can weigh over five tons; females typically weigh less than 3 tons.

• Asian elephants can live up to 80 years in captivity.

• Challenges• Illegal killing (poaching), loss of habitat

Elephant Cruelty

Sumatran Rhinoceros

• Fast Facts• Type: Mammal Diet: Herbivore Average life span

in captivity: 35 to 40 years Size: Height, 48 to 58 in (1.2 to 1.5 m), Length, 8 to 10 ft (2.5 to 3.2 m) Weight: About 1,760 lbs (800 kg) Group name: Solitary Protection status: Endangered Did you know? Fewer than 400 Sumatran rhinos are thought to exist, making it one of the rarest large mammals in the world. Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:

• Illegal Wildlife Trade• Medicines containing rhino horn.• Demand for rhino horn from prosperous Asian communities is

escalating. Poaching is a very real threat facing all populations of Sumatran rhino. Rising demand from countries like Vietnam where rhino horn is believed to cure cancer has seen a surge in poaching despite the efforts made by the traditional Chinese medicine community to call on practitioners to stop using rhino parts and products. Investigations by TRAFFIC, the world’s largest wildlife trade monitoring network, and WWF reveal that use of rhino horn in traditional medicine still persists in many countries.

• Genetic Loss• No single Sumatran rhino population is estimated to have more

than 75 individuals, making them extremely vulnerable to extinction due to natural catastrophes, diseases, and inbreeding.

Blue Whale• The blue whale is the largest animal on the

planet, weighing as much as 200 tons (approximately 33 elephants). The blue whale has a heart the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. Its stomach can hold one ton of krill and it needs to eat about four tons of krill each day. They are the loudest animals on Earth and are even louder than a jet engine. Their calls reach 188 decibels, while a jet reaches 140 decibels. Their low frequency whistle can be heard for hundreds of miles and is probably used to attract other blue whales.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjvp4mScZw8

Borneo Orang Utan

Endangered.

Orangutans have thin, shaggy, reddish-brown hair. They have long, powerful arms and strong hands that they can use to manipulate tools. Orangutans have the ability to make 13 to15 different types of vocalizations.

Most orangutans are four to five feet long, some can reach a length of six feet. Adult males weigh between 100 and 200 pounds and adult females weigh between 65 and 100 pounds. Orangutans have an arm spread of about five feet.  An estimated 19,000 to 25,000 orangutans live in the wild. Another 900 live in captivity.   In the wild, orangutans live for about 35 to 40 years.

Orangutans feed mainly on fruits, especially wild figs. They also eat other kinds of vegetation, insects, small vertebrates and birds eggs.

Females are able to give birth after age seven, but in the wild they generally do not mate until age 12. They give birth to one young at a time, which clings to its mother’s stomach until it is about a year old. When an orangutan reaches adolescence at about four or five years, it becomes more independent but may seek protection from its mother until it reaches seven to eight years.

The orangutan’s most serious threat is the destruction of forest habitat from excessive logging. Female orangutans are also killed and their young are taken and illegally placed in circuses and zoos.

Malayan Tapir

Leatherback Turtle• Marine turtles are the living representatives of a

group of reptiles that has existed on Earth and travelled our seas for the last 100 million years. They are a fundamental link in marine ecosystems. Leatherback turtles consume large numbers of jellyfish which helps to keep populations of these marine organisms in check. Marine turtles, including leatherbacks, also provide a vital source of income as a draw for ecotourism in coastal communities, especially in the Coral Triangle.

• Leatherback turtles are named for their shell, which is leather-like rather than hard, like other turtles.

• They are the largest sea turtle species and also one of the most migratory, crossing both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Pacific leatherbacks migrate from nesting beaches in the Coral Triangle all the way to the California coast to feed on the abundant jellyfish every summer and fall.

• Although their distribution is wide, numbers of leatherback turtles have seriously declined during the last century as a result of intense egg collection and fisheries bycatch. Globally, leatherback status according to IUCN is listed as Vulnerable, but many subpopulations (such as in the Pacific and Southwest Atlantic) are Critically Endangered.

Guizhou golden snub-nosed monkey

• Though legally protected, the snub-nosed monkey is threatened seriously due to habitat loss from forest clearing, illegal mining, non-targeted hunting, and occasional inadvertent snare trapping.[2][8] A 2008 census located around 750 individuals, consistent with a 2005 census.[2][8] The Fanjing reserve that covers the distribution range wasn't established until 1978,[10] and centuries of mining mining activities depleted the forest on the northern slope of the mountains; ongoing reforestation efforts haven't been able to restore the forest to the level of sustaining the ideal survival environment for the monkeys.

Thailand helmeted Hornbill• The largest hornbill in Asia (5), the

helmeted hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil) is named for its bizarre ‘casque’, a protuberance which perches, helmet-like, on the upper half of the red and yellow, chisel-like bill (2). Unlike the casques of other hornbill species, which are typically hollow and extremely light, the casque of the helmeted hornbill is a solid block of an ivory-like substance (5). The helmeted hornbill has dark brown upperparts and white underparts (2). Its extremely long central tail feathers, which often double the length of the entire bird, are white with dark.