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For most people, endangered animals are mysterious. Over the past two years, British photographer Tim Flach has gone deep into the habitats of endangered animals and overcome many difficulties to take these precious photos with his lens. Through these photos, we can get a closer look at the living environment of these endangered animals on the earth, reflect on what humans have done, and find countermeasures to change the status quo.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species sets the level of conservation at 9, namely:
Extinct (EX): If the last individual of 1 taxonomy has died, it is listed as extinct.
Extinct in the Wild (EW): An individual of 1 taxonomy is listed as wild extinction if it lives only in captivity and captivity.
Critically Endangered (CR): Listed as critically endangered when a taxonomy has a high probability of extinction in the wild.
Endangered: 1 taxonomic unit that has not reached critical danger, but in the foreseeable near future, has a high probability of extinction in its wild state and is listed as endangered.
Vulnerable (VU): Although a taxonomic unit does not meet the criteria of critical or endangered, it has a high probability of extinction in the wild for a period of time in the future and is listed as vulnerable.
Near Threatened (NT): A taxonomy is classified as near threatened when a taxonomic unit does not meet the criteria for critical, endangered, or vulnerable, but is close to meeting or is likely to meet the threat level over time in the future.
Least Concern (LC): A taxonomic unit that is assessed to be low-risk if it does not meet the criteria for being classified as critically dangerous, endangered, or vulnerable.
Lack of data Data Deficient (DD): For a taxonomic cell, it can be classified as insufficient data if there is not enough information to assess its extinction risk directly or indirectly.
Not Evaluated(NE): If a taxonomic unit has not been evaluated using this standard, the taxon may be listed as unevaluated.
Each of the 29 endangered species is described below.
Saiga high-nosed antelope
Species Protection Level: Critically Endangered (CR).
Its habitats are Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Russia and Mongolia. Listed endangered by the IUCN in 2002, the main factors are poaching (their horns are very valuable), infectious diseases and climate change, and the harsh winter snow cover makes it difficult for them to feed on grass.
Polar Bear
Species protection level: Vulnerable (VU).
In 2015, the number of polar bears was only 22,000 to 31,000, and it is estimated that the next 35 years will continue to decrease, global warming, and serious pollution are still the biggest enemies of their survival.
Philippine Eagle Monkey Eater
They are the largest eagles in the world, inhabiting only the jungles of the Philippines and are listed as national birds by the Philippine government. Main cause of endangerment: deforestation. Under Philippine law, killing ape-eating eagles is punishable by 12 years in prison plus a hefty fine.
Hyacinth Macaw Purple And Blue Macaw
The purple-blue macaw is currently the largest parrot in the parrot family, with a size of more than 1 meter and a weight of more than 1.5 kg. Because of its docile temperament, ability to speak, and extraordinary intelligence, the purple and blue macaw has been stolen for a long time. In recent years, the Amazon rainforest region, due to the overexploitation of local agriculture and animal husbandry, has also seriously threatened the survival of the purple and blue macaw. The protection level of the purple-blue macaw is a first-class conservation parrot in Appendix I of the Washington Convention. In 2009, the purple-blue macaw was officially listed in the IUCN as an endangered parrot species.
African Elephant African Elephant
African elephants are currently found in 37 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Vast areas of central, eastern and southern parts of Africa remain habitats for elephant herds, but elephant populations on the continent are becoming increasingly fragmented. It is estimated that the African elephant population has declined dramatically by 30 per cent over the past seven years.
Snow Leopard
Snow leopards, which live in alpine areas above 3,000 meters above sea level, are also known as "snow mountain hermits". According to research, 60% of the world's snow leopards live in China. In September 2017, the IUCN website announced that they had "downgraded" the Panthera uncia from the endangered (EN) category to the vulnerable (VU) category, based on new snow leopard population survey data.
Iberian Lynx Iberian lynx (also known as Spanish lynx)
Species Protection Level: Endangered.
Their habitat is southwestern Spain (mostly found in Doñana National Park), the most endangered cat in the world, with only 100 left in 2002 and 404 now under conservation. However, there were 100,000 more in the early 20th century, and only 3,000 remained in the 1960s, endangered for hunting (hunting has been banned since 1970).
Cheetah With Cubs 猎豹
Overall, the global cheetah population tends to decline, with an estimated 7100 remaining, and their active area accounts for only 9% of the historical activity area. Among them, the Asian cheetah is the most affected, with fewer than 50 left in Iran, and The number of cheetahs in Zimbabwe has dropped from 1,200 to a maximum of 170 in the past 16 years.
Ring Tailed Lemur Ring-tailed Lemur
The main habitat is the dry land and forests of southern Madagascar, which has dropped by 95% since 2000, leaving 2,000 to 2,400 ring-tailed lemurs listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Endangered factors include habitat loss, hunting and illegal trade.
Ploughshare Tortoise Angeloka tortoise
The Anglocca tortoise (scientific name: Astrochelys yniphora), also known as the Malagasy tortoise, is a species of tortoise endemic to northwestern Madagascar and belongs to the tortoise family. It is currently listed as a Class I conservation animal by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). French zoologist Léon Vaillant first described this species in 1885, with the protrusion of the breastplate between its forefoots like a plough rake. Their shells are hard , high arched and brown , with concentric rings on each tortoise plate. Males are larger than females.
White Bellied Pangolin White-bellied long-tailed pangolin
Its main habitats are the African rainforest, the savannahs between Senegal and Kenya, and Zambia. They have been in steep decline since 2008, are on the verge of extinction since 2014, and will disappear 50% in the next 10 to 20 years if they are not protected.
Red Panda
Red pandas have been added to the IUCN's "Red List" of endangered species, with only 2,500 left worldwide, and the Eastern Himalayas alone have fallen by 40 percent in the past 50 years, with illegal hunting to blame.
Fireflies fireflies
Chinese fireflies are disappearing at an accelerated pace from south to north, with qinghai, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and other provinces having difficulty collecting samples. As early as November 2007, at the high-level forum of the Eurasian Museum of Natural History held in Tianjin, participating experts said that China's fireflies are in danger of extinction. The larvae of fireflies are carnivores, they feed on a variety of snails, snails, horses and other invertebrates, and have high environmental requirements.
Hippopotamus hippopotamus
In Tanzania, it's not just ivory that's "hotly sought after". A new study shows that the demand for hippotamus teeth in countries around the world is rising, and the survival of hippotamus species is constantly threatened, which will directly lead to the extinction of this species. The IUCN predicts that the global hippopotamus population has declined by 7 to 20 percent over the past 10 years and is expected to decline by another 30 percent over the next 30 years, at which rate the hippopotamus population will all become extinct in less than 100 years.
Red Crown Crane
The red-crowned crane is one of the world's most endangered birds, with a total of around 3,000 individuals in its wild population. The wild is found only in Northeast Asia, namely eastern Russia, the Korean Peninsula, Mongolia, China and Japan (in the Hokkaido region). Every spring, red-crowned cranes migrate to the northern region to breed. In the Zhalong National Nature Reserve in Heilongjiang, China, about 200 pairs of red-crowned cranes give birth there every year, completing the task of passing on the red-crowned crane family. During the overwintering period, they are mainly distributed in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China, with the largest number of beaches along the beach in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province.
Golden Snub Nosed Monkey
It is mainly found in the high mountains of central and southern China, hence the nickname "Snow Monkey". Gradually losing their habitat, they have been classified as a threatened species, feeding mainly on lichens from dead trees, which unfortunately have been harvested by humans, drastically reducing their food sources.
Pied Tamarin black and white Tamarind monkey
Inhabited by the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, the massive destruction of their habitat and competition from their rival species, the red-handed tamarin, have become endangered.
Giant Panda
Giant pandas have lived on earth for at least 8 million years, are known as "living fossils" and "National Treasures of China", the image ambassador of the World Wide Fund for Nature, the flagship species of the world's biodiversity conservation, and belong to China's national first-class protected animals. By the end of 2013, the number of wild giant pandas in China reached 1,864, the number of captive giant pandas reached 375, the habitat area of wild giant pandas was 2.58 million hectares, and the potential habitat was 910,000 hectares, distributed in 17 cities (prefectures), 49 counties (cities, districts) and 196 townships in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.
Northern White Rhinoceros Northern White Rhinoceros
Extinct in the Wild (EW).
The white rhinoceros is the second largest extant rhinoceros and the fifth largest extant continental animal after the African elephant, the Asian elephant, the African forest elephant and the Indian rhinoceros. The northern white rhino is a subspecies of the white rhinoceros that is found at the junction of Chad, Uganda, Sudan and other countries in Africa. Back in the 1960s, there were more than 2,000 northern white rhinos in this breed. With the prevalence of poaching, the governments of several countries where the northern white rhino is located are unable to fight poachers, and the northern white rhino population began to decline sharply. At present, there are only 3 northern white rhinos left in the world, one male and two females, and the male northern white rhinoceros is 44 years old and cannot give birth naturally.
Shoebill whale-headed stork
Inhabiting the tropical rainforest swamps of central and eastern Africa, the special shape of their beaks makes them adept at fishing, but illegal human hunting and habitat destruction have caused them to be "vulnerable", with only 5,000 to 8,000 left.
Sea Angels Sea Angels
They live at a depth of 350 meters in the north and south glacial oceans and are planktonic mollusks, not jellyfish. They prefer extremely cold seas, and their habitat is threatened as the world heats up.
European Honey Bee European Bee
In recent years, a large number of European bees have died from residual wing virus infection around the world. Pesticides may also be responsible for the sharp decline in European bees. Albert Einstein prophesied, "If bees disappear from the world, humans will have only 4 years left." Of the 1,330 crops on which humans depend for their livelihoods, more than 1,000 require bees to pollinate, and without bees, the food chain will be broken. In addition to the United States, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Central and South America, and Taiwan have also disappeared.
Scimitar Oryx Horned Oryx
The curved horned sword antelope, also known as the white horned antelope and the white sword-horned antelope, previously lived throughout North Africa. It is now thought to have become extinct in the wild, but a small proportion is reported to still survive in central Niger and Chad. Captive-bred horned sword antelope has a lifespan of 15-21 years.
Western Lowland Gorillas Western Lowland Gorillas
Western lowland gorillas are an endangered species. Western lowland gorillas have few predators other than humans. However, humanity has been threatening their very existence for centuries. By constantly destroying the rainforests where gorillas live, illegally hunting for a taste of gorillas, and over-hunting and trafficking of adult and young western lowland gorillas by private animal traders, failed zoos, and some short-sighted research institutes, the gorillas are in danger of extinction. Today, the last hope of the western lowland gorillas may lie in several nature reserves in Africa, zoos and several important environmental protection zones around the world. The number of lowland gorillas in the global west, which has recently been counted, has fallen to less than 100,000, and at the current rate, these wild-world gorillas will completely disappear in more than a decade.
Scallope Hammerhead Aggregation Round-toothed hammerhead shark
The scientific name of the round-toothed hammerhead shark is "Lu's hammerhead shark". Over the past 30 years, the number of round-toothed hammerhead sharks in some parts of the world has plummeted by 99%.
Egyptian Vulture Egyptian vulture
The Egyptian vulture doesn't just live in Egypt, it lives in at least 45 countries across 3 continents. But as an endangered species, we may not soon see The Egyptian vulture soaring through the sky. Over the past 3 centuries, this large, lone bird (whose wingspan can reach 1.7 meters) has declined by at least 50% in Europe and in Africa and Asia.
Military Macaw Macaw
The warship macaw was once abundantly distributed in areas from Mexico to Argentina. Before 1995, it was distributed in Mexico, from central Sonora to the Pacific Slopes of Guerrero, Eastern Nuevo León and Tamaulipas to San Luis Poto a) and Durango, Morelos. In 2007 it was extinct in many areas of Bolivia and northwestern Argentina, especially in Mexico (almost extinct from veracruz and the Atlantic side of Hidalgo). In 2012, in 21 areas of known species in southern Bolivia, a total of 37 were assessed. In Mexico, species populations in Venezuela and Colombia are under threat of continued decline and are expected to die out further.
Proboscis Monkey Probosci
Its habitats are Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia, mainly in rivers, coastal areas, mangroves and swamps, and they are listed as threatened species after a 50% decrease in number over the past 40 years. Habitat loss is the main cause of their threat.
India Gharial Indian Ganga Crocodile
The Ganges crocodile, also known as the "giraffe crocodile", is a freshwater crocodile that can grow to about 20 feet and weigh about 350 pounds. It is mainly distributed in the four rivers of the Indus, Ganges, Maharadi and Brahmaputra. Places with high environmental requirements and poor water quality cannot survive. Because of their unique mouth structure, they can only feed on fish. As a result of overhunting, there are now fewer than 235 left in the world, mainly in India and Nepal.
Image source: boredpanda.com