Human greed, selfishness, and denial of responsibility are really fucking up this beautiful Earth.
As we continue to focus only on humans, we have entered a sixth mass extinction where 41 percent of amphibians, 25 per cent of mammals, and 13 per cent of birds could be lost forever if urgent action is not taken.
Over 23,000 species are on the IUCN Red List, and most of the population threat comes from human actions, whether that be through global warming, hunting, deforestation, over-fishing, or pollution.
The vaquita, which is known as the panda of the sea due to its dark eye rings, was only discovered in 1958, and a little over half a century later, they are in imminent danger of extinction with about 30 of them left.
The vaquita’s looming extinction is largely due to it being caught unintentionally by illegal gillnet fishing for totoaba fish in the northern part of the Gulf of California.
The Pangolin is the only scaled mammal in the world, as well as the most trafficked animal.
Lis Key at International Animal Rescue said:
The pangolin could become extinct before most people even know what it looks like. I’m not sure whether it could be gone within the decade but certainly within decades.
David Attenborough chose the Pangolin as one of his ten endangered animals he would most like to save from extinction, along with the black lion tamarin, an olm salamander, the Sumatran rhinoceros, the Priam’s birding butterfly, the solenodon, the Northern Quoll, a Peruvian hummingbird, Venus’s flower basket sponge, and Darwin’s frog.
Niki Rust, Technical Advisor at WWF, said:
There are tons of species that are in desperate need of our help and which could be gone in just one or two generations.
Many of the populations are so small and so isolated that it would only take a disease to wipe them out.
Some of the lemurs in Madagascar are hunted because the locals believe they are evil spirits. They are also suffering from habitat loss.
But there are conservation success stories. Mountain gorilla populations are increasing and we now have around 800 in the wild. Golden-mantled Tree Kangaroos also seem to be stabilising.
Orangutans and slow lorises are Critically Endangered, only one step away from extinction due to habitat loss and illegal hunting.
Rhinoceroses are heavily poached for their horns and so their population size is bleak, but there are only 100 of the Javan Rhino left in the wild.
The scimitar-horned oryx population in the wild stands at about 30 after trophy hunters hunted them to extinction in exchange for their beautiful twisted horns.
There has been a successful breeding programme for captive oryx, but the species is still dwindling.
Only around 100 of the blue-eyed black lemur from Madagascar remain in the wild, while the Golden-mantled tree kangaroo, riverine rabbit, saola, small antelope, and black-faced golden tamarin monkey could all vanish in a few decades.
Despite us ruining nature most of the time, a few human conservation efforts have been successful for example the mountain gorilla which has increased i population to 800 in the wild.
In more positive news though, the giant panda is no longer an endangered species after decades of rescue efforts have finally started to pay off.
It’s not too late take action and stop our ethnocentric world from banishing precious creatures.
Why do we have any more of a right to this Earth than them?
You can support the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) here.
