The World's Most Recognizable Species Facing Dangers in the Wild

GIANT PANDA

China's national treasure, the Giant Panda is one of the most recognized and adored animals on the planet. They are the face of the World Wildlife Foundation and drum up the most excitment from children visiting zoos for their fluffy appearance and clumbsy nature.

Pandas currently have a vulnerable status under the ESA with less than 1, 900 of these beautiful babies left in the wild. This is one case where we must celebrate the efforts of accredited zoos because they are working tirelessly to repopulate the pandas. Pandas are notoriously difficult to breed so their work is extremely difficult and crucial to the surivival of the species. Their biggest hurdles are habitat loss and they are currently only found in the weastern regions of China among bamboo forests and moutaineous regions.

AFRICAN ELEPHANTS

The largest walking land mammal on the planet, the African Elephant is a celebrated animal across the globe. One of the most recognized animals on the planet, the African Elephant is a beautiful, majestic creature found on the continent of Africa.

Although continued efforts to protect elephants are in place, they face immense dangers in the wild. Habitat loss, trophy hunting, illegal poaching for ivory, and increased human elephant conflict continue to work against the conservation of elephants. The first thing that must be done is a complete ban on ivory across the globe with trophy hunting following closely behind. There should be no allowance of trophy hunting of a specis that is on the Endangered Species List.

BIG CATS
*Amur Leopard, Amur Tiger, Bengal Tiger, Jaguar, Indochinese Tiger, Malayan Tiger, Snow Leopard, Sumatran Tiger, Tigers, 

​Big cats are some of the most beautiful and necessary animals on the planet. These predatory animals are imperative for ecosystems to function properly. Without these apex predators, other herbbivorous creatures will overpopulate which leads to habitat destruction or human interference to control populations.

Several problems affect the big cat populations across the globe including habitat loss, trophy hunting, and illegal poaching for medicinal or black market purposes. Every one of the species of big cat mentioned here is endangered or critically so meaning there is a significant amount of conservation work to do otherwise we will see the extinction of a variety of big cats. 

PRIMATES
Orangutan, Mountain Gorilla, Monkey, Chimpanzee 

Regarded as our closest biological relatives, primates face significant challenges in the wild ranging from habitat loss, illegal poaching, and human conflict. Plenty of efforts across the globe are aimed at protecting all variety of primates but much more is needed to be done to prevent the extinction of a variety of primates. 

Included in this list are giraffes, rhinos of all variety, and different shark species, all of which face the same perils. Typically, illegal poaching is the biggest threat these animals face because of human's salacious desire to hunt these beautiful creatures for their perceived values in medicine or the black market. Although there are several initiatives to protect them, so much more work is to be done to truly prevent these creatures from being wiped off of the planet.

In my opinion, the two biggest hurdles that we must tackle are HABITAT LOSS and ILLEGAL POACHING. Habitat loss is often due to human expansion which unfortunately cannot be helped but where we choose to expand is the probloem. Included in human expansion is the agriculture industry which continues to grow as the need for livestock and produce increases with human population growth. Livestock agriculture is the leading culprit in habitat loss because of the vast land needed to house, feed, and slaughter these animals. If the planet made a conscious decision to reduce or remove the need for livestock, we could protect so much more land for these animals that are facing extinction as produce agriculture requires significanlty less land and resources.

Poaching is also a leading cause of endangerment. There are several countries working towards tackling illegal poaching but the black market continues to thrive causing illegal poaching to remain relevant. What makes illegal poaching so surprising is that these people often forget that once they've wiped out all of these animals, there will be nothing left for them to poach essentially putting them in a position of desperation and financial ruin once again. Slaughtering rhinos or elephants for horns, tigers or leopards for their percieved medicinal purposes, giraffes for their parts, etc., is leading these animals to extinction. Once there are none left, there will be no more black market but we cannot allow this to be why the black market fails. We must put an end to any form of hunting of emndangered animals once and for all.


HAPPY VEG