6 endangered animals poachers are hunting into extinction FacebookEmail Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest 6 endangered animals poachers are hunting into extinction The killing of Cecil the lion, one of Zimbabwe’s most loved wild animals, is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the thousands of animals taken by poachers each year. Post to Facebook 6 endangered animals poachers are hunting into extinction The killing of Cecil the lion, one of Zimbabwe’s most loved wild animals, is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the thousands of animals taken by poachers each year. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 4 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs 6 endangered animals poachers are hunting into extinction Jessica Phelan, GlobalPost Published 11:34 a.m. ET July 31, 2015 | Updated 2:55 p.m.

ET July 31, 2015 A staff member with the Kenya Wildlife Services does an inventory of illegal elephant ivory stockpiles at its headquarters in Nairobi on July 21, 2015. (Photo: Tony Karumba, AFP/Getty Images) The killing of Cecil the lion, one of Zimbabwe’s most loved wild animals, is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the thousands of animals taken by poachers each year. Some are killed by hunters, others by organized criminals who want to sell different parts. Sometimes, it's impoverished people looking for easy cash or even a meal. Whatever poachers’ motivations, they’re threatening to wipe some of the most vulnerable species off the face of the earth. Here are six animals that, like Cecil, poaching might rob us of forever. ELEPHANTS (Photo: Ben Curtis, AP) Poachers are the single biggest threat to elephants’ survival. After decades of decimation of elephant populations for their ivory, the international trade in “white gold” was banned in 1989.

Yet people’s persistent willingness to hand over bigger and bigger sums of money for dead elephant tusk — in China, $2,100 per 2.2 pounds on average as of last year — has made it more tempting than ever for profit seekers to kill elephants illegally. The most comprehensive survey to date stated that 100,000 African elephants were poached across the continent between 2010 and 2012. According to those figures, in 2011 alone poachers killed roughly one in every 12 African elephants. Sometimes elephant poachers use bows and arrows as their weapon of choice. Sometimes they tip the arrows with poison, like the people who last year slaughtered one of Kenya’s most famous elephants, Satao , and hacked off his magnificent 6.5-foot tusks. Other hunting expeditions have seen gangs turn grenades and AK-47s on entire herds , even within the supposed shelter of national parks. Asian elephants , considered an even more vulnerable species, are also hunted for their tusks, body parts, meat and hide.

Unlike their African cousins, only male Asian elephants have tusks — a fact that makes the consequences of poaching even more devastating, since the selective killings of bulls creates a gender imbalance and thereby reduces reproduction in the remaining population. RHINOS (Photo: Tony Karumba, AFP/Getty Images) Rhinoceroses, like elephants, suffer the misfortune of having an external protrusion that humans arbitrarily place a high value upon. Rhino horn was reported to be selling for $65,000 per 2.2 pounds in 2012, making it more expensive by weight than gold, diamonds or cocaine. The demand comes from Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, where some people believe that consuming rhino horn will cure everything from cancer to hangovers . The black market demand for rhino horn has led to a surge in poaching of the critically endangered black rhino and the more numerous southern white rhino across southern Africa since 2008. This is especially the case in South Africa, where illegal killings hit another record high at 393 in the 12 months leading up to April. And that’s not counting legal deaths.

Trophy hunters can pay more than $100,000 for the “right” to kill a rhino and keep its horn, under a government scheme that allows hunters to shoot one rhino a year with the proper permit. Many suspect it’s open to abuse by people who’ve come for the horn, not the hunt. Either way, the rhino ends up dead. Finding themselves faced with more and more mutilated rhino carcasses, horns sometimes hacked off while the animals were still alive, authorities are resorting to increasingly drastic methods to try and protect the rhinos that remain, from drone surveillance to a rhino DNA database to even poisoning rhinos’ horns. So far, it’s not working. The western black rhinoceros went extinct in 2011. T he rest of Africa’s rhinos could follow suit within 20 years . TIGERS (Photo: Oli Scarff, AFP/Getty Images) Humans hunted the tiger population down to just 5,000 to 7,000 individuals worldwide by the late 1990s. That was considered a dangerously low number then. By 2014, it had halved.

Some estimates say fewer than 2,500 mature tigers currently remain in the wild. The problem is our passion for every part of them: Tiger skins, bones, teeth, claws, tails and even whiskers find a place on the black market as decorative items or ingredients in traditional Asian remedies. The illegal trade is further fueled by tiger farms in China and Vietnam, where large numbers of the animals are bred for their body parts. As many as three times more tigers exist on such farms than in the wild. Elsewhere, tigers are reared to be killed in “canned” hunts by trophy seekers. Even in the wild, humans are killing tigers faster than they are destroying their habitat. The most haunting proof that poaching is the greatest threat to tigers? “ Empty forest syndrome :” Roughly 620,000 square miles of what should be tiger habitat currently lies unoccupied. SEA TURTLES (Photo: Made Nagi, epa) Don’t imagine that poachers only ransack the land — they find plenty to kill in the sea, too.

One of their most popular targets is the hawksbill , the tropical turtle whose beautiful yellow-and-brown shell provides the commodity known as tortoiseshell. Millions of the animals have been killed over the past century to feed the fashion for tortoiseshell jewelry, glasses, ornaments, instruments and other items. The result? The species is now critically endangered. The international trade has been banned for almost 40 years, but a black market continues to thrive in Asia, notably China and Japan, and in the Americas. Hawksbills are also killed for what’s under their shell — their meat. Either it’s eaten by humans, or used as bait to catch sharks. Other parts of their body are used to make leather, perfume and cosmetics , or stuffed whole and displayed as “decoration.” For all sea turtles, including the leatherbacks and green turtles that also find themselves on the receiving end of poachers’ deadly attention, poaching is potentially catastrophic. The animals take so long to reach breeding age — more than 30 years, in some cases — that many are killed before they ever have the chance to reproduce.

LEMURS (Photo: Tiziana Fabi, AFP/Getty Images) There are no mammals on earth more endangered than lemurs — and yet, humans are still hunting them. Over 90% of all species of the big-eyed primates — found only on the island of Madagascar — are considered vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. Deforestation and climate change are largely to blame for their decline. But hunting lemurs for their meat , which has reportedly increased in the chaos that followed Madagascar’s 2009 coup, is also diminishing their tiny numbers. Despite legislation that makes killing them illegal, lemurs are poached either to be sold to restaurants or simply to be eaten by impoverished locals desperate for food. The tragic irony is that a lemur in the hand is worth much less than two in the bush. Like lions in Zimbabwe, lemurs are a huge tourism attraction for Madagascar and will always make more profit for more people alive than dead. GORILLAS (Photo: Higashiyama Zoo, AFP/Getty Images) Humans are slaughtering the greatest of our fellow great apes, the gorilla. The species used to be protected by the huge tracts of unspoiled forest in Central Africa that they lived in.

Then, logging, new roads and the migrations caused by successive wars brought people within firing range of gorillas. What began as subsistence hunting quickly grew into an illicit commercial trade in gorilla meat that sees the animals butchered, transported and sold. An increasing number of them make it as far as cities, where restaurants serve up “bushmeat” to wealthy clientele. If that weren’t enough, poachers have begun to target gorillas for their body parts, to be used in folk remedies or simply as trophies. Heads, hands and feet are said to be particularly popular. Other gorillas are casualties of crimes in their protected habitat. In the Democratic Republic of Congo’s historic Virunga National Park, mountain gorillas have been found shot through the back of the head , execution-style, in attacks blamed on traders who illegally harvest wood to make charcoal from the protected forest. All species of gorilla are suffering, including the critically endangered western lowland gorilla. Combined with habitat loss, climate change and disease, numbers are now so low and reproduction so limited that the deaths of even a few animals at the hands of poachers stand to have a major impact on the population.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature , by the middle of this century we may well have wiped out more than 80% of all western gorillas in just three generations. 8 Endangered Species Still Hunted - Listverse 8 Endangered Species Still Hunted FlameHorse June 11, 2013 Hunting for sport, for trophies, and for food is a very popular enterprise around the world. For many people, shooting an animal and watching it fall is a satisfying, not horrific, experience. Many hunt out of a desire to enjoy hurting the animal. Most hunt out of a desire to get out into the wilderness and pit their intelligence against a wily and/or dangerous animal. It is easy and cheap to acquire a big game hunting license in the United States. But most North American game animals are very plentiful. The ultimate hunting experience is universally accepted to come from Africa, where a large percentage of Earth’s most magnificent beasts roam free, and with that magnificence comes a danger level that entices sportsmen from around the world to risk their lives against these monstrous killing machines.

This has caused the problem of over-hunting many species for the challenge, the thrill, and the trade goods, as a result of which, we have helped extinguish many species, and currently threaten many more. Conservation societies and organizations have begun the paradoxical attempt to bring some of these species back from the brink by legalizing hunting of them for hefty license fees. These fees are spent on conservation supplies, equipment, technology, and personnel. 8 Great White Shark vulnerable You may fairly blame the world’s fear of sharks on Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, and when you ask someone to name a shark species, 98% will name the Great White. It is the largest extant macropredatory fish, with a plausible bite force of 4,000 pounds per square inch for a 21-foot specimen (the shark in Jaws was a 25-footer). The Great White only makes #8 because, though they are listed as vulnerable, one step better than endangered, there is no accurate figure of its global population. Sightings have grown increasingly rare, and many nations have declared it illegal to hunt or kill them, except in self-defense. Not all nations have made this declaration, and no one can police the high seas.

Thus, they are effectively legal to hunt without license, and hundreds of shark species, including the Great White, are slaughtered yearly by nations that make a substantial living via commercial fishing. The fin is highly sought-after as a delicacy in soup. Australia legalized the hunting of them in 2012, citing 5 fatal shark attacks in that year. As hunting goes, the only danger to humans is if they should fall out of the boat. Because of these fatal attacks, hunting or fishing for the sharks is done in defense of swimmers, and no license is required. 7 Cheetah vulnerable The cheetah is the fastest land animal on Earth, sprinting 70 to 75 miles per hour for over 500 yards at a time. They are not particularly dangerous to humans, since they see humans as a predator, not prey, and keep their distance. But their extraordinary speed comes at the cost of spending ten full minutes catching their breath after they stop. If they make a kill, they are unable to eat it until they have rested. During that time, lions, African wild dogs, or usually hyenas frequently arrive and steal the kill. The cheetah cannot fight back in its exhausted condition.

Because of this and also because the cheetah is not particularly big and has difficulty defending its cubs from lions and hyenas, it has not flourished as well as other famous African predators. Poaching does not help its cause, of course, and its pelt is highly prized, especially that of the rare King Cheetah pattern. There are about 12,400 cheetahs in the wild today. In a fair fight versus a human, the cheetah would win without any trouble, weighing up to 160 pounds and far more agile, but they are very shy animals, and there are zero reported cases of cheetah attacks against humans in the wild. Unfortunately, their shyness adds a different kind of challenge to hunting them, and many hunters are eager to take one at a cheaper license price of $1,750, compared to the license for one of the African Big Five.

6 Hippopotamus vulnerable Hippos may look hilariously ungainly, like giant, cute pigs, but they are, in truth, terribly short-tempered, with 20-inch, ivory canine fangs and jaw hinges set so far back that they can open their mouths to 170 degrees when yawning or attacking. They are possibly the most intemperate, aggressive animals in Africa, rivaled only by the Cape Buffalo and the one and only Honey Badger. The hippo’s skin is 6 inches thick, with little fat beneath, and it can run 20 miles per hour for 50 yards, readily outpacing most humans. Not a single hippo has ever been made accustomed to the presence of humans, to the degree that it would allow a human to walk around it. They do not eat meat, but attack any predator without provocation, even Nile crocodiles while both are underwater. Some professional hunters have stated that they will not try their luck with the hippo. There are about 125,000 to 150,000 left in the wild, and they are poached for trophies and especially their ivory teeth.

Nevertheless, some of the nations which host them in the wild have licensed hunters for the fee of $2,500, excluding travel and guides. The teeth may be kept as trophies, but the ivory trade is internationally banned. Drug dealing billionaire Pablo Escobar once owned 4 of them, and when his estate was liquidated, the hippos proved too dangerous even to approach, and were left to roam wild. They bred to a total of 16, one of which was later shot in self-defense. The rest are still in the Magdalena River. 5 Polar Bear vulnerable The most aggressive and dangerous bear in the world is also the largest terrestrial predator. The second largest is the Siberian tiger, which is less than half the bear’s size. It weighs between 770 and 1,500 pounds, standing up to 5 feet at the shoulders, and averaging 6 to 8 feet long. The longest on record was a male hunted and killed at Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, which weighed 2,210 pounds and was mounted on its hind legs at 11 feet tall.

Polar bears’ paws are 12 inches wide, and they have been known to charge humans without provocation from more than 100 yards away. They consider humans a food source only when very hungry, but have the distinction of being the only predator on Earth that will actively watch the horizon for humans, remember high human traffic areas and stake them out to stalk, kill, and consume humans. They tolerate human presence far less than most wild animals. They are stealth hunters and make almost no noise at all when walking on ice, pouncing on most victims from behind. They have been the center of debate among the five nations which claim land in the Arctic: USA, Russia, Norway, Denmark, and Canada, and they were the only subject of peaceful, diplomatic debate between the U. S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Both nations agreed to cooperate on the bear’s conservation. Today, there are about 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears left in the wild, and they are absolutely illegal to hunt in Norway, but the other four nations permit the indigenous Arctic peoples to hunt them for subsistence, as they have done for centuries.

America also permits sport hunting of polar bears, but with severe restrictions on game lands, and a license price of $35,000. An interesting note: any Arctic traveler who ventures into polar bear territory is required to have a firearm with him or her for self-defense at all times. 4 Grizzly Bear endangered The classic dangerous game animal of North America, the one that features in most of the exciting stories, the grizzly bear is a subspecies of the brown bear. The Kodiak bear is an even less numerous subspecies, numbering 3,526 in 2005. But it is not endangered because more Kodiak bears reach adulthood per year than die. The grizzly’s size varies dramatically depending on the availability of food. Whereas the Kodiak ties with #5 for largest bear in the world, grizzlies, now and then, approach this size. Most of the males reach 6 and a half feet long, 3 and a half feet high at the shoulders, and between 400 and 800 pounds. They can reach 1,500 pounds and run 41 miles per hour for 50 yards.

In America, they are present in Yellowstone Valley, northwest Montana, and Alaska, but most hunters take specimens in Canada where they are much smaller. There are conservation efforts to preserve the subspecies, but they currently number 71,000 in the wild and are decreasing due almost entirely to hunting. Though they are more aggressive than black bears, 70% of all fatal grizzly attacks on humans have been the result of surprising a mother with cubs. Survivors have suffered skull bites that squeezed their eyes out of the sockets. In the United States and Canada, grizzlies do not fall under the standard big game licensure, and killing one costs $1,155 as of 2011. 3 African Lion vulnerable Lions are classified as “vulnerable,” which is one degree better than endangered. In the last 20 years, they have declined by 30 to 50%, most of this due to industrial encroachment. There are about 15,000 of them left in the African wild. Lions, in general, will vacate an area when humans introduce a lot of machinery and activity, because this scares away all their typical prey.

They do not prey on humans unless they have painful dental problems or septic wounds. They are remarkably one of the smaller species on this list, but they are among the very finest killers in the animal world. Males weigh up to 600 pounds and run 45 miles per hour in short bursts. These bursts can last up to 150 yards, and one swing of a paw can cut a hyena or person in half. Because they are so majestic in appearance, they are very popular trophies. A professionally guided hunt will cost anywhere from $18,000 to $45,000, including the $5,000 license. But unlike the next entry, old males are not the only fair game that can be taken. A male or female, in its prime, may be hunted legally in Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa, and a few other countries. The game preserves on which these hunts take place are typically privately owned, fenced farms of at least 20,000 acres. 2 African Bush Elephant vulnerable Elephants are, frankly, very easy to kill if you’re a human. Elephants are routinely cited as having no natural predators. Humans are unnatural predators.

We know our limitations and arrive armed with “elephant guns.” But then, whitetail deer are very difficult to hunt, because they have extremely good hearing and a sense of smell. The wild turkey is possibly the most difficult animal to hunt in North America. Most animals see humans and immediately hide, for good reason. Elephants do not, because they’re accustomed to being the biggest animals in the area. Not that they could hide well if they tried, but when they see a safari jeep, they stand and watch. If it comes too close, they may walk away, or they may charge. The rest is a matter of being able to score a headshot on a target the size of a small car engine. We know they’re terribly endangered, but their total number still stands at between 450,000 and 700,000 today. In 1900, there were 10 million. Most of them were killed by legal trophy hunting before African nations began protecting them in the mid-20th Century. Today, most of those killed are the result of illegal poaching.

Though ivory is internationally banned, it is still popular among the wealthy, especially in Asia, and poachers make $5,000 per pair of tusks, besides the feet, which are hollowed out into wastebaskets. But elephants are frequently hunted within the law in South Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania. These nations charge at least $50,000 for a license to kill a single old bull or cow. The animal must be old, or sick, or a rogue animal that poses a threat to humans. Rogues are usually killed by the game wardens of the wildlife preserves. If the animal is no longer able to mate and serves no use in its herd. The hunter is then guided in a jeep to the animal and the guide backs him up in case he misses. Efforts must be made to isolate the specimen from the herd, since attacking one elephant will likely induce a charge from others who witness it. In response to criticism from animal rights groups, defenders of these hunts maintain that they spare the animals the miserable death of starvation, or being brought down by #3, and that the exorbitant fees are spent on conservation of the species.

This lister does not see much sport in the use of a gigantic rifle like the .700 Nitro Express, but there is sport in using a bow and arrow, which can succeed with a shot between the ribs. 1 Black Rhinoceros critically endangered The rhino is still poached (illegal) for its horn, which is fashioned into a dagger hilt, or ground into powder and consumed for various pseudo-medical properties. There are, as of 2010, about 2,500 of them, across the subspecies, left in the wild, in Kenya, Tanzania, and around the southeastern coast nations of Africa, north to Angola. Poaching aside, South Africa has elected to sell some of the animals to professional hunts at very high prices. In 1996, a man named John Hume bought three of them for $200,000, then sold the hunting rights to two of them to two other men. They requested anonymity because of death threats, but they paid $150,000 each to hunt the animals. Hume hunted the third himself.

He was one of the very first to pay money to a conservation society for the privilege of hunting a black rhino. One of the anonymous hunters arrived in Africa after Hume and a professional tracker had trailed the rhino for 2 days. They drove the hunter to the area, and he got out and spent 2 hours on foot following the guide until they found the bull. It took two shots in the head before it went down. The method for hunting black rhinos is much the same as for elephants. They do not hide very well, and do not understand to flee from a rifle. Instead, black rhinos are the second or third most dangerous game animal in Africa after the Cape Buffalo and Hippo, and they will charge without provocation. They have very bad eyesight and frequently gore termite mounds. If they are hunted legally, the hunter may keep any part of the animal as a trophy, including the horn. He may not sell any of these parts, since trade is internationally prohibited. FlameHorse is a writer for Listverse. He has tried hunting a few times but is no good at it.

He only hunts with a bow and intends to get better at deer hunting, but has no desire to kill any of the animals on this list. More Great Lists saveanimalsproject - TASK 5 - ENDANGERED SPECIES TASK 5 - ENDANGERED SPECIES Export (PDF) Endangered animals are those species that are in danger of going extinct. Their reproductive rates are lower than their mortality rates over long periods of time, so their numbers are diminishing. The reasons for this are varied, but lately, very often involves a loss of habitat as people encroach on their living areas. When a species is listed as endangered or threatened, it is not a death sentence. Many animals, like the bald eagle and the American alligator, were on the brink of extinction and are now recovering. Many species, however, will not recover, and could be lost forever. Throughout time, animal species have been going extinct (long before people evolved); paleontologists estimate that well over 90 percent of all plant and animal species that ever existed have gone extinct. Endangered animals: slon_na_drodze.jpg Elephant_in_Botswana.JPG The African Elephant is the largest living land animal (larger than the Asian Elephant).

These mammals have very strong social bonds and live in family groups headed by a female (called a cow). Males (called bulls) occasionally join the group. Elephants are excellent swimmers. Elephants have few natural enemies except man, and they are in danger of extinction due to loss of habitat and poaching (they are killed for their ivory tusks). Cape Hunting Dog (African Wild Dog) africanwilddog.jpg The Cape Hunting Dog (or African Wild Dog) is a rare wild dog that wanders the plains, grasslands and lowland forests of Africa. It is a very social animal that lives in groups. These wild dogs can run over 30 mph (48 km per hour). Aye-aye lemur-hustawka.jpeg F The Aye-aye is a mammal that lives in rain forests of Madagascar, a large island off the southeast coast of Africa. This solitary animal is nocturnal (most active at night). The Aye-aye spends most of its time in trees. During the day, the Aye-aye sleeps in a nest which is located in the fork of a tree. It builds the nest out of leaves and twigs. The Aye-aye is an endangered species.

Bison Bison-wild-animals-2785395-1024-768.jpg bizon.jpg The Buffalo that Americans refer to is actually a Bison. It is also called the American Buffalo. It is the heaviest land animal in North America. It lives in parks and reserves, inhabiting flat grasslands. Bison can run at speeds up to 30 mph (48 kph). Although the bison almost went extinct in the late 1800's due to over-hunting, it is now recovering. Most Endangered species Ivory-Billed WOODPECKER tumblr_llvildACjk1qhrmewo1_1280.jpg The most critically endangered species on our list of the ten most critically endangered animals is the ivory-billed woodpecker, which lives—or lived—in the Southeastern part of the US as well as Cuba. This huge woodpecker was considered extinct until 2004, when a handful of tantalizing reports of sightings in Arkansas and Florida began to trickle in. However, definitive proof for the ivory-bill’s continued existence has remained elusive, and if a population does exist, it is likely to be tiny and extremely vulnerable.

The ivory-billed woodpecker owes its near- or complete extinction to habitat loss (logging) as well as over-exploitation by humans, who hunted it for its feathers. Amur Leopard The Amur Leopard1.jpg The Amur leopard (Panthera [[#|pardus]] orientalis) is a very rare leopard subspecies that lives only in the remote and snowy northern forests of eastern Russian’s Primorye region. Its former range included Korea and northern China, but the Amur leopard is now extinct in those countries. A 2007 census counted only 14-20 adult Amur leopards and 5-6 cubs. Threats facing the species include habitat loss due to logging, road building and encroaching civilization, poaching (illegal hunting) and global climate change. Javan Rhinoceros javan-rhino1.jpg The Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) is the most endangered of the world’s five rhinoceros species, with an estimated 40-60 animals remaining on the western tip of the Island of Java (Indonesia) in Ujung Kulon National Park.

The last member of another tiny population in Vietnam’s Cat Tien National Park was killed by poachers in 2011. The water- and swamp-loving Javan rhinoceros formerly ranged throughout Southeast Asia and Indonesia, but has been hunted to near-extinction for its horn, which is used to make Asian folk medicines. Although it is now protected, it may not have a large-enough breeding population to prevent the species from going extinct. The Northern Sportive Lemur Northern-sportive-lemur-in-tree.jpg It is very difficult to say that one lemur species is more endangered than another. There are around 100 species of these primates, all of which live on the Island of Madagascar, off the southeast coast of Africa. Virtually all of them are declining dramatically in population, mostly because of habitat loss due to logging in the forests where they live—but also because of illegal hunting. Many lemur species are listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

NORTHERN RIGHT WHALE endangered4.jpg = The most endangered of all the world’s whale species, the northern right whale (Eubalena glacialis) numbers around 350 individuals that travel the Atlantic coasts of Canada and the US. During the whaling days of the 19th century, the right whale got its name because whalers considered it the “right” whale to kill, as it not only was full of valuable whale oil, but it floated after it was dead, which made it easy to handle and process. As a result, it was driven to near extinction. Although the right whale is now protected, its small remnant population continues to suffer losses due to entanglements in commercial fishing gear: Whales drown after becoming wrapped in nets, lines and other equipment. Global climate change, which can affect the availability of the tiny crustaceans on which right whales feed, may prove to be another serious threat to their recovery. 11 Animals That Are Now Extinct ... And It's Our Fault | The Huffington Post 11 Animals That Are Now Extinct ...

And It's Our Fault 10/22/2013 09:00 am ET | Updated Oct 23, 2013 3.5k James Gerken Green Editor, The Huffington Post Major extinction events are nothing new for the planet, but species are now dying out at an alarming rate thanks to humans. We are presently losing dozens of species every day , according to the Center for Biological Diversity. Nearly 20,000 species of plants and animals are at a high risk of extinction and if trends continue, Earth could see another mass extinction event within a few centuries . "Unlike past mass extinctions, caused by events like asteroid strikes, volcanic eruptions and natural climate shifts, the current crisis is almost entirely caused by us -- humans," explains the Center for Biological Diversity. "In fact, 99 percent of currently threatened species are at risk from human activities, primarily those driving habitat loss, introduction of exotic species and global warming." While there is no single international body that declares a species or subspecies extinct, the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List is a widely-recognized authority for keeping track of threatened and endangered species.

" The main focus of the Red List is to stop species from going extinct ," a Red List manager told the Washington Post in 2011. "But, by default, we became the standard international list for extinctions." Below, find 11 animals that have all gone extinct in the past two centuries thanks to humans. West African Black Rhinoceros WikiMedia:Yathin sk The West African black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis longipes) was a subspecies of the black rhino that was declared extinct in 2011. The subspecies last existed in Cameroon, but an extensive survey in 2006 did not find any signs of living West African black rhinos . According to the IUCN, "it is highly probable that this subspecies is now extinct" thanks to increased poaching and demand for rhino horn. Pyrenean Ibex The Pyrenean ibex ( Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica ) was a subspecies of the Iberian wild goat that went extinct in 2000. Once found throughout the French, Spanish and Andorran Pyrenees, the population was severely thinned by hunting .

In 2009, scientists were able to clone a female Pyrenean ibex using DNA from preserved skin samples. Due to lung defects, the ibex died shortly after birth , according to The Telegraph. Passenger Pigeon WikiMedia:FunkMonk The passenger pigeon may have once constituted 25 to 40 percent of the bird population in what is now the U.S., according to the Smithsonian Institution. As many as 3 to 5 billion of these birds were alive when Europeans arrived. The birds' traditional habitats were the large forests of eastern North America. As settlers cleared the forests for farmland, the pigeons turned to the new fields for subsistence. "The large flocks of passenger pigeons often caused serious damage to the crops, and the farmers retaliated by shooting the birds and using them as a source of meat," explains the Smithsonian. The 19th century brought widespread hunting and trapping of the birds, which severely diminished their populations. The last passenger pigeon, named "Martha," died at age 29 at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. Quagga WikiMedia:FunkMonk The Quagga ( Equus quagga ssp.

quagga ) was a subspecies of the common plains zebra and a native of South Africa. Known for its unique stripes, the Quagga was hunted for its hide and killed by ranchers who believed the animals competed with livestock for grazing area, according to PBS. WikiMedia:FunkMonk Last seen in the early 1950s, the Caribbean monk seal ( Monachus tropicalis ) was declared extinct in 2008 after a five-year review by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service . The seals had been hunted by European explorers who began arriving in the late 15th century, according to NOAA. They were later exploited for their fur, meat and oil by fisherman and whalers. Coastal development and fishing also impacted their traditional habitats in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. " Humans left the Caribbean monk seal population unsustainable after overhunting them in the wild," a NOAA biologist said in 2008, according to Science Daily.

"Unfortunately, this lead to their demise and labels the species as the only seal to go extinct from human causes." Sea Mink New York State Museum The sea mink ( Neovison macrodon ) once lived along the coasts of Maine and New Brunswick , but was prized for its fur and was hunted to extinction in the second half of the 19th century. WikiMedia:FunkMonk Know as Tasmanian tigers due to their stripes, thylacines ( Thylacinus cynocephalus ) were the largest modern carnivorous marsupial according to the Smithsonian Institution. They once existed across the Australian continent, but their habitat had been reduced to the island of Tasmania by the time European settlers arrived. According the National Museum of Australia : Thylacines were believed to kill livestock and were often shot and trapped. They were a convenient scapegoat for poor financial returns and high stock losses at a time of rural depression in Tasmania. Thylacines were declared a protected species in 1936, the same year the last known specimen died. Unconfirmed sightings of Tasmanian tigers continue to this day. Using preserved specimens, a team at Pennsylvania State University has successfully sequenced the animal's mitochondrial DNA .

Tecopa Pupfish The Tecopa pupfish ( Cyprinodon nevadensis calidae ) was native to the Mojave desert in California and could survive in waters as warm as 108 degrees Fahrenheit. Human development around the Tecopa Hot Springs in the mid-20th century and the channelling of two springs together left the habitat unsuitable for the small fish. WikiMedia:Dre.comandante The Javan tiger ( Panthera tigris ssp. sondaica ) was a tiger subspecies that likely became extinct in the mid-1970s, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Hunting and a loss of forest habitat led to their demise. Although the tiger was last seen in 1976, the head of East Java's Meru Betiri National Park announced in 2011 that he was "optimistic" that Javan tigers were still alive , according to the Jakarta Globe. Camera traps were set up in hopes of confirming any tiger sightings.

Great Auk PA The great auk ( Pinguinus impennis ) was a flightless coastal bird that bred on rocky islands around the North Atlantic, including in Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the British Isles and Scandinavia. They were slaughtered in huge numbers until the late 18th century , according to the British Natural History Museum. Although hunting declined, the rare birds became a prized specimen for collectors and they were driven to extinction by the mid-1850s. In this photo, Dan Gordon, Keeper of Biology at Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, holds a stuffed juvenile Great Auk at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle. Bubal Hartebeest

Question: Which animal has been hunted almost to extinction because of its horn?
Answer: Rhinoceros