Endangered Species

Endangered Species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has calculated the percentage of endangered species as 40 percent of all organisms based on the sample of species that have been evaluated through 2006.^[2]

Many nations have laws offering protection to conservation reliant species: for example, forbidding hunting, restricting land development or creating preserves.

Only a few of the many species at risk of extinction actually make it to the lists and obtain legal protection like Pandas. Many more species become extinct, or potentially will become extinct, without gaining public notice.

IUCN Red List Endangered Species

IUCN Red List refers to a specific category of threatened species, and may include critically endangered species. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species uses the term endangered species as a specific category of imperilment, rather than as a general term. Under the IUCN Categories and Criteria, endangered species is between critically endangered and vulnerable. Also critically endangered species may also be counted as endangered species and fill all the criteria

The more general term used by the IUCN for species at risk of extinction is threatened species, which also includes the less-at-risk category of vulnerable species together with endangered and critically endangered. IUCN categories include:

• Extinct: Examples: Javan Tiger, Thylacine, Dodo, Passenger Pigeon, Caribbean Monk Seal, Steller's Sea Cow, Aurochs, Elephant Bird, Woolly Mammoth, Dusky Seaside Sparrow

• Extinct in the wild: captive individuals survive, but there is no free-living, natural population. Examples: Hawaiian Crow, Wyoming Toad, Socorro Dove, Red-tailed Black Shark, Scimitar Oryx, Catarina Pupfish

• Critically endangered: faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future. Examples: Mountain Gorilla, Bactrian Camel, Ethiopian Wolf, Saiga, Takhi, Kakapo, Arakan Forest Turtle, Sumatran Rhinoceros, Javan Rhino, Brazilian Merganser, Axolotl, Leatherback Sea Turtle, Northern White Rhinoceros, Gharial, Vaquita, Philippine Eagle, Brown Spider Monkey, California Condor, Island Fox, Black Rhinoceros, Chinese Alligator

• Endangered: faces a very high risk of extinction in the near future. Examples: Dhole, Blue Whale, Asian Elephant, Giant Panda, Snow Leopard, African Wild Dog, Green Sea Turtle, Malayan Tapir, Tiger, Steller's Sea Lion, Philippine Eagle, Markhor, Bornean Orangutan, Grevy's Zebra, Tasmanian Devil

• Vulnerable: faces a high risk of extinction in the medium-term. Examples: African Elephant, Cheetah, Gaur, Lion, Sloth Bear, Dugong, Polar Bear, Indian Rhinoceros, Komodo Dragon, Great White Shark, Hippopotamus, Mandrill, Fossa

• Near threatened: may be considered threatened in the near future. Examples: Blue-billed Duck, Solitary Eagle, American Bison, Jaguar, Maned Wolf, Tiger Shark, Southern White Rhinoceros, Okapi, African Grey Parrot, Striped Hyena, Narwhal

• Least concern: no immediate threat to the survival of the species. Examples: Common Wood Pigeon, Rock Pigeon, Giraffe, Common Bottlenose Dolphin, California Sea Lion, Brown Bear, Grey Wolf, House Mouse, Scarlet Macaw, Platypus, Human, Bald Eagle, Brown Rat, Cane Toad, Humpback Whale, Emperor Penguin, American Crow, Wolverine,^[4] Mute Swan, Mallard, Red-tailed Hawk, Indian Peafowl, American Alligator, Southern Elephant Seal, Meerkat

OKAPI

                         The okapi Okapia johnstoni, is a giraffid artiodactyl mammal native to the Ituri Rainforest, located in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Central Africa. Although the okapi bears striped markings reminiscent of the zebra, it is most closely related to the giraffe.
The animal was brought to prominent European attention by speculation on its existence found in popular press reports covering Henry Morton Stanley's journeys in 1887. Remains of a carcass were later sent to London by the English adventurer and colonial administrator Harry Johnston and became a media event in 1901.Today there are approximately 10,000–20,000 in the wild and as of 2011, 42 different institutions display them worldwide.

^LIGER

                        The liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion (Panthera leo) and a tigress (Panthera tigris). Thus, it has parents with the same genus but of different species. It is distinct from the similar hybrid tiglon. It is the largest of all known cats and extant felines.^{[citation needed]}
Ligers enjoy swimming, which is a characteristic of tigers, and are very sociable like lions. Ligers exist only in captivity because the habitat of the parental species do not overlap in the wild. Historically, when the Asiatic Lion was prolific the territories of lions and tigers did overlap and there are legends of ligers existing in the wild. Notably, ligers typically grow larger than either parent species, unlike tiglons which tend to be about as large a female tiger.

^TIGON

The offspring of a male tiger and a lioness is a tigon (alternative names are tion, tigron or tiglon). Tigons have no scientific name, but Panthera tigris X leo has been posited. That lions and tigers can be crossbred is well documented. According to AP Gray in Mammalian Hybrids, the basic colour of lion/tiger hybrids is pale ochre to rust yellow-brown, more intensive than in the lion, but paler than in the tiger and with tiger striping. The mane of the males develops late and is shorter than that of a lion. L Reisinger(1929) reported a male liger as weighing as much as both parents together.
In "The Variation Of Animals And Plants Under Domestication" Charles Darwin wrote: "Many species of Felidae have bred in various menageries, although imported from diverse climates and closely confined. Mr. Bartlett, the present superintendent of the Zoological Gardens (18/17. On the Breeding of the Larger Felidae 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc.' 1861 page 140.) remarks that the lion appears to breed more frequently and to bring forth more young at a birth than any other species of the family. He adds that the tiger has rarely bred; "but there are several well-authenticated instances of the female tiger breeding with the lion [liger]." Strange as the fact may appear, many animals under confinement unite with distinct species and produce hybrids quite as freely as, or even more freely than, with their own species." The voluntary hybridisation of some zoo animals is also referred to as hypersexuality.

What is Animals

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently. All animals are also heterotrophs, meaning they must ingest other organisms or their products for sustenance.

Most known animal phyla appeared in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, about 542 million years ago