Ranked: The Most Endangered Animals in the World

Pallavi Rao
2024-06-29 08:33:59
www.visualcapitalist.com

Visualized: The Most Endangered Animals in the World

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In the last decade alone, more than 460 species have been declared extinct. Expanding human activity is largely to blame for this rapid biodiversity loss.

This graphic shows the most endangered animals by numbers found in the wild, per estimates from the World Wildlife Fund UK.

This endangered animals list does not include species that are functionally extinct: not seen in decades or whose populations are no longer viable.

Ranked: Critically Endangered Animals

There are only about 75 Javan Rhinos left in the wild. Once found between the eastern edge of the Indian subcontinent all the way to Indonesia, their numbers have been steadily reduced by hunting and encoraching human settlements. Now they can be found only at the Ujung Kulon National Park in Java, Indonesia.

Rank	Endangered Animals	Estimated Number Left in the Wild	Found in
1	Javan Rhino	75	Java, Indonesia
2	Amur Leopard	100	China & Russia
3	Sunda Island Tiger	600	Sumatra, Indonesia
4	Tapanuli Orangutan	800	Sumatra, Indonesia
5	Mountain Gorillas	1,000	DRC, Rwanda & Uganda
6	Yangtze Finless Porpoise	1,000	Yangtze River, China
7	Black Rhinos	5,630	Kenya, Namibia, South Africa & Zimbabwe
8	Sumatran Orangutan	14,000	Sumatra, Indonesia
9	Hawksbill Turtles	23,000	Atlantic, Indian, Pacific Oceans
10	African Forest Elephant	30,000*	Congo Basin

Note: *Last estimate from 2013.

In fact, Indonesia’s rainforests, home to 17% of all birds, 12% of the world’s mammals, and 10% of all plants, have steadily decreased as the country’s population has surged.

As a result, the country has already seen many species go extinct. It also currently has four animals on the WWF’s 10 most endangered animals list.

Aside from the Javan Rhino, this includes: the Sunda Island Tiger, and the Tapanuli and Sumatran Orangutans.

The Sunda Island Tiger is the smallest of all tiger species. Its Javan and Balinese counterparts have already been driven to extinction by hunting and habitat loss.

The Tapanuli and Sumatran Orangutans are two of the three great ape species found in Asia.

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