10 Animals Which Will Be Extinct Within Your Lifetime

Amur Leopard
Historially the Amur Leopard's range included the Amur River Basin and the mountains of northeast China and the Korean Peninsular, but today it is only found in one small area of far eastern Russia, and (possibly) Jilin Province in China. The main cause of the Amur Leopard's demise: Being hunted for its fur and for medicinal use. Declines in its traditional prey have caused the leopard to hunt domestic animal populations, causing it to be further hunted. Because population levels are so diminished, the gene pool is severely restricted, making it especially vulnerable. An additional threat is a proposed oil pipeline which would cut directly through their last remaining habitat.

Axolotl
The Axolotl, often called the 'Mexican walking fish' though it's really a salamander, is native to the ancient water channel system of Mexico City. It prefers deep brackish water with plenty of vegetation. The threats to the Axolotl's habitat date back the 17th century, when the city's water system began being neglected, drained and having sewage dumped in it. The main threat today is further degradation of this water system. Fortunately, the axolotl breeds well in captivity, perhaps allowing wild reintroduction at a later date, should its habitat be restored.

Black Rhino
Between 1970 and 1992, 96% of the Black Rhino population was killed for their horns, used in traditional Chinese medicine and for dagger handles in Yemen. At the low point of the poaching, 2,400 animals remained across all of sub-Saharan Africa. Since then conservation efforts have allowed populations to rebound slighting, to a bit more than 3,000 individuals. However the animal remains critically endangered, and only intensive and active protection from poaching, sometimes in fenced reserves, allows the animal to survive.

Chinese Alligator
The Chinese Alligator is one of the smallest crocodilians physically, and now thanks to habitat destruction due to conversion of wetlands to agriculture, it has one of the smallest wild populations as well: Less than 130 individuals remain. It's habitat used to extend throughout the Yangtze river system, but now this is confined to a small reserve. The only bright spot in the Chinese Alligator's saga is that it does breed well in captivity and there are tentative efforts to establish new reserves.

Red Wolf
It's strange to write that the good news about the Red Wolf is that there about 100 individuals left in the wild. That's good news because in 1980 the animal was declared extinct in the wild, after the last 17 red wolves were taken into captivity to breed them for reintroduction into remote regions of North Carolina. Historically the Red Wolf ranged throughout the southeast part of the United States, and perhaps at one point as far north as Maine. Historically, and currently, the primary threat to the Red Wolf is loss of habitat as land is converted from forest to agriculture.

Javan Rhino
Though the Javan Rhino used to be widespread in southeast Asia, it now lives in only one small area of Java. A very small population (10 individuals) of a subspecies, the Vietnamese Javan Rhino lives in the Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam. Historically the primary threat came from being hunted for its horn and body parts for medicinal use. Additional threats come from habitat loss from logging. The population of Javan Rhinos is so small that a diseases could easily wipe out the entire species.

Saiga Antelope
One of the world's most distinctive looking animals, the Saiga Antelope lives in dry steppes and semi-desert grasslands of Central Asia. It was well protected from poaching in the former Soviet Union, and populations were in the millions. Since the collapse of the Soviet empire management of the population has broken down, and poaching, habitat degradation due to over-grazing by sheep have caused steep drops in population. Since the average lifespan of the Saiga Antelope is only three or four years, if females don't mate every year (a possibility because males are poached at higher rates than females) then rapid declines in numbers can easily occur.


Siberian Tiger
The Siberian tiger is the largest of the six surviving subspecies of tiger, all of which are threatened. Very closely related to the Capsian Tiger (there is genetic research that indicates they may as well be the same species), its historic range spanned all of western and central Asia. The western populations went extinct over this range over the course of the 20th century as habitat loss and active persecution (particularly in the Caspian Sea region by the Soviets), and now the last remaining populations are confined to the Russian Far East. Habitat loss, hunting for skins and body parts for use in traditional medicine remain significant threats.

Silky Sifaka
Found only in northeastern Madagascar, the Silky Sifaka is one of the world's 25 most endangered primates, with reports of population levels being as low as 100 and as high as 1000 individuals. The main threats come from (you guessed it) habitat loss due to logging and conversion of land to agriculture. Hunting for food is also an issue, as the Silky Sifaka has no local taboo around it prohibiting it eating, unlike some other lemur species.

Sumatran Orangutan
Recently recognized as distinct from its cousins on the island of Borneo, the Sumatra Orangutan's habitat historically extended throughout southeast Asia. Today, however, it is confined to the island of Sumatra where it faces extreme pressures from habitat loss. In the past 20 years, 80% of its habitat as been eliminated by gold mining, logging and agriculture (primarily oil palm plantations). In the forest fires of 1997 and 1998, up to one-third of the population was killed. Though conservation programs exist, at current rates of decline it is thought that wild populations of the Sumatran Orangutan (as well as the Bornean Orangutan) could become extinct in the wild by 2010. Yes, as in next year.