African Forest Elephant Status - CR • Places: Congo Basin • Habitat: Forest Habitat (Dense Tropical Forest) • Their populations declined by 62% between 2002 and 2011 • During that period, the species also lost 30% of its geographical range. • As this downward trend continues, the African forest elephant was declared Critically Endangered by the IUCN in 2021.
African Forest Elephant - Why are they important? • Forest elephants are found in dense forests and are essential for the germination of many rain forest trees. • The seeds of these trees only germinate after passing through the elephant’s digestive tract.
African Forest Elephant - Threats Habitat Loss and Habitat Fragmentation • Due to conversion of forests for agriculture, livestock farming, and human infrastructure. • African elephants have less room to roam than ever before as expanding human populations convert land for agriculture, settlements and developments. • Poverty, armed conflict and the displacement of people by civil conflict also add to habitat loss and fragmentation. • The above reasons push elephants into smaller islands of protected areas and hinder elephants’ freedom to roam. • The elephants’ range shrank from three million square miles in 1979 to just over one million square miles in 2007.
African Forest Elephant - Threats Poaching for Ivory • Forest elephants are primarily threatened by poaching for bushmeat and ivory. • Tens of thousands of elephants are killed each year to meet the illegal international demand for ivory. • Commercial logging, plantations for biofuels and extractive industries like logging and mining not only destroy habitat but also open access to remote elephant forests for poachers. • In January 2012, over 200 elephants were slaughtered in a raid by invading Sudanese poachers in a single national park in Cameroon. • Many governments do not have adequate financial or human resources to protect their elephants, conduct regular population estimates or enforce regulations.
African Forest Elephant - Threats Increased Human-elephant conflict • As habitats contract and human populations expand, people and elephants are increasingly coming into contact with each other. • Where farms border elephant habitat or cross elephant migration corridors, damage to crops and villages can become commonplace. • This often leads to conflicts that elephants invariably lose. • But loss of life can occur on both sides, as people may be trampled while trying to protect their livelihoods, and game guards often shoot "problem" elephants.
African Forest Elephant - Measures taken for conservation Stopping poaching • WWF strives to eliminate illegal hunting in protected areas • They advocate for sustainable hunting of less vulnerable species in buffer zones • This also provides affordable meat to a poor and growing human population • They brought together neighboring countries in the Congo Basin to join forces to protect wildlife from poaching Tackling illegal trade • WWF and TRAFFIC(world’s largest wildlife trade monitoring network), support a Central African Forest Commission commitment to put a groundbreaking regional network called PAPECALF into place that will strengthen law enforcement and better combat poaching of species at risk from illegal wildlife trade • Cases will also be monitored for corruption, and action taken against anyone attempting to impede justice
Bornean Orangutan Status - CR • Places: Borneo and Sumatra • Habitat: Forest Habitat (Lowland rainforests and tropical, swamp and mountain forests) • Populations have declined by more than 50% over the past 60 years • The species' habitat has been reduced by at least 55% over the past 20 years. • Northwest Bornean orangutans are the most threatened subspecies, a mere 1,500 individuals or so remain.
Bornean Orangutan - Why are they important? • Orangutans play a critical role in seed dispersal, keeping forests healthy. • Over 500 plant species have been recorded in their diet.
Bornean Orangutan - Threats • Human threats • Hunting • Unsustainable and often illegal logging and mining • Conversion of forests to agriculture. • Catastrophic events • The 1997-98 forest fires in Kalimantan, which killed up to 8,000 individual orangutans. • Young orangutans are in demand for a flourishing pet trade, with each animal fetching several hundred dollars in city markets on nearby islands. • Studies have indicated that 200-500 orangutans from Indonesian Borneo alone enter the pet trade each year. • This represents a real threat to wild orangutan populations as orangutans have an extremely low reproductive rate. • There is also trade in orangutan parts in Kalimantan, with orangutan skulls fetching up to $70 in towns.
Bornean Orangutan - Measures taken for conservation Addressing the illegal killing and trade of orangutans • WWF works closely with TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, to help governments enforce the laws that prohibit orangutan capture and trade. This work includes strengthening the capacity of rangers, prosecutors and customs officers to identify, investigate and prosecute wildlife crimes Reducing human-orangutan conflicts • They work with the governments, local communities, plantation owners and indigenous Dayak people to help develop plantation management methods that do not affect orangutans. • They also assist with regional land use planning to ensure that agricultural areas are developed as far away from orangutan habitat as possible.
Hawksbill Turtle - Why are they important? • Hawksbills help maintain the health of coral reefs. As they remove prey such as sponges from the reef's surface, they provide better access for reef fish to feed. • They also have cultural significance and tourism value. For example, for residents in the Coral Triangle, the flow of visitors who come to admire turtles is a vital source of income. • They are a fundamental link in marine ecosystems and help maintain the health of coral reefs and sea grass beds.
Hawksbill Turtle - Threats Like other sea turtles, hawksbills are threatened by the loss of nesting and feeding habitats, excessive egg collection, fishery-related mortality, pollution, and coastal development. However, they are most threatened by wildlife trade Wildlife trade • Despite their current protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and many national laws, there is still a disturbingly large amount of illegal trade in hawksbill shells and products. • They are much sought after throughout the tropics for their beautiful brown and yellow carapace plates that are manufactured into tortoiseshell items for jewelry and ornaments.
Hawksbill Turtle - Threats Fisheries Bycatch • Hawksbills are particularly susceptible to entanglement in gillnets and accidental capture on fishing hooks. • Sea turtles need to reach the surface to breathe, and therefore many drown once caught. • Known as bycatch, this is a serious threat to hawksbill turtles. As fishing activity expands, this threat is more of a problem.
Hawksbill Turtle - Measures taken for conservation Eliminating Bycatch • WWF aims to reduce turtle bycatch by working with fisheries to switch to more turtle-friendly fishing hooks ("circle" hooks) and advocates for the use of special turtle excluder devices in nets • They track turtle movements using satellite to help prevent future interactions between fisheries and turtles Protecting sea turtle habitat • WWF works around the world to establish marine protected areas (MPA) to ensure sea turtles have a safe place to nest, feed and migrate freely
Hawksbill Turtle - Measures taken for conservation • Addressing Wildlife Trade • WWF works with communities to reduce turtle harvesting and local trade in the Coral Triangle • They work to develop alternative livelihoods so that local people are no longer dependent on turtle products for income • WWF also works to stop the illegal trade of hawksbill products around the world through TRAFFIC
Amur Leopard - Why are they important? • The Amur leopard is important ecologically, economically and culturally. Conservation of its habitat benefits other species, including Amur tigers and prey species like deer
Amur Leopard - Threats Illegal Wildlife Trade • The Amur leopard is poached largely for its beautiful, spotted fur. • In 1999, an undercover investigation team recovered a female and a male Amur leopard skin, which were being sold for $500 and $1,000 respectively in the village of Barabash. • Agriculture and villages surround the forests where the leopards live. As a result, the forests are relatively accessible, making poaching a problem. Prey Scarcity • In China, the prey base is insufficient to sustain large populations of leopards and tigers.
Amur Leopard - Measures taken for conservation Stopping poaching and trade • WWF supports antipoaching work in all Amur leopard habitat in the Russian Far East and in known leopard localities in northeast China. • They implement programs to stop the illegal trade in Amur leopard parts. Together with TRAFFIC, WWF help governments enforce domestic and international trade restrictions on Amur leopard products. Monitoring populations • WWF monitors Amur leopard populations and its habitat. • They also work to increase the population of leopard prey like roe deer, sika deer and wild boar including releasing such deer into new reserves in China to provide founder animals to rebuild prey populations.
Amur Leopard - Measures taken for conservation • A Safe Haven • Amur leopards received a safe haven in 2012 when the government of Russia declared a new protected area. Called Land of the Leopard National Park, this marked a major effort to save the world’s rarest cat. • Extending nearly 650,000 acres it includes all the Amur leopard’s breeding areas and about 60 percent of the critically endangered cat’s remaining habitat.
Waved Albatross -Threats • Fishing • Long-line fishing boats lay out hundreds of miles of baited hooks which attract birds and once they try to eat the bait they get hooked and drown after being dragged under. • Plastic pollution • They are also likely to be at threat from marine plastic pollution. • Other threats • Other threats include water pollution, oil slicks and chemicals.
Waved Albatross -Measures Taken for conservation • The population of waved albatrosses on the Galápagos is protected by national park personnel, and the island is also categorized as a World Heritage Site
Hula bream(Acanthobrama hulensis) Status - EX • Places: Lake Hula in northern Israel • Habitat: Freshwater lakes and Swamps • They were a species of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae
Dodo -Why are they extinct? • The birds were unfazed by the Portuguese sailors that discovered them around 1507. • These and subsequent sailors quickly decimated the dodo population as an easy source of fresh meat for their voyages. • The last dodo was killed in 1681
Steller’s Sea Cow Status - EX • Place: Komandor Islands in the Bering Sea • Habitat: Coastal waters • Steller’s sea cows reached a length of 9–10 meters and weighed around 10 metric tons
Steller’s Sea Cow -Why are they extinct? • They had only very little ability submerge. • This made them easy targets for the harpoons of Russian seal hunters, who prized them as a source of meat on long sea journeys.
Wooly Mammoth - Why are they extinct? • While climate change definitely played a significant role in their extinction, recent studies suggest that humans may have also been a driving force in their demise. • Extensive hunting and the stresses of a warming climate are a lethal combination, and it seems even the mighty mammoth could not withstand the human appetite in a changing world.
Passenger Pigeon - Why are they extinct? • As American settlers pressed westward, passenger pigeons were slaughtered by the million yearly for their meat and shipped by railway carloads for sale in city markets. • Hunters often raided their nesting grounds and annihilated entire colonies in a single breeding season.
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