10 Facts About Endangered Animals

10 Facts About Endangered Animals

1.  As many as 30-50 percent of all species are heading towards extinction by mid-century.
2. The Endangered Species Act of 1973, protects endangered species from being shot, harmed, captured, trapped, etc.
3.  As of January, 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists 2,244 plants and animals as threatened or endangered worldwide. This includes 1,590 plants and animals in the United States.
4.  There are over three thousand endangered species in the world.
5.  Animals and plants face a large number of different threats with many of them being a direct result of human activity.
6. Turtles are among the world’s most endangered vertebrates, with about half of all turtle species threatened with extinction.

7.     One third of open ocean sharks are threatened with extinction. Scientists estimate that 26 - 73 million sharks are killed each year for the global fin trade.

8.     According to the IUCN Red List, there are more threatened species in Ecuador than any other country (2,265), which is greater than Brazil (784), the USA (1,214) and Indonesia (1,149).

9.     Many consider the Javan rhinoceros to be the most endangered mammal. With its recent extinction in Vietnam, less than 50 remaining individuals are confined to the Indonesian island of Java.

10.  There are currently more endangered amphibians than any other animal group, a startling 1,900 species, which accounts for around 30 percent of all described amphibians.

 

Works Cited:

Endangered Species. ARKive. Web.

11 Facts About Endangered Species. DoSomething.org. Web