Let’s start with an animal that I personally love - the vaquita. Now, you may have never heard of the vaquita - I didn’t hear about it until I started this article. The vaquita is a marine mammal that lives only in the Mexican Gulf of California. There are only 10 individuals left in the entire world. Can you believe that?! Only 10 in the entire world! Let’s compare this number to the population of the Common Bottlenose Dolphins - a relatively common species. There are 600,000 common bottlenose dolphins in the world compared to 10 vaquitas. Isn’t that crazy?! How did the population become so small? Well, the main killer of vaquitas is gill nets. Many marine animals get their necks, mouths, and flippers tangled in these fishing devices, in which they could drown. If they don’t drown, the net still might inhibit them from properly feeding, growing, and protecting themselves from the risk of infection. Gillnet fishing is allowed in some waters, but is illegal in the Mexican Gulf of California, yet people still do this, causing many vaquitas to die. So how do we help these desolate animals? Well, there are many organizations dedicated to saving these marine mammals. A convenient way would be to just search “save the vaquita” on google *wink*. These organizations are trying to stop illegal fishing, but they need your support! Now let’s move from Mexico to Indonesia. Indonesia has many animal species, the critically endangered ones including the Javan Rhino, the Sumatran Rhino, The Sunda Tiger, the Tapanuli Orangutan, the Sumatran Orangutan, the Sumatran Elephant, and the Bornean Orangutan! Sadly, we will only have time to talk about a few of these today. If you are interested in any of the other animal species, please research them, they need your help! The ones we will be discussing today are the Javan Rhino, Tapanuli Orangutan, Sunda Tiger, and Sumatran Elephant. You’ve probably already heard of many Rhino species going extinct. Indonesia is home to two of these Rhino species - the Javan Rhino and the Sumatran Rhino. The Javan Rhino used to live in India and Asia in abundance, but are now reduced to a population of 60 individuals, all of which live in the Ujung Kulon National Park in Java, Indonesia. Now, why are so many rhino species endangered? The answer is poaching. People illegally hunt and kill rhinos for their horns. Some people think that these horns are important in medicine, but in reality, it just endangers rhinos. The second animal that we will talk about is the Tapanuli Orangutan. This Orangutan is one of three critically endangered Orangutan species, and the most endangered of the three. There are only 800 Tapanuli Orangutans in the world and they all live in North Sumatra. This Orangutan species was announced quite recently, in November of 2017. In 1997, this Orangutan was discovered, and years from then, after lots of research and observation, it was determined to be another species. For this species to grow, they need more forest areas to live in, but with deforestation and construction for housing and other needs, they don’t have much space to live in. The next animal species we will talk about today is the Sunda Tiger. This is the only tiger species on the critically endangered list according to WWF. There are less than 400 of these tigers living, all of them located in the remaining forests, grasslands, and wetlands of the island of Sumatra. Most tiger species are endangered, the Javan and Balinese tigers are already extinct, because of deforestation and hunting. Last, but definitely not least, the animal species from Indonesia we will talk about today is the Sumatran Elephant. The Sumatran Elephant lives in both Sumatra and Borneo. There are between 2,400 to 2,800 of this elephant species left in the world. Deforestation is again the reason for the decline in population for the Sumatran Elephant. As you can tell, the main reason for losing these wonderful animals are deforestation and poaching. Please don’t encourage either of these things as they are killing amazing animals that deserve to be alive and safe. You can search up any of these animal species and I can assure you there will be a website that is trying to save them. Phew! That was a lot of animal species. Moving on to Africa now. Africa has two critically endangered species - The Black Rhino and The Cross River Gorilla. The Black Rhino is one of five rhino species in the world, including the Sumatran Rhino, the Javan Rhino (which I talked about), the Black Rhino (this one!), the Greater one-horned Rhino, and the White Rhino. The Black Rhino lives in the deserts and grasslands of Namibia and the overall East Coast of Africa with a small population of 5,600 individuals. This species has two horns, sometimes a small third one, and since the 20th century was hunted and killed for it. From 1960 to 1995, the rhino population dropped to a population of 2,500 and almost went extinct. But Africa did not give up! The Rhino population recovered, but is still threatened by poaching for their horns. The next endangered species from Africa is the Cross River Gorilla. According to WWF, the Cross River Gorilla is one of the three critically endangered Gorilla species, the others including the Eastern Lowland Gorilla and Western Lowland Gorilla. As soon as this species was announced, it was endangered, with only 200-300 of them still living. Asia also has two critically endangered species. One is a porpoise and the other is a leopard. The Yangtze Finless Porpoise doesn’t have a dorsal fin, the fin on a dolphin’s back, which is where its name comes from. It is known for its cute smile, now rare with it’s decreasing numbers and shy personality. The Yangtze Finless Porpoise lives in the Yangtze River, which is the longest river in Asia, and was the home for two dolphin species, the other being the Baiji dolphin. In 2006, the species went extinct. It was the first time an entire dolphin species died from human activity, specifically from the rivers being polluted and the loss of area to live now that people were using boats and staying close to their river. The Yangtze Finless Porpoise is still living, with 1,000 to 1,800 left. The last animal species we will talk about today is the Amur Leopard. The Amur Leopard can run 37 miles per hour! In the wild, they live for 10 to 15 years, and 20 years in captivity. They usually live alone, or with a mate, and sometimes with their child. There are more than 84 Amur Leopards living in the world. Hard to believe, right? Eighty-four?! Well, believe it, because it’s the reality. Now, imagine if I told you that there were only 84 of your favorite food item. In my case, that would be cake. My guess is that you would try to find a way to make more, right? I know I would! Now, to get back on topic, there are only 84 living, breathing, beautiful, and helpful animals of an animal species living on the Earth. Would you help them? All of these animal species need your help and your effort to restore their population and keep them healthy and living. Many of them were greatly affected and killed by humans, and it takes humans to help them grow back and live their lives. Do you care enough about these animals to help them and their families? You can find lots of information on www.worldwildlife.org or by simply searching up the animal species you are interested in on the internet. There are also links provided down below. There are lots of efforts to help these animals, but they all depend on you.
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/directory?page=1 https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/bycatch/fishing-gear-gillnets#risks-to-marine-mammals http://animalia.bio/sumatran-elephant https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino-info/rhino-species/#:~:text=Species%20of%20rhino,of%20rhino%20and%20their%20quirks. https://www.google.com/url?q=https://airtable.com/shry2cpJ1gS61Swf8&sa=D&ust=1605309212548000&usg=AOvVaw3KBTq13AMsTQYBhNGbDEF4 https://us.whales.org/whales-dolphins/species-guide/baiji/ https://phys.org/news/2018-12-danger-china-finless-porpoise-survive.html
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The journalism small group is so productive, and it actually feels like you are doing something. You have so many opportunities to collaborate with people you probably would not have met otherwise. I have made so many friends in this small group, and club meetings are always entertaining.
- Bavana Pydipati, Journalism Writers Head '24 Author:Local Leaders of the 21st Century Club Categories
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