Arctic Wolf
Their white fur camouflages them against the snow – you might never see them, but they will most certainly see you. Along with mines, roads, and pipelines, climate change is squeezing their territory.

Asian Elephant
Historically, this largest land mammal on the Asian continent – a symbol of power and wisdom – roamed from the Persian Gulf to India to China. But the presence of humans has reduced its range by 85%, and its population has declined by 50% in the past three generations.

Aye Aye
Earth’s largest night-loving primate. Its middle finger is long and thin and moves independently from the other fingers – ideal for rooting out delicious insects. That same middle finger, aimed at a human, often makes that person feel cursed and vengeful enough to kill.

Bengal Tiger
Once prized as a trophy hunted from the backs of elephants, it may be India’s national animal, but the country’s exploding human population is squeezing the Bengal’s habitat, making it easier for poachers to reach them and dramatically increasing conflicts with humans.

Berkshire Pig
Considered the oldest breed in England. After World War II, they suffered a serious decline when pork production turned industrial. Recently, they’ve rebounded because of Japanese demand, resulting in increasing numbers being bred for marketing.

Black-Flanked Rock Wallaby
They can run up to 20 mph and jump almost 9 ft. in the air. They live in groups of tens to hundreds of individuals.  Predation, habitat loss and competition for food threatens them. Their native Australia has the highest mammal extinction rate of any country in the world.

Bonobo
Humans’ closest cousin, these primates spend as much as a quarter of their time on the ground walking around on two legs. They can recognize themselves in a mirror. Civil unrest and growing poverty around the bonobos’ forests have contributed to bonobo poaching and deforestation.

Bornean Orangutan
The name orangutan means “man of the forest” in the Malay language.  These great apes share 96.4% of their genes with humans and are considered highly intelligent.  The destruction and degradation of their tropical rainforest threatens them with extinction.

Bottlenose Dolphin
They live in warm water all over the world. Curious and chatty like us, they’re considered among the smartest animals. Between competing for food, drowning in fishing nets and ever-increasing ocean pollution, dolphins risk not just decline in numbers, but extinction.

Chacoan Peccary
They might look like pigs but are actually not related to them at all. The population is at risk due to habitat loss and over-hunting. They’re a protected species, but the laws are not rigorously enforced and hunting even happens inside national parks!

Channel Island Fox
The only carnivore unique to California, they live on 6 of the 8 Channel Islands off the Southern California coast – and nowhere else. Golden eagles were originally drawn there by the local tasty piglets. Then, they began preying on the Island Fox too, crashing the population.

Chinstrap Penguin
Every year, they nest in brutal conditions in Antarctica. They swim up to 50 miles offshore every day for food and dive as deep as 230 feet. In the January 2020 count, tens of thousands were missing.  Global warming is the prime suspect behind their sharp decline.

Dromedary Camel
Dromedaries have one hump while camels have two. They can drink 30 gallons of water in 10 minutes. No longer considered a wild animal, in Africa and Arabia, they are kept under the control of herders for their meat and milk.

Florida Panther
One of the rarest and most endangered animals in the U.S, this is the only mountain lion subspecies found east of the Mississippi. A 100-year bounty made them nearly extinct by the mid-1950s. Today, the main threat to the surviving population is habitat loss.

Golden-Headed Lion Tamarin
Squirrel-sized, tree-dwelling, fruit-eating monkeys. The faces of both males and females are framed by the tawny manes after which they’re named.  The only place on earth they can be found is Brazil.  They are threatened by the increasing fragmentation of their habitat.

Gouldian Finch
Native to Australia. Mostly silent, every so often they’ll let out a high pitched, whistling “ssitt”. The ravaging wildfires of the dry season are their most serious threat.

Green Sea Turtle
It has been on earth more than 150 million years, long enough to watch the dinosaurs evolve and go extinct. Now, their eggs are overharvested, the adults are hunted, civilization endangers their nesting sites, and it is all too easy for them to get caught up in fishing gear.

Hawksbill Turtle
With beaks that look more like they belong on a bird of prey, they feed on sponges that are toxic to other creatures and that threaten the health of the coral reefs. Their greatest threat is the wildlife trade.

Helmeted Hornbill
Their most notable feature is their casque (helmet in French), a solid ivory-like block atop their short bill that weighs as much as 10% of the bird. Jewelry made from the hornbill “ivory” is in high demand; it is the sad reason why they are being hunted to extinction.

Iberian Lynx
Disease has made their primary food – rabbits – so scarce that they are in danger of starving to extinction.  In 2002, there were fewer than 100 left in Andalusia in Spain. If they do go extinct, they’ll be the first feline species to die out since the prehistoric era.

Jersey Cow
Jersey cattle are a small, easy-to-keep variety with a single purpose: to make milk. Just like humans, cows only produce milk for their babies.  The calves are taken away at birth to save the milk for people. A single Jersey cow can produce 10 times her weight in milk.

Kakapo
Their Latin name translates to “owl-face soft-feather”. Not only are they nocturnal like owls, they also have the owls’ whiskery disc-looking face. They are found only in New Zealand and, after the introduction of cats, in fewer and fewer places and numbers there.

Koala
The only animals other than primates who have fingerprints. They also have unique nose prints. It’s just a rumor they’re bears; not even close! In their native Australia, May 3 is Wild Koala Day. Koalas are on the Top 10 list of animals most threatened by climate change.

Leatherback Turtle
They look the same as they did in the time of the dinosaurs. Leatherbacks are the largest, the deepest-diving, and the only turtle without a hard shell. They face threats on both nesting beaches and in the water – from by-catch, hunting, and the collection of turtle eggs for food.

Mountain Gorilla
One of earth’s largest primates. We share 98% of our DNA with them. Each of our fingerprints is unique; for them, it’s their noseprints. They are threatened by human encroachment, and especially by political instability, with only about 1,000 mountain gorillas left in the wild.

Nigerian Dwarf Goat
The Nigerian Dwarf Goat is actually an American breed. Goats raised for their milk are often crammed permanently into barns, sometimes by the thousands.

Northern Gray Whale
Northern Gray Whales boast the longest annual migration of any mammal – up to 14,000 miles a year. Nicknamed “devilfish” in the 1800s because of their fury when harpooned, today they’re threatened by oil exploration, entanglement in fishing gear, and collisions with ships.

Northern White Rhino
After the elephant, they’re the largest land mammal. Historically, uncontrolled hunting in the colonial era caused their decline. Today, they’re poached for their horns. There are only 2 Northern Whites left and they’re both females. The last male passed in 2018. This is his eye.

Nubian Giraffe
The tallest mammal on earth, standing up to 19 feet at the shoulder.  But, strangely, they have the same number of bones in their 6 ft 6 in long necks as we have in our short ones. Habitat loss and poaching have reduced their numbers by 98%; conservation came late for them.

Plains Bison
U.S.A.’s national mammal and North America’s largest land mammal. By 1889, there were only 512 left. Thanks to conservationists and Indigenous peoples, the bison is back from the brink of extinction.

Red Panda
Instantly recognizable by their red coloring (adorable face), bushy tails (adorable face) and raccoon-ish markings (adorable face). They were called pandas 50 years before the black and white ones. Human behavior has made their population plummet by 40% in just 20 years.

Saola
Pronounced sow-la, which means “spindle horns” in their native Vietnam, they are also called “Asian unicorns”. Only discovered in 1992, they are the first large mammal to be identified in 50 years. In the wild, they’ve only been photographed 3 times! Highly vulnerable to snares.

Silky Sifaka
They’re sometimes called “Angels of The Forest”. Like all lemurs, they’re found only in Madagascar. One of the rarest mammals on earth, and one of the world’s 25 most endangered primates. In critical danger of extinction on account of habitat loss to slash-and-burn agriculture.

Snow Leopard
Perfectly blending into their surroundings, they are the famous Ghosts of the Mountains. Hunting, habitat loss, and climate change are the greatest threats.

Snowy Owl
Hooray for Hedwig from novel “Harry Potter”. They mostly eat lemmings, something like 1600 a year; their numbers rise and fall with the lemming population. In down times, the snowy owls fly south where they can be killed by cars, in collisions with power lines, and by hunters.

South African Sable Antelope
Their astonishing horns can grow up to 5 feet long, about the same length as an elephant’s trunk. Between trophy hunting and habitat destruction for agricultural development, humans are their primary threat.

Southern White Rhino
Their horns aren’t really horns because they’re not attached to their skulls and don’t have a core of bone. Sadly, though, it is their “horns” that endanger them, prized for their supposed medicinal power. In South Africa, at least one rhino is killed illegally every day.

Southwestern Gray Fox
They have strong, hooked claws and are the only member of the dog family known to climb trees – to hunt, to sleep or to escape predators.  Their main threat is habitat loss, which is forcing them to live nearer and nearer to humans.

St. Andrew Beach Mouse
Nocturnal creatures, their activities are governed by the brightness of the moon.   They live only on the coast of Florida. Once they take up residence, they tend to stay there for life or until a catastrophe like development or a hurricane wipes out their home.

St. Mary’s River Turtle
Unique in the world, they diverged from all other creatures around 40 million years ago. They can stay underwater for up to 3 days, breathing through ‘gills’ on their long tails.  They’re in decline due to the building of dams and the poaching of their eggs for the pet trade. 

Sumatran Elephant
Weirder-looking than African elephants, they are almost completely bald with small ears. Females usually don’t have tusks; those that do have them hidden in their mouths. Between the loss of habitat and human attacks, 50% have been exterminated in one generation.

Sunda Pangolin
Prized in traditional Chinese medicine, Pangolins are the most trafficked animal in the world. More than a million have been poached in the last decade.

Syrian Brown Bear
Since they’re the only bear known to have white claws and on account of their distinctively pale fur, they are thought to be the missing link between the polar bear and the grizzly. They’re already extinct in Egypt, Israel, Syria, and Lebanon, due to habitat loss and poaching.

Vaquita
Their distinctive looks have likened them to smiling pandas. Native to Mexico’s Gulf of California, they are often accidentally caught and drowned in illegal fishing nets. They are the world’s most endangered marine mammal. 

Wild African Ass
The Wild African Ass or African wild donkey is thought to be the ancestor of the domestic donkey. They live in the deserts and other arid areas of the Horn of Africa. Critically endangered, there are only 570 individuals existing in the wild.

Yunan Snub-Nosed Monkey
Like the Giant Panda, they are considered a Chinese national treasure. Despite being a prized and protected species, their numbers have sadly been in decline for decades on account of illegal hunting and habitat loss.