Populatons of popular animals.

dragon(ele)nerd

dragon(ele)nerd

Well-Known Member
I watched a few vids on the net last night, shocked me on how bad some animals are doing in the wild. There are barely any turtles left in china, the largest species has only 2 left!
In India 2003 there were roughly 3400 tigers now there are only 1400!!!!!!!! :eek:

Luckily though my favourite animal is doing quite well numbers of elephants in India have grow by a lot as well as in south africa and Tanzania, but unfortunately in small countries take sri lanka the elephants population isn't looking that great.

Please tell me that some of the world's popular animals are doing well. :(
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
Please tell me that some of the world's popular animals are doing well. :(
Click to expand...

You only really care for popular animals? Funny indeed...

You really need to define this question a lot more before you can get any response :rolleyes:

I still seem to think that many species that are on the brink seem to be stable where they are... on the brink. It's a delicate line that hasn't been crossed that often yet (the chinese river dolphin being a very disappointing exception) but many are still on the line.
 
jwer said:
You only really care for popular animals? Funny indeed...
Click to expand...

It's not that, just that popular animals are obviously the crowd pullers in zoos, and I'm concerned that younger children are oblivious in how bad of a state that the animals they love are in.
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
It's not that, just that popular animals are obviously the crowd pullers in zoos, and I'm concerned that younger children are oblivious in how bad of a state that the animals they love are in.
Click to expand...


Personally i'd be more concerned that younger children are oblivious in how bad of a state the animals they don't love and not even know about are in.

Generally, the crowdpleasers are well protected (panda's, tigers, rhino's and the sorts) while not so well known or not so cuddly animals seem to be forgotten...
 
I guess that in including Yangtze giant soft-shelled turtles in your initial example, you've expanded the 'popular animals' category reasonably enough.

Sadly, India has the world's highest numbers of wild tigers; the South China tiger, for example, is presumed functionally extinct, with well below 30 left in the wild.

Rhinoceroses are another 'popular animal' in trouble; in my opinion, every species is in trouble, with either a threatened subspecies, or even threats to the entire world population.
White rhino: the four last individuals of the northern subspecies hasn't been seen since 2006.
Black rhino: the western subspecies was declared extinct, also in 2006 and the eastern subspecies has fewer than 500 remaining in the wild.
Indian rhino: only about 3000 left in the wild
Sumatran rhino: only about 350 remain, including the 25 or so bornean sumatran rhinos.
Javan rhino: world population is about 60, including the 12 or so animals of the vietnamese subspecies.

Many gibbon species populations are also dangerously low; the eastern black crested gibbon, for example, numbers an estimated total of under 50 animals, between two subspecies (~ 17 for the Hainan subspecies, and ~25-30 of the Cao Vit subspecies.)

Spider monkeys are another group whose species numbers are often worryingly low; the brown and brown-headed spider monkeys (brown-headed is a subspecies of the black-headed spider monkey) have very low populations with no accurate estimates. The woolly spider monkeys, or muriquis, also worry me; both species, though currently numbering just over a thousand individuals each, are prime victims of destructive activities including habitat loss and hunting - they exist only in highly fragmented groups and few, if any, of these are thought to be viable in the long term.

Some species of lemur also have dangerously low numbers, the silky sifaka having an unknown, but estimated very low, population size...
 
@nayer: There are probably no wild Amoy tigers left. And how many tigers India still has, is unsure-probably a lot less than the local authorities claim...

I absolutely support jwer's remark. There are several popular endangered species that still have a chance as there is enough public and financial support for their conservation. And there are those species like Abronia lizzards, Banggai Crow or Liberian Mongoose hardly anyone knows, but which are at least as endangered as the popular species. There are a few dedicated individuals and organisations such as the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the CEPA or the ZGAP that also take notice of these poor creatures. Unfortunately, also their time, power and ressources are limited...
 
jwer said:
You only really care for popular animals? Funny indeed....
Click to expand...

Yeah but I get what he means in a sense, everbody has a favorite animal & to be honest i personnally would be far more devastated to learn that a lion population had become extinct, rather than if i was to find out that a certain subspecies of dung beetle wasn't doing so well!

The giant panda is a very popular animal & is on a steady slow increase in the wild. As of 2006 there were shown to be close to 3000 giant pandas living and breeding succesfully in the wild compared to the predicted figure which was closer to 1000.

It is horrible to hear that so many species are under so much pressure just to survive, but it is comforting to hear the success stories too :)
 
Zoos have come under criticism for concentrating on the big, charismatic species to keep and breed at the expense of less well known but more endangered ones. There are notable exceptions: the contribution of Durrell has already been cited, and ZSL's EDGE programme is another example. The international co-operation on Amphibian Arks (and to a lesser extent, Turtle Arks) is also a positive step.

One good news story that I recall is the recent "discovery" of a large population of Western lowland gorillas in the northern Congo, which could double the world population:

Gorilla "Paradise" Found; May Double World Numbers
 
Chris79 said:
Zoos have come under criticism for concentrating on the big, charismatic species to keep and breed at the expense of less well known but more endangered ones. There are notable exceptions: the contribution of Durrell has already been cited, and ZSL's EDGE programme is another example. The international co-operation on Amphibian Arks (and to a lesser extent, Turtle Arks) is also a positive step.
Click to expand...

I agree, & your right it is a positive step. The point i was making is that people have different opinions, interests & priorities. The fact that a large majority of zoo visitors are attracted to the most 'popular' animals doesn't mean that they're horrible for not being as excited to see EVERY animal. If it wern't for the more ''popular'' animals, there wouldn't be any zoo's for the endangered less popular animals to live in. The fact that i care more for the plight of elephants than the plight of certain insect species, doesn't make me any less of a conservationist.
 
Some more good news, according to arkive.org, Asian Lions are on the increase. There's an estimated 359, still too few, but considering there were just a 100 of them a century ago shows the work conservationists have done.
 
Unfortunately, they usually make one positive step and two negative ones at the same time...With the generalisation of zoo species and presentation concepts, hardly known species that neverless require a chance of the public limelight are left behind.

About the Asian lions: the numbers may be increasing, but the place for them isn't...
 
true asian lions are restricted to one place the gir forest and even there, the locals have set up boundarys to prevent the lions more space, ceratain species also have the situation. If the numbers climb up where will they go surely more and more into the way of human conflict?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top