50 Fun Facts About Endangered Species

Which organization maintains the Red List of Threatened Species, founded in 1964?

The International Union for Conservation of Nature is based in Switzerland; the Red List is also called the Red Data Book.

Which Red List category, abbreviated LC, is used for species that are widespread and abundant?

Above it come Near Threatened, then the three threatened tiers, then Extinct in the Wild and Extinct.

Which US president signed the Endangered Species Act into law on December 28, 1973?

He had declared existing conservation efforts inadequate the year before.

CITES, the treaty on trade in endangered wildlife, entered into force in which year?

Its text was finalized by 80 countries in Washington in 1973, so it is also called the Washington Convention.

Which animal appears on the logo of the World Wide Fund for Nature?

Sir Peter Scott drew the original logo when the fund was set up in 1961.

In 2016 the WWF's mascot species was moved from Endangered to which Red List category?

China's fourth national survey counted 1,864 wild pandas over 18 months old.

Which pesticide thinned eggshells and drove bald eagles and peregrine falcons toward extinction in the mid-20th century?

Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring turned public opinion against it, and the US banned it for agricultural use.

In what year was the bald eagle removed from the US endangered species list altogether?

By the 1950s only 412 nesting pairs remained in the lower 48 states.

Which bird became extinct in the wild in 1987 when the last 27 individuals were taken into captivity?

Its 3-metre wingspan is the widest of any North American bird; it has since been released in Arizona, Utah, California and Baja California.

Martha, the last passenger pigeon, died in 1914 at which zoo?

The species had once numbered around 3 billion, the most abundant bird in North America.

The vaquita, the world's smallest cetacean, lives only in which body of water?

Fewer than 19 remained in 2018; they drown in gillnets set illegally for totoaba fish.

Illegal fishing for which large fish, prized for its swim bladder, is the main cause of vaquita deaths?

The porpoise's name is Spanish for "little cow".

Which rhino is the rarest, surviving as a single wild population on one Indonesian island?

It once ranged as far as India, Bhutan and southern China.

After the last male died in 2018, which two female northern white rhinos were the sole survivors?

They belong to a Czech zoo but have lived under armed guard at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

Which is the smallest and hairiest of the five rhino species, with fewer than 80 mature individuals left?

It is the only two-horned rhino in Asia and the last of its genus.

The Amur leopard, one of the rarest big cats, is native to which region?

In 2007 as few as 19 to 26 were thought to survive in the wild.

Mountain gorillas survive in two populations: the Virunga Mountains and which Ugandan national park?

Dian Fossey completed the first accurate census; the 2019 estimate was 1,063 animals.

Which great ape, the world's rarest, has under 250 mature adults on the Cameroon-Nigeria border?

It is separated by about 300 km from the nearest western lowland gorillas.

How many orangutan species are recognized, all of them critically endangered?

The Tapanuli orangutan, described in 2017, is oddly closer to the Bornean species than to its fellow Sumatran.

The kakapo of New Zealand is the world's only what?

It is also the heaviest parrot; the entire population passed through a bottleneck of just 49 birds.

Declared extinct in 1979, the black-footed ferret was rediscovered in 1981 in which state?

A ranch dog near Meeteetse brought one home; up to 90 percent of the ferret's diet is prairie dogs.

By 1941, how many wild whooping cranes were left?

The remnant flock still migrates between coastal Texas and Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada; the total passed 800 in 2020.

Lonesome George, who died in 2012, was the last of which kind of animal?

He was found on Pinta in 1971 and became a symbol of Galápagos conservation.

In 2011, which antelope became the first animal to recover from Extinct in the Wild to a lower-risk category?

The last wild one was seen in 1972; zoo-bred animals were released from 1980.

Przewalski's horse has been reintroduced to Hustai National Park in which country?

It is also called the takhi.

What has devastated Tasmanian devil numbers since the late 1990s?

The devil became the largest carnivorous marsupial after the thylacine went extinct in 1936.

The saola, nicknamed the "Asian unicorn", was only discovered by science in 1992 in which mountains?

It lives on the Vietnam-Laos border and has never survived long in captivity.

Red wolves were reintroduced in 1987 to a wildlife refuge in which US state?

The species had been declared extinct in the wild in 1980 so captive breeding could proceed.

The Florida panther is the only confirmed population of which big cat in the eastern United States?

It occupies about 5 percent of its historic range.

In what year was the peregrine falcon removed from the US endangered species list?

Its stoop of over 320 km/h makes it the fastest animal on the planet.

Sea otters were hunted for their fur until 1911, when the world population had fallen to roughly what?

They are a keystone species, keeping sea urchins from destroying kelp forests.

The gharial's name comes from a pot-shaped bump on the snout of adult males. What is it called?

Its long, narrow snout carries 110 interlocking teeth built for catching fish.

Which raptor, once called the monkey-eating bird of prey, is its country's national bird and among the world's rarest?

It is the largest living eagle by length and wing area.

How many Iberian lynx survived in 2002, when the species was on the verge of extinction?

Rabbit restocking and reintroductions lifted the number to about 2,021 by 2024, and the cat was downgraded to Vulnerable.

Which scaly animal is the most trafficked mammal in the world?

Its keratin scales are used in traditional medicine; all eight species are threatened.

The monk seal is one of only two mammals endemic to Hawaii. What is the other?

The seal is Hawaii's official state mammal, with a population of about 1,400.

The Wollemi pine, known only from fossils until 1994, grows wild in which Australian state?

Canyoners stumbled on it in Wollemi National Park; some trees may be 500 to 1,000 years old.

Which fish, believed extinct for 66 million years, turned up alive off South Africa in 1938?

The genus Latimeria honors Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, who spotted the first specimen.

Wild axolotls survive only in the canals of Xochimilco, on the edge of which capital?

Between 50 and 1,000 adults remain, though labs keep huge numbers for their limb-regenerating powers.

Roughly how many wild tigers were estimated to survive as of 2022?

The species has been listed as Endangered since 1986.

In what year did the International Whaling Commission ban all hunting of blue whales?

It is the largest animal ever known to have lived, reaching 30 metres and 200 tonnes.

In what year was the American alligator removed from endangered status after a strong recovery?

It had been listed in 1967 under the law that preceded the Endangered Species Act.

The baiji, possibly the first dolphin driven extinct by humans, lived in which river?

It has not been definitively seen in over 20 years; the finless porpoise is now the river's only cetacean.

In September 2021, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed declaring which large bird extinct?

The last universally accepted US sighting was in 1944; disputed reports from Arkansas surfaced in the 2000s.

The Devils Hole pupfish lives in a single water-filled cavern in which state?

Its entire range is one locality, and its plight reached the US Supreme Court in Cappaert v. United States.

The golden lion tamarin is endemic to the Atlantic coastal forests of which country?

Roughly 490 live in 150 zoos, and a 2022-23 census counted about 4,800 in the wild.

Kemp's ridley, the rarest sea turtle, nests mainly on a single beach in which Mexican state?

Females arrive in mass nestings called arribadas at Rancho Nuevo.

Which sea turtle was pushed to the brink largely because its shell was the source of tortoiseshell?

Its sharp, curving beak and saw-edged shell make it easy to tell apart.

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, which exposed the harm done by DDT, was published in what year?

The uproar led to a US farm ban on DDT and helped create the Environmental Protection Agency.

Where did WWF open its first office in September 1961?

Its founding document is the Morges Manifesto.