Top 10 endangered animals

10. African elephant – only 10 000 remaining
9. Polar bear – 20 000 - 25 000 remaining
8. The bonobo monkey – between 5000 – 10 000 remaining
7. Loggerhead sea turtle – about 50 000 remaining
6. Blue whale – about 4000 remaining
5. Giant panda – 3000 – 5000 remaining
4. Sumatran orangutan monkey – 3500 remaining
3. South china tiger – already extinct in the wilderness
2. Mountain gorilla – about 700 in the wild
1. Black rhino – less than 50 in the wild

Okapi

Okapi interesting facts:
- Okapi (Okapia johnstoni) is closely related to giraffe but is smaller with much shorter neck and stripe on the legs. It also looks like it is part deer and part zebra. It is native to the Ituri Rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in central Africa.
- Okapi is solitary animal. Each one is stacking its own patch of turf and prefers to stay there as long as there is a enough food.
- The Okapi has a reddish dark back, with striking horizontal white stripes on the front and back legs. They have an oily, velvety coat of fur that repels the water.

- The Okapi has a keen sense of smell and hearing.
- Okapis are master at hiding. You usually won’t spot a herd of okapis no matter how hard you look.
- The Okapi weight varies from 200 to 300 kilograms (440 to 660 lb), the body length from 1.9 to 2.5 metres (6.2 to 8.2 ft) long and the height from 1.5 to 2.0 metres (4.9 to 6.6 ft) tall.

- The Okapi habitat are rainforests, the lifespan is about 25 years. It’s could speed up to 37 mph (60 km/hr). Okapis are herbivores eating mainly tree leaves, grass, ferns, fruit and fungi.
- Okapis are very picky on their food. Okapis will eat only the mature leaves of certain trees.
- The Okapi has a long black-blue tongue, like the giraffe. The Okapi can even reach its eyes and ears using its tongue.

- The Okapi was discovered in the deep forests of Belgian Congo by the explorer Henry Stanley.
- Male Okapis are known as bulls and female Okapis are known as cows.
- The only times you are about to see more than a single okapi is when it is a mother with her youngster. Young okapis stay with their mother for not quite a year, and then seek their own patch of turf.

- Okapis are ruminants i.e. they swallow their food initially and later regurgitate it for chewing and swallowing it the last time. The okapi stomach is divided into four or three compartments.
- The male Okapi has short, skin-covered horns called ossicones. The color of okapi’s body is chiefly reddish chestnut, the cheeks are yellowish white, and the fore and hind legs above the knees and the haunches are striped with purplish black and cream color.
- The Okapi is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as 'Near Threatened'. This means that Okapis may be considered threatened in the near future.

Lynx

Lynx interesting facts:
- The lynx is a lone cat that lives in the remote northern forests of North America, Europe, and Asia.
- A lynx is about the size of a small to medium sized dog. It weighs about 11 - 45 pounds.
- A 30 pound lynx has bigger feet than a 200 pound mountain lion.  Their big feet act like snowshoes, allowing them to hunt effectively even in deep snow.

- Lynx are covered with beautiful thick fur that keeps them warm during frigid winters. Lynx tufts of fur on their ears and huge feet. They have fluffy gray fur and very short tails.
- All lynx are skilled hunters that make use of great hearing (the tufts on their ears are a hearing aid) and eyesight so strong that a lynx can spot a mouse 250 feet (75 meters) away.
- There are several species of lynx. Few survive in Europe but those that do, like their Asian relatives, are typically larger than their North American counterpart, the Canada lynx.

- Lynx are very vocal.  They can make an amazing variety of chattering, hissing and yowling sounds.
- Lynx mate in early spring or late winter. About two months later, females give birth to a litter of one to four young.
- Lynx are large stealthy cats and they tend to avoid humans by hunting at night, so they are rarely seen.

- Lynx live primarily in the snowy and cold parts of the far north. They like cold wilderness areas far away from people.
- Lynx populations rise and fall in sync with the population cycles of their pray, especially the snowshoe hares. When hares are abundant, more lynx survive to reproduce and their numbers increase. When hare populations crash, about every 10 years, many lynx die of starvation.
- Lynx large paws are also furry and hit the ground with a spreading toe motion that makes them function as natural snowshoes.

- Humans sometimes hunt lynx for their beautiful fur. One endangered population, the Iberian lynx, struggles to survive in the mountains of Spain, far from the cold northern forests where most lynx live.
- The female lynx will nurse the kits for five months, although some meat is eaten as early as one month. The male does not participate in parental care.
- Although females continue to breed and reproduce they usually have difficulty supporting both themselves and their young on a reduced food supply resulting in fewer kits surviving.

- There are four lynx species: Eurasian Lynx, Canadian Lynx, Iberian Lynx and Bobcat. Eurasian Lynx are the largest species of their genus and are found all across northern Europe and Asia. Iberian Lynx are present in Spain and are amongst the most endangered of all wild cats.
- The lynx lives of maximum 12-13 years thought few survive to such age.
- The word Lynx is derived from the Greek word meaning 'to shine' and is a reference to the cat's bright eyes.

- Despite being solitary by nature, some lynx cats (particularly females) have been observed hunting cooperatively.
- Historical persecution for fur trade has meant that all the beautiful lynx cats have suffered heavily at the hands of man everywhere.
- Today hunting of lynx is prohibited in most of their natural habitats and there are signs of recovery in numbers of some of the lynx species.

White rhino - endangered animal

The rhino is called “The Africa's Big Five”. The white rhino is the largest of the remaining 5 species of rhinoceros. Those species are divided into the southern and northern white rhinos. It was thought the northern rhino was extinct in the wild due to poaching, and only a handful remain in captivity.

Although some research shows the southern wild population numbers around 11,000, the IUCN red list shows over 17,000. At any rate, even though the white rhino has the largest numbers of any of the rhino species, it still is endangered and needs our help. (On a side note-the IUCN recently took the Asian greater one horned rhino of the endangered red list, but I along with others feel it is still needs the protection given by that status)

There are over 700 white rhinos in captivity world wide. The rhino is one of the few larger animals that can be introduced into the wild. Meaning a captive born white or black rhino could make its way to Africa. Recently in October 2008, a white rhino was born via artificial insemination at the Budapest Zoo.

Even with protection they can still be legally trophy hunted in areas of South Africa. This is very counter productive with all the time and money going into increasing their numbers. They can also be green hunted in which a tranquillizer gun is used to and the hunter gets a picture next to their "kill." These are less expensive, but not as popular as a regular hunt. The rhino horn is still found on the billion dollar animal black market which is driven mostly by China and the US.

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