14 Animals That Are the Last of Their Kind,

when we talk about endangered species the popular ones that come to mind are polar bears white tigers snow leopards and pandas Sadly the list goes way beyond that and there are some species that seem like they'll last a long time but are actually under threat some are on their way out due to natural selection but most of them are being forced out by human actions such as hunting or Poaching and destruction of their habitat here are 14 animals that you'll be surprised to know are probably the last of their kind.

1. The pinto island tortoise.

lonesome George was seemingly the last of his kind a subspecies of giant tortoises in the Galapagos when he died so did the species or so we thought Galapagos tortoises were frequently kept on ships for food but sometimes dumped off when no longer needed Isabella island was a popular dumping ground for tortoises across the various subspecies an expedition there in 2007 revealed eight young tortoises that might be first generation hybrids of pinto island tortoises amongst the 2000 living there about 17 hybrids of the pinto island tortoise have been found hopefully more expeditions will reveal the parents of those hybrid reptiles too 

 2. Brazilian six's macaw.

 these are still alive today but only in captivity there have been some reports of sightings of these colorful birds but they're very few and sometimes the wrong species they are declining due to the loss of their home the Caribe tree there have been attempts in the past to set up nature preserves near their original nesting sites but it can't happen fast enough meanwhile around 100 of them exist in zoos and other preserves and there may be a few more kept as pets any attempt to breed them fails because many of these birds are closely related and inbreeding leads to viable offspring.

3. Amur leopard. 

people usually think of leopards as natives of the savannas of Africa but in some regions of Russia and china a rare subspecies has adapted to life in the temperate forests however they are barely holding on in a decade they managed to grow their population in the wild from 2 dozen to 100 but that number was promptly brought down to 84 in 2019 plus about 170 still in captivity several hazards threatening the future poaching deforestation inbreeding and industrial encroachment however efforts to save them have made some progress they have also been successfully bred in captivity but any eventual reintroduction to the wild poses problems for predators on use to life in the wild they remain the largest big cat species in the world.

4.White rhino.

historically the primary factor for the decline of this subspecies has been uncontrolled hunting in the colonial era but the threat continues the white rhino horn is highly prized in traditional Asian medicine it is ground into a fine powder made into tablets to treat strokes and fevers what's worse is that they can't even put up a fight because they're generally unaggressive and have very poor eyesight in 2019 only two females of the subspecies were left and the last remaining male died scientists may take a Jurassic park approach to bring the subspecies back while all male rhinos may be dead their genetic material is still preserved in labs essentially the dank samples that remain of the rhino are genetically varied enough that it could eventually create a stable breeding population touring bring the subspecies back from the brink however it would likely breed in captivity while their natural habitat outside either change or disappears.

5. Black rhino.

 

it may be a surprise but just like the white rhino the black rhino is also under threat of extinction populations of black rhino declined

dramatically in the 20th century thanks to poaching in just 60 years their population dropped by a whopping 96 percent most recently the western black rhino was declared extinct in 2011 only one subspecies the southwestern black rhinoceros manages to hold on quite well only thanks to the tremendous conservation efforts in Africa though they have made a remarkable comeback they are still considered critically endangered because poaching and black market trafficking persist even today.

6. Javen rhino.

while rhinos are more associated with the African continent there are some Asian species in the rhino family they are smaller than their other 5 feet tall its cousin the Indian rhino could be faring better but it is outright thriving compared to the job in rhino they are confined to the island of java after hunting and deforestation drove it away from the rest of southeast Asia the Vietnam war also severely drove down its population as its natural habitat was destroyed today only 72 java rhinos survive in a wildlife preserve at the western tip of the island diseases and inbreeding continue to put the species at risk and might even drive them to extinction a few remaining populations outside java have been spotted over the years but they are few and too far between and one of those populations was driven to extinction in 2010 meaning there are even fewer options to introduce new rhinos to the breeding stock

7.Tapanuli orangutan.

orangutans are the only Asian great ape and are slightly more related to us than any of our other cousins all three species of orangutans the Sumatran the borne an and the recently discovered tarpaulin are critically endangered with around 60000 surviving across all three species the tarpaulin is perhaps the most endangered estimated to only have about 800 individuals surviving in the wild the Sumatra which lives near the tarpaulin but is only distantly related only has around 6 600 individuals remaining the borne an orangutan which is closely related to the tarpaulin has a more robust population there are ongoing efforts to save our intelligent cousin species but poaching and deforestation stand largely in the way.

8.Malayan tiger.

as the name suggests they are most popular in Malaysia and a small part of Thailand there are only about 300 to 340 Malayan tigers left and they are a subspecies of the indo-Chinese tiger which aren't doing well either they continue to be poached for traditional Medicine and its habitat is also being destroyed for development while there is a captive population of the Malayan tigers and some zoos in reserves all 54 are descended from just 11 tigers making them too closely related to sustain a wild population not much is known about the behavior of the tigers this makes conservation efforts that much harder meaning the Malayan tiger could remain in permanent danger.

9.Red-crowned roof turtle.

it's heartbreaking to see something this uniquely beautiful on the brink of extinction historically they were found in Nepal Bangladesh Burma and northeast India but it has suffered a significant decline over the years red crown roof turtles are often harvested for their meat and shells drowned in fishing nets and have had their habitat destroyed by pollution and irregular water flow from dams today they can now be found in just one river in India the chamber fewer than 400 adult females are left here and the species is classified as critically endangered India has put conservation measures in place and a captive breeding program has been initiated.

10. Colas.

often called the Asian unicorn we know little of this animal despite having discovered it 20 years ago and they are already critically endangered none exist in captivity because despite being closely related to livestock animals colas do not deal with confinement very well and survive for barely a few months in those conditions they mostly avoid humans but humans are creeping on its strip of habitat through the animate range of mountains for the most part they are solitary creatures meaning that if it gets cut off from its range an individual may not have the chance to breed with other seals the actual size of the remaining population is still unknown its rarity and vulnerability make it a top priority for conservation in the Region the current numbers are estimated at a few hundred at maximum and a few dozen a minimum while humans gather more information about the sale we may be reckoning with watching a species disappeared before we even had the chance to understand it.

   11. Marquita.

found in the gulf of California the place is home to some of the rarest aquatic life on the planet the vacuity is a small porpoise whose the population is in drastic decline. There were 600 of them alive in 1997. Today only 12 remain these porpoises are shorter than humans and get caught in fishing nets quite easily the practice of gill netting for larger fish has swept over the vacuity population leaving only those dozen remaining members of the species the Marquita doesn't handle captivity well in fact one female died within Hours of capture means that the remaining population could be gone soon, becoming one of the few cetaceans to go extinct in our lifetime next to the Baoji, a species of freshwater dolphin once found in china.

 12. Vancouver island marmot.

native to the southwestern Canadian island marmots live in small colonies consisting of three to five animals they're prime examples of how small animals can contribute to building ecosystems while the marmots spend much of their time burrowing underground to stave off predators they also act as seed dispersers and pollinators for the island's plants and grasses their complex burrow systems are used by other animals as well providing homes to insects and smaller mammals so it's clear to see how they help environment unfortunately their burrows are terrible as defense mechanisms Vancouver island marmots are terribly easy to prey upon although the populations are hard to detect estimates suggest that only 90 adult marmots survive today add in long-term environmental pressures thanks to climate change which threatens to reshape British Columbia .

13. Pica.

if you're wondering yes Pikachu from Pokémon is loosely inspired by the pica but the cartoon lacks some of the more badass quality of the real animal the pica is a small mammal of just 7 or 8 inches and native to the Tangshan mountain range in china they are cute and just about the size of your fist so it's easy to underestimate them but by using a particular type of telepathy picas can actually summon a large group within moments when threatened and can join up in numbers above 100 to fight off a predator sadly this hasn't helped keep them safe entirely there are only about a thousand of them left major threats to them include climate change livestock grazing and human disturbance global warming by far is the gravest threat to the long-term survival of the picas an increase in average air temperatures and the frequency of high temperature events can cause pica mortality from overheating in addition projected increases in temperatures increased droughts and floods and reduced snow all significantly alter the composition of vegetation in their natural alpine habitat this forces the peaks to retreat further upwards into the mountaintops.

14. Addicts.

the addicts also called the white antelope was once an abundance in sub-Saharan Africa but has now been reduced to a single population in the desert in Niger in 2008 the china national petroleum corporation was given oil exploration in the middle of their last remaining territory needless to say it brought in a lot of disturbances the addicts is as close to extinction in the wild as possible and is classified as critically endangered in 2012 Niger fought back and established the tournament and intima national nature reserves to protect whatever remained of the species but poachers continue to be an active threat estimates put the addict's current numbers at just three in the wild while hunting and removal of live addicts were made illegal in Niger the animals faced disturbances from the oil installations too in addition to that soldiers guarding the oil wells also had been hunting and poaching the attics while extinction in the wild is imminent for this species zoos have a large population of addicts there are more than 2 000 addicts on private ranches in an American and European zoos so it may be possible to reintroduce them to their native areas and grow the population and those are the 14 animals who are perhaps the last of their kind.