Big eyes, Small Chance

One of the smallest animals, that has begun to go extinct is an animal in the remote part of Indonesia, the Spectral Tarsier. This little creature is a monkey like animal with big eyes and very sticky hands that give it the skill to climb tall trees and that way get its food. The tarsier had eyeballs that can be as big as 16 mm in diameter which make them as big as their brains. It is the only primate that has been classified as a carnivore. It likes to eat birds, snakes, lizards and insects which it gets from the tops of the trees and eats with small fangs.  Its fur in short and gray color, the tarsier uses its claws to brush it regularly making it a very clean animal.

The tarsier is animal who mates very little due to the fact that it is very primate and likes to be alone. When it does mate the tarsier can have one offspring, which learns how to climb after being a day old. Like many in the wild, the animal is going extinct due to human contamination and destruction of its habitat. The tarsier’s food supplies have decreased over the last few years which has decrease its population. The small animal is being helped by the IUCN/SCC Primate Specialist Group which is an organization that specializes on saving primates worldwide. Poor animals, those that have to endure the effects of human activity in the world. Pollution is an effect that is created by all people and if not stopped in time the rest of the animals will begin to disappear.

Crane Outbreak

            One of the many animals that faces extinction is the Hooded Crane. The Crane is a bird that is found in the Southeastern part of Russia and the Northern areas of China. The hooded crane can grow up to be about three feet tall and weigh around 8 lbs. The male and female cranes have unfeathered heads that are red and black, with white necks and rest of the body black. The male and female crane usually mate after what is called a unison calling, which is when both male and female birds give out coordinated calls to each other. Once the cranes have mated, the female can produce two eggs. The nests are made out of moss and leaves and are mostly located in forested wetlands. The first hooded crane nest was not found until 1974, which shows how isolated the nests are built from human society.

            The hooded crane’s biggest threat is the lost of winter grounds. During the winters the hooded crane migrates from China to the Japanese island of Kyushu. The grounds in which they flock during the winter have been taken over by human buildings and agricultural farms. The crane flocks are now more vulnerable to disease outbreaks due to the fact that many flocks are forced to share the same area with other migrating crane flocks. An outbreak can cause half of the hooded crane population to die. The International Crane Foundation (ICF) is an organization in Japan that is in charge of protecting all types of cranes that migrate to Japan during the winter. The ICF is now trying to pass a law that will help preserve winter grounds and create more of them in Asia so that all cranes migrate and breed without any danger.

God of the Air

           The Resplendent Quetzal is one of the most vivid animals in the wild. The quetzal is a bird that is native to both the southern part of Mexico and western Mexico. The bird is so alluring due to its colorful feathers and elongated tail.  Its body is green with bright red breast and a tail that can grow to be 25 inches in length. The males have longer tails than the female quetzal and have yellow beaks, the females have black ones. The diet of this great animal consists of mostly fruits and a few insects but if they are lucky to find they will also eat small frogs, which they can swallow whole.

            The reproduction of this animal is decreasing due to tree lost which it uses to nest its eggs. The male and female quetzals don’t live together until mating season which is around March to April. The couple will have from one to two eggs per season and each one will take turns incubating them. The male will take care of the eggs during the day and the female will during the night. The incubation period last for 18 days and once the birds hatch both parents will take care of them until they are grown. Another thing that makes The Resplendent Quetzal so great, is that in both Mayan and Aztec civilization, this animal was believe to be the god of the air. During this period it was a crime to kill a quetzal so in order to get its feather it was simply captured, its feathers plucked and then set free. Deforestation has caused this animal to become vulnerable to extinction. If forest aren’t preserved the world will lose, what once was considered to be a God to humans

Growing Oryx

The Arabian Oryx is one of the endangered animals in the Middle East. The animal is a type antelope and is smaller than the regular ones. It was believed to be extinct in the 1970’s but was reintroduced into the wild in 1980. The animal had almost gone extinct because people hunted them for their skin, their meat and most importantly their horns which were used for many things. Their diet consists of plants such as grass and roots, and they can even eat tree bark. One thing that makes this animal unique is the different abilities with water that it has. The Oryx can go weeks without water and when it’s finally thirsty it becomes a weather person, it can detect rainfall from miles away and move towards it. Herds of this animal can be between two and ten animals, they all live peacefully unless one tries to gain power over the herd in which two Oryx will fight till death.

The Arabian Oryx is now trying to recover and so far they are doing well. It’s one of few animals that might be able to get off the world’s endangered list in the near future as long as humans keep helping in in preserving it and not killing them anymore. The Phoenix Zoo in London, with the help of the World Wildlife Fund are making sure that the Oryx population keeps on growing in zoos and in the wild. Hopefully the animals can soon return to a stable population and be alive for many years to come so that future generations can see it in the wild.

No wood for Woodpecker

The Kaempfer’s Woodpecker is one of many animals that have not been seen in the longest due to near extinction. The animal is one Brazil’s lost species due to deforestation, which is due to human use of lumber. The woodpecker was recently rediscovered after eighty years so very little is known about its life. Birdlife International has classified it under critical endangered which means that in a couple of years it will no longer exist. The woodpecker is around 9.5 inches in size with black feathers and a red colored head, so the look of this animal is what makes it very amazing to spot in the wild. It is mostly attracted to the bamboo trees that are located in the forest of Cerrado, Brazil which is the biggest savanna in the world. No government law is protecting the habitat of this animal which shows how humans have no care for the homes of these animals. I would hate that in the future the world has become no more than an empty desert with no life only because humans’ where too greedy to see the damaged that they caused to all life around them. The Kaempfer’s Woodpecker is an example of the many animals that are suffering the causes of humans’ consumption of natural resources. So I ask you what human will you be the one who puts more and more animals in the endangerment list or the human that will help to remove them from it?

Chinchilla Coat

The long tailed chinchilla has been one of the most hunted animals in the world. Humans with their greedy minds have coveted the chinchilla’s fur, which is one of the best quality and softest furs in the planet. The chinchilla is in critical endangerment because people have killed so many just so that they can get their fur and sell it to people who use it for clothing. The Chinchilla can be found in the countries of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and some parts of Peru. During 1953 the chinchilla was thought to be extinct but was rediscovered in 1975. It’s a herbivore so it eats only plants which makes it easy to adapt to mostly any habitat. The female can reproduce once a year around the months of May through November, and a couple can have from 1-2 offspring at a time.

 Between 1840 and 1916 about 21 million chinchillas were killed so that their pelts could be traded to different parts of the world. How can humans be so selfish to be willing to take another animals’ skin so they can cover their own skin? Why can’t they just use fake fur and spare a poor animals life? It is because again human’s selfish needs have blinded them from seeing what they are doing to other forms of life. They are using the animals’ fur so they can make what they call “Fashion” when in reality fashion is for the selfish beings who care for material things without a care of things around them.  Ask yourself the question if an animal is worth creating clothing for a human? So next time you buy something that looks like fur make sure its fake because if it’s not you are wearing an animal making you a killer.

Owl Becoming Dodo

Have you ever wonder what other kinds of animals there are compared to the ones that you see in the zoo? Well there will be one less animal you will never get to see because it is close to extinction. The animal I’m talking about is the Pernambuco Pygmy Owl. The owl is classified in Critical endangerment by Birdlife International, due to immense habitat lost. The owl can be found in the forest of Pernambuco, Brazil, and its population has been estimated to be less than fifty and still decreasing. Very little is known about the owl because of little research and with the fact that the species was just discovered in 2002.

The owl is covered in gray feathers with white spots and has a voice of 5 to 6 notes and repeats it every 5 seconds. The owl has been recorded to eat cicada, which is an insect. The Pygmy Owl is mostly vocal during the rainy seasons which are the months of April and May. People today care more about what they can use the natural resources of the forests’ that they don’t pay attention to the different forms of life they are hurting. I feel sorry that an animal such as the Pygmy Owl cannot do anything about its home because it has no way to battle humans. Humans need a reality check so they can see that the world is not just theirs, the only reason they can do what they can is because they are abundant when it comes to population, that doesn’t give them the right to take what they want from the planet. How would they like it if something else would start to destroy important cities? So This Pygmy owl is a victim of human selfishness and is close to extinction, soon it will become another “dodo” (Flyless bird that went extinct in 1681 because of Human Hunting.)

Green Turtle Soup

The Green Turtle is one of the most endangered sea animals in the entire world. The turtle is one of seven kinds of turtles that are left in the sea and are endangered due to human interference with both their habitats and their lives. The Green Sea Turtle it was given that name because it is said that they have a layer of green fat under their shell also known as their carapace. The turtle travels all around the world and can be found in the: Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. It life first begins in a beach where its mother has nested and put between 100 and 200 eggs in one nest. After 40 to 56 days, the baby green sea turtle moves from the underground nest up to the beach’s surface, where it will try to survive until it can make it into the water. Many of the babies never make it to the water due to predators in the wild such as crabs and seagulls, but the ones that make it spend the next five years of their life in the water getting bigger and bigger, some up to 5 ft. and with a weight of 661 lbs.

The green sea turtle will spend its life in coastal waters eating mostly sea grass. Both the female and male sea turtle will start to mate once they have reaches maturity, which is around 20 years of life. The female will mate every two to four years once it matures, while the male turtle will mate every year. The female turtle will return to the beach that it hatched from to lay her eggs. The green turtle has been endangered for many years due to humans both harming the animal and its habitat. Pollution and tourism have been the major cause of nesting ground lost. Tourist that go to beaches to relax in the sun have made it impossible for sea turtle to breed, while pollution has started causing health problem for turtles such as tumors and babies being born with deformations. Humans have also started to eat the animal’s eggs which are a delicacy in some parts of the world and the main ingredient for turtle soup. Sailors’ nets have also become a problem for turtles due to the fact that they are getting caught in the nets and then drowning. Many countries have started laws to help preserve green sea turtles, but humans are still killing them. Humans’ selfish actions are destroying one of the sea’s oldest creatures, the green sea turtle, which can live up to eighty years. If humans could: clean the earth’s water, not kill turtles as food and not invade its habit, the green sea turtle could live and finally get off the world’s endangerment list.

Kangaroos on Trees

The Tree Kangaroo is an animal that has been in the endangered species list for many years. It is an animal that can be found in the rain forests of New Guinea, it was originally in the endangered list due to it being hunted by the people of nearby towns around its habitat, but now it is losing its home because humans keep on taking down trees for their own personal use. The trees are needed because the animal uses them to get around the forest, unlike its relative the regular kangaroo, the tree kangaroo climbs trees and run along the tree’s branches. The animal enjoys eating leaves, fruits and other plants, it lives alone and only joins others when it is ready to mate, which will result in one Joey per couple. So the level of reproduction among the population is very low. A baby tree kangaroo lives in its mother’s pouch for 10 to 12 months before it can be on its own. In many cases, the mothers are killed by humans or because of lack of food in its habitat that the baby is left defenseless and ends up dying days later. Humans are not giving these amazing animals any chance to reproduce and expand their population, whether it is direct or indirect disruptions.

The Tree Kangaroo uses its claws to climb up on trees and when it needs to escape, the kangaroo can jump down from trees that are about 60 feet tall or taller without killing or injuring itself. They can do this, due to the muscles in their feet that give them this extreme jumping ability. The way that the tree kangaroo moves in its habitat is really extraordinary because almost everyone would think that a kangaroo is meant for land and not trees. I am a person that has never heard or even seen a tree kangaroo is a zoo and hope that the animal doesn’t become extinct, so that one day all humans can see them more frequently in zoos and the wild. A way that people can help with the survival of this animal is by recycling and not wasting paper, just because we think he have a lot and it will never end doesn't mean we are not harming other forms of life. Paper comes from trees which come from forests, and end up being removed from the homes of animals such as the Tree Kangaroo. So the next time you decide to waste paper think of the tree kangaroo and how it might soon be extinct.