Rare and endangered species of animals and plants

Humanity is constantly evolving, new technologies and enterprises are appearing, cities are being rebuilt. Against this background, endangered species of animals and plants appear more and more. Nature is trying to compete with us and defend its place under the sun, but so far people are winning.

Red Book

The most complete data on the state of affairs in the world of flora and fauna are listed in the Red Book, which has been published since 1963. The book itself is not a legal document, but if any animal or plant falls into it, then automatically they are protected.

The book has multi-colored pages:

The black	These pages contain information about extinct species.
Red	Disappearing or very rare
Yellow	If the species is rapidly shrinking
White	Species that have always been very few on the planet
Grey	Those animals and plants that are in remote places of the earth and little studied
Green	Representatives of flora and fauna, which managed to be protected from complete extinction

If the situation with a particular species changes, then it is transferred to another page. Therefore, I want to believe that in the near future the whole book will consist of green pages.

Current situation

Some scientists are sounding the alarm, endangered species of animals are increasing almost exponentially, and we can already talk about the beginning of the sixth mass extinction of species on the planet. Such periods have already existed on Earth, and they are characterized by the loss of more than ¾ of all species in a fairly short geological period of time. Only in 540 million years has this happened 5 times.

According to conservative estimates, about 40% of all living things and plants on the planet are at risk. In the future, if conservation measures fail, the extinction of species will be in the millions.

Examples of endangered animals

The first on the list of endangered animals is the chimpanzee. The situation has worsened over the past 30 years when deforestation began. Poachers hunt for cubs, and the animals themselves are highly susceptible to human diseases.

The Amur tiger has been at risk since the 30s of the last century. According to some reports, at that time only about 40 individuals remained. However, systematic conservation measures allowed to increase the population to 530 individuals.

The third on the list is the African elephant. The disappearance of the species is primarily associated with the pursuit of man after ivory. As of 1970, there were about 400 thousand elephants in the world, and already in 2006 - only 10 thousand.

Galapagos Sea Lion is a resident of the Galapagos Islands and Isla de La Plata. Today there are no more than 20 thousand individuals.

The western gorilla population is generally at a critical point. For some 20 years, from 1992 to 2012, the number of animals decreased by 45%.

Another endangered animal species is Grevy's zebra. To date, no more than 2.5 thousand individuals remain in the world. Only the efforts of the Kenyan government managed to save these animals.

Orangutan - the animal population is at a critical point, the same with Sumatran and Borean subspecies. According to the most conservative estimates, depending on the subspecies, from 50% to 80% of individuals have disappeared over the past 60 years.

The number of black, Sumatran and Javanese rhinos is at a critical level. Poaching does not stop due to the high price of the horns of these animals, Chinese medicine uses them as an aphrodisiac.

Endangered Sifaka (Lemur) and Rothschild Giraffe. There are very few large pandas left; they can still be found in the wild in the mountains of central China. According to recent estimates, there are no more than 1.6 thousand of them left.

A hyena-like dog is represented by no more than 5 thousand animals, and this is not more than 100 schools. To this day, they are uncontrollably shot and "taken away" from their usual habitat.

Grizzlies have completely disappeared in Mexico, in Canada and the USA their number is at a critical level. The bulk of the representatives of this species lives in Yellowstone National Park.

Vulnerable species

Endangered species of animals listed in the Red Book, located in the category - “vulnerable”:

hippopotamus;
King Cobra;
collar sloth;
African lion
chest of drawers monitor lizard;
Magellanic Penguin;
polar bear;
humpback whale;
koala;
whale shark;
Galapagos tortoise;
cheetah.

It is clear that this is an incomplete list, but even this amount already confirms the catastrophic situation.

Endangered vegetation

The top ten rare and endangered species of plants and animals are represented by the following representatives of the flora:

Western steppe orchid	This is a wetland plant, which today has no more than 172 varieties.
Rafflesia	This flower has no roots, but it is the largest on the whole planet, it has a sharp and unpleasant odor. The weight of the plant can reach 13 kilograms, and the diameter of the flower is 70 centimeters. Grows on Borneo.
Astra Georgia	They grow mainly in the southeastern United States, and no more than 57 representatives of the species remain.
Akalifa Viginsi	Grows in the Galapagosse and needs urgent protection, as it is on the verge of extinction
Texas wild rice	This plant was previously grown in Texas, but due to a drop in water level to a critical level, it is now on the verge of extinction.
Zelaipodium Howelli	On the planet, there are about 5 thousand copies, according to scientists, in 7 years there will not be a single copy
Stenogin Kanejoana	For a long time it was believed that this plant was no longer on the planet, but at the beginning of the century 1 instance was discovered, and now it is bred and protected in the park of Oahu
Mountain Golden Washito	There are no more than 130 plants
Enrubio	As of 1995, no more than 150 species remained in Puerto Rico, where this shrub grows.
Arizona Agave	Already in 1864, botanists sounded the alarm, at that time there were about 100 copies left. To date, even two subspecies have been preserved that grow in Arizona National Park.

Every day the environmental situation in the world only worsens, and even the most familiar plants can get on the pages of the Red Book if people do not change the situation in the near future.

The Red Book of Russia

The first edition of the security book appeared in 1978. In that year, the International Assembly for the Conservation of Nature was held on the territory of the USSR (Ashgabat). The two-part edition was: Red List of Endangered Species:

animals;
plants.

The second edition appeared only in 1984, but it was already more voluminous, including fish and invertebrate representatives of the fauna.

In general, the following categories are distinguished:

0	Probably disappeared. That is, species that have not been seen over the past 50 years, if we are talking about Vertebrates, then over the past 100 years.
1	Endangered. The number of taxa is at a critical level.
2	Contracting. That is, species that are rapidly decreasing in quantity.
3	Rare. Living or growing in small areas.
4	Uncertain by status, that is, there is too little information about their number.
5	Recoverable, that is, taxa, in respect of which a number of measures have been taken, and quite successful.

Last Reprint

Many rare and endangered species of animals and plants have been revised; there has been much controversy surrounding the new edition. Many zoologists who really could defend their point of view were excluded from the discussion process. As a result, a number of very rare species of taxa were excluded from the list, which is about 19 species of fish and mammals. Even 23 species of animals that the commission had previously decided to introduce were not included in the book. The public is confident that “high-ranking” hunters were lobbying for this issue.

Mammals

Endangered species of the Red Book of Russia from the class of terrestrial vertebrates are divided into two classes:

first beasts;
real animals.

The list of species classified in category 1:

Caucasian European mink. The total number today does not exceed 42 thousand individuals.
Mednovsky blue arctic fox. The number does not exceed 100 individuals.
Bandaging. The number of taxa has not been established.
Leopard. The most optimistic estimates confirm the figure at the level of 52 individuals.
Snow Leopard. There are no more than 150 animals left.
Baltic subspecies of gray seal. About 5.3 thousand individuals.
High-bellied bottlenose. No more than 50 thousand individuals across the planet.
Hump, is already found only in the North Atlantic.
Sakhalin musk deer. According to some reports, no more than 400 individuals remained.
Common long-winged. On the territory of our country no more than 7 thousand.

Birds

The list of rare and endangered species of animals includes birds. These are bipedal terrestrial vertebrates, with their front legs modified (wings), with which they fly.

Despite a strong view, birds are conservative animals, even when it comes to migratory species. All birds live in certain areas, and migratory birds return in the spring to the same place where they were last year.

The last birds listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation in 2016 are:

Belladonna, no more than 1000 birds.
The black crane. In Yakutia, there are no more than 30 pairs, in Primorye about 50 pairs and in the Khabarovsk Territory - 300 families.
Japanese or Ussuri crane. In Russia there are no more than 500 birds.

Fishes

These endangered species of animals in Russia constantly live in water, breathe with gills and move with the help of fins. For a long time, all inhabitants of the water element were called fish, but over time, the classification was clarified, and some species were excluded from this category, for example, lancelet and mixins.

In 2014, the endangered species of animals were the last to be protected:

Kildin cod. A narrowly areal fish species living only in the small relict lake Mogilnoye (Murmansk region). A distinctive feature of the reservoir is three layers with different salinity of the water. On average, there are about 3 thousand individuals.
Common sculpin. Present in almost all waters of Russia, except for the Kola Peninsula. It belongs to the second category. This is a small fish, up to 12 centimeters in length. Gradually, the population decreases due to an increase in the level of pollution of all the country's waters.

Plants

Permanent and uncontrolled deforestation affects not only animals but also plants. Some species of flora have already disappeared irrevocably.

At the beginning of last year, the list of endangered species of animals and plants was replenished with the following flowering and angiosperms representatives of the flora:

Snowdrop Bortkevich	1st category	The plant prefers beech forests, with loose and neutral soil. No more than 20 thousand copies left
Narrow-leaved snowdrop	2nd category	It grows exclusively in Russia, in Kabardino-Balkaria, in the Caucasus and in the southern regions. Grows on moist soils, in forests. No more than 20 thousand copies.
Low bow	3 category	Prefers the steppes in the highlands. It is difficult enough to calculate the remaining number of copies, since onions grow in hard-to-reach places.