The extinction threat is closer than we think, like what we mentioned before in one of our articles. Some animals are facing their extinction nowadays because of human activities. Deforestation and carbon emitting activities done by us every day is both intentionally and unintentionally causing it.
Indeed, we are to blame for this, and we should take responsibility for what we’ve done to the nature. Stop doing the bad thing is a good way to prevent further injuries on earth, but that’s not enough to heal it as good as before.
However, not only diminishing the population of animals on earth, actually we have also done some contribution for saving several kinds of animals from extinction. In recent years there are at least 5 animals which could strike back from the extinction threat, thanks to our help.
Here is the list of 5 animals that we have saved from extinction threat.
1. Golden Lion Tamarin
Golden lion tamarin is a small monkey originated from Atlantic coastal forests in Brazil. The color of its hair is bright reddish orange with goldish accent, thus the name. There are four species of lion tamarin, and golden lion tamarin is considered to be the most beautiful of all four. Not only their appearance, this monkey is also unique in its behaviors.
This monkey has specific diets depends on the time of the day. In the morning, they usually forage for fruits, while when the sun goes high, they look for insects for food. This is unusual because usually animals eat anything they find without preferring one to another.
While in the night, they sleep in new dens. Yes, they are constantly moving from one den to another. This nomadic behavior is to get rid of their specific smell that may linger in the dens. By doing that, they can avoid predators that depend on their smelling abilities.
It has very limited distribution range, and deforestation in Brazil and poaching are the cause of their extinction threat. This animal was once considered critically endangered, making animal conservationists groups all around the world opted for an action to conserve this animal.
And the action actually worked out! The population of this animal has been increasing for this recent decade, reaching more than 3 thousand from just a few hundred left. In 2025, it is predicted that the population of golden lion tamarin would be doubled. As a note, that would only happen if we keep up the good work.
2. Steller Sea Lion
Also known as northern sea lion, Steller sea lion is a species of sea lion living in wide range of Alaska. Because of the wide range, their habitats often intersect with human. And as human nature, they will hunt any animal that they find might be useful.
Indeed, for centuries, this animal has been hunted for its meat and other commodities. Their meat is a good source of nutrients for human and their skin is useful for many purposes such as clothing, covers for kayaks, and baidarkas.
Although this animal is hunted for many purposes, but people didn’t think of it as an ‘expensive’ animal back then. In 19th century, the whiskers of this animal were cheaply sold as low as one penny apiece for tobacco-pipe cleaner.
Until modern days, this animal were massively hunted, making the population of Steller sea lions were dwindling. However, since 1997, this animal has been categorized as an endangered animal and listed under Endangered Species Act.
That decision worked, and since then Steller sea lion population were recovering. Nowadays, this animal is no longer listed as an endangered animal, but moving to ‘not threatened’.
3. Grey Whale
Once reached over 100 thousand individuals, the grey whale population had been declining since then. Global whaling and other harmful fishing activities that human did had been responsible for the decline of the species.
Once categorized as a critically endangered animal, this cetacean made a huge comeback from the brink of extinction. The whale did something unusual to prevent their extinction, rebuilding their population in their ancient breeding grounds that have not been used for centuries.
Strict global control of whaling also helped their population to grow. Nowadays, the population of grey whale has reached over 20 thousand individuals and changing their classification from once ‘critically endangered’ to ‘least concerned’. Good news for us!
4. Southern White Rhinoceros
There are two kinds of white rhinoceros, the southern and northern ones. Both are living in the Africa, and once both of the animals were considered as endangered animals. However, as time went by, the fate has chosen two different paths for their future.
Northern white rhino is now just waiting time for going extinct, even there is only ONE male northern white rhinoceros left on earth. We talked about it in one of our articles about loneliest animals on earth. Not only that, the only male northern white rhinoceros can no longer breed, because he is too old.
But different from the northern counterpart, the fate is going pretty well with southern white rhinoceros. After being classified as threatened animal decades ago, a good help from conservationist has successfully increased their population in the wild. And now they are classified as ‘only’ near threatened.
Nowadays, there are about 20,000 wild southern white rhinoceros in Africa, making them as the most abundant species of rhino in the world. However, poaching and habitat loss is still threatening them. That’s why we still need to protect this animal to avoid further decline that would negate the good news.
5. Przewalski Horse
This kind of horse once roamed freely along the steppe in Mongolia-China border. However, in 1966, this animal was considered as extinct in the wild. Conservationists thought that they should do an act to save this species, and they actually did.
Since the end of 1960s, conservationists started to breed this kind of short horse species in captivity. The breeding process went well and their number kept increasing since then. However, there were not enough individuals to be reintroduced to the wild.
But entering the 3rd millennium, conservationists considered to reintroduce it back to the nature, exactly in the Chernobyl Exclusion zone and Mongolian steppe to avoid human contact. Now, there are about 300 Przewalski horses in the wild and more than 1000 more still in captivity, waiting to be reintroduced soon.
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