Care for the AnimalsAnimal Care and Protection

The great apes belong to the taxanomic family of Homindae. The original meaning of Homindae is ‘only humans and their closest relatives’ and thus it includes our closest relatives-chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutan, gorillas- and us, humans. Apes are our closest wild relatives and all members of this family share more than 97% of their DNA. Most of the chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas are found in Central Africa with exception of orangutan which is found in the Borneo and Sumantra islands of Indonesia in Asia.

Apes are not monkeys as they are more intelligent than monkeys and unlike monkeys they don’t have a tail. Apes are larger in size and depend more on their eyes than on their noses. They have larger and more developed brains that make them capable of using tools, learning and passing information and some have even been taught sign language. A very famous gorilla Koko uses about 1,000 signs for communicating.
The most fascinating thing about Apes is that they resemble humans a lot. Most of them use facial expressions and gestures that look like ours but their meaning may differ. Except for gorillas and humans, hominoids are agile climbers of trees and they mostly eat leaves, nuts, seeds and fruits, including grass seeds, and in most cases other animals, either hunted or scavenged (or farmed in the case of humans), along with anything else available and easily digested. They can be described as vegetarian or omnivorous.
The one thing that separates us humans and other hominoids is the population. We humans have grown so much in number that we have occupied the land where are relatives were to live. Most apes are rare or endangered. The chief threat to most of the endangered species is loss of tropical rainforest habitat, though some populations on the other hand, are further imperilled by hunting for bush meat.

Habitat loss, climate change, infectious disease and illegal hunting for both meat and the live pet trade have combined to push these species to the brink of extinction. The apes that are on the verge of extinction include Bonobo which is now found only in the rainforests of Central Democratic Republic of Congo. The Borneon Orangutan specie population in Indonesia is also not faring well after the 1997/98 forest fires. It is estimated that about one third population of these Orangutans was lost in this fire.
Apart from these two ape species there are other species also which under the great threat of endangerment. To name a few, the list includes Central Chimpanzee, Cross River Gorillas, Eastern Lowland Gorillas, Mountain Gorillas, Western Chimpanzee and Sumantran Orangutan.

Reference: Illustrated Encyclopedia of endangered animals.

The IUCN Red list of Threatened Species was founded in the year 1963. It aim at assessing the conservation status of species, subspecies, varieties, and even selected subpopulations on a global scale in order to highlight endangered species or taxa threatened with extinction, so that their conservation can be promoted. The IUCN Red List works all around the globe to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies and to help increase the number of species that are listed as endangered species.

The IUCN Red List maintains a database known as Species Information Service, in which information about the status of all species across an increasing number of taxonomic groups is stored. It has distributed the species according to their status under a number of categories, namely extinct, extinct in wild, critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, near threatened, least concern, data deficient and not evaluated. All the species under each and every category is re-evaluated for their status every five or six years.
The Red Data Book has enlisted 5566 species as endangered from animalia, fungi, plantae and protista taxanomy found in terrestrial, freshwater or marine biomies.
The list contains data about 3036 endangered animal species. According to recent stats there are only 85 Asian Lion surviving in captivity in the Indian Gir Forest whereas once this ferocious animal could be found in Southeast Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and India. Same is the case with the Black Footed Ferret which is surviving only in few places of Western United States. Chimpanzees because of their intelligence have been used for various experiments by the scientific researchers and they are highly demanded in zoos. This has led to a significant decline in their population.
If we talk about marine animals the situation is worst. Human activities have put the world ocean and the animals that inhabit them in trouble. The ever growing population has increased the demand for food which has led to over hunting and over fishing of marine animals to extinction. Whales, Dolphins, Turtles, Fish species, Porpoises and Seals are under great danger of extinction
Plant species are at great risk too. About 2528 plant species have been identified as endangered by the Red Data Book. To name a few endangered plants the first that tops the list is the Bois Dentelle. There are only two Bois Dentelle trees that exist located in the cloud forest of Mauritius. Another increasingly endangered tree is the Baobob tree found only in the equatorial Africa and India. Due to habitat destruction, the baseball plant once considered to be a popular house plant is now virtually extinct.