Endangered spieces

The Elephant

The elephant is largest land living mammal, which a long time ago they roamed every landmass except Australia and Antarctica. Two extant species, the Indian elephant, of India and Southeast Asia, and the African elephant, ranging south of the Sahara, are now limited to tropical forests, savannas, deserts, and river valleys. The Indian elephant reaches heights of 10 ft tall and the African elephant, 13 ft tall.

The boneless, muscular trunk, is the most distinctive feature of elephants, is aactually a greatly elongated upper lip and nose used to convey grasses, leaves, and water to the mouth. Present-day elephants consume as much as 495 pounds of forage a day in this manner and drink as much as 50 gallons of water, drawing it through their nostrils and squirting it into the mouth. The trunk is also used to trumpet calls, pull down trees, rip off foliage, and draw up dust for dust bathing. It is also a highly sensitive oorgan, which the animals raise into the air to detect wind-borne scents. By means of fingerlike lobes on the end of the trunk and by the sucking action of the two nostrils, elephants can pick up and examine small objects. <

The tusks, which are deeply embedded in the skull, are actually enormously enlarged incisors. Record tusks of the male African elephant have measured 10.5 ft long. Elephants have only four molar or grinding teeth, one to each side of the upper and lower jaws; each is a massive plate about about 12 inches long and 4 inches wide. When worn down by the coarse vegetation that elephants eat, these teeth are replaced by larger ones that shift forward from the rear of the jaws. At about 40 years of age, the animal’s fina and largest molars come into position and last for about 20 years. Elephants’ longevity is comparable to that of humans.

The African elephant can be quickly distinguished ffrom the Indian elephant by its greater size and its larger ears, which may reach a length of about 5 ft from top to bottom. The African elephant is tallest at the shoulder, has more wrinkled skin, and bears tusks in both male and female. The Indian elephant is tallest at the arch of the back, bears tusks in the male only, and has one lobe instead of two on its trunk.

Despite their great weight, which in African elephants rreaches 15,400 pounds and in Indian elephants reaches 11,000 pounds, elephants walk almost noiselessly and with exceptional grace, their columnar legs keeping their bulk moving forward in smooth, rhythmic strides. A thick cushion of resilient tissue grows on the base of the foot, absorbing the shock of the weight and enabling the animal to walk high on its hooflike toes. Elephants normally walk about about 4 mph and can charge at up to 25 mph.

The great ears of the African elephant are probably used for ventilation and visual communication as well as for hearing. The eyesight is poor, the eyes being comparatively small and fixed on the animal’s large and relatively immobile head. The most sensitive organ is the trunk, which is frequently at work, picking up scents of food and danger from the ground and the air. Observers first noted in the 1980s that elephants produce, with their nasal passages, rumbling sounds below the range of human hearing. Because such sounds travel well and because elephant hearing is better at low frequencies, the animals very likely use these sounds to communicate with one another over longdistances.

Elephants are gregarious and keenly sensitive to one another’s calls and movements. TThey associate in herds of 15 to 30 or more usually related members led by an old female, called a matriarch. Herds of Indian elephants are usually made up of females, immature elephants, and one old bull; those of African elephants may also include mature bulls. Bulls driven from herds live alone or in bachelor herds. Elephants commonly feed in the morning, evening, and at night and rest during the middle of the day. When migrating, they often trek single file.

The Atlantic Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)

The following is based on information from the Recovery Plan for U.S. Population of Atlantic Green Turtles, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, 1991. Obtained from the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, and used with their kind permission.

Current Status

The green turtle is listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973, the green turtle was listed as threatened except for the breeding populations in Florida and on the Pacific coast of Mexico, where it is listed as Endangered.

Green turtles continue to be heavily exploited by humans, and the destruction and loss of nesting and foraging sites is a sserious problem. Humans have already caused the extinction of large green turtle populations, including those that once nested in Bermuda and Cayman Islands. The status of green turtle populations is difficult to determine because of our lack of knowledge about their life cycles. The number of nests deposited in Florida appears to be increasing, but we don’t know whether this is due to an increase in the number of nests or because we have started to monitor nesting beaches more closely.

Description

The green sea turtle is the largest hard-shelled sea turtle. Adults of this species commonly reach 100 cm in carapace length and 150 kg in mass. The average size of a female nesting in Florida is 101.5 cm straight carapace length, with an average body mass of 136 kg.

Hatchling green turtles weigh about 25 g (about a handful of Smarties) and have a carapace about 50 mm long. Hatchlings are black on top and white underneath. The plastron of Atlantic green turtles remains a yellowish white throughout life, but the carapace changes colour from black to various shades of gray, green, brown and black, forming swirls and irregular patterns on their shells.

Growth

Growth rates of pelagic-stage green turtles

have not been measured under natural conditions; however, growth rates of green turtles have been measured at their feeding grounds. Green turtles grow slowly.

In the southern Bahamas, green turtles grew from 30 to 75 cm in 17 years, and according to Bjorndal and Bolten, growth rate decreased with increasing carapace length. Growth rates measured in green turtles from Florida and Puerto Rico fall within the range of growth rates measured in the southern Bahamas. Based on growth rate studies oof wild green turtles, the researchers Balazs, Frazer and Ehrhart estimate the age at sexual maturity range anywhere from 20 to 50 years.

Habitat

Green turtles occupy three habitat types:

• High-energy oceanic beaches.

• Convergence zones in the pelagic habitat.

• Benthic feeding grounds in relatively shallow, protected waters.

Females deposit egg clutches on high energy beaches, usually on islands, where a deep nest cavity can be dug above the high water line. Hatchlings leave the beach and apparently move into convergence zones iin the open ocean where they spend an undetermined length of time (Carr, 1986). When turtles reach a carapace length of approximately 20 to 25 cm, they leave the pelagic habitat and enter benthic feeding grounds. Most commonly these foraging hhabitats are pastures of seagrasses and/or algae, but small green turtles can also be found over coral reefs, worm reefs and rocky bottoms. Some feeding areas, such as Miskito Cays, Nicaragua, support a complete size range of green turtles from 20 cm to breeding adults. Coral reefs or rocky outcrops near feeding pastures are often used as resting areas, both at night and during the day.

Diet

Scientists assume that post-hatchling, pelagic-stage green turtles are omnivorous, but there are no data on diet from this age class. Our personal experience with a juvenile Hawaiian green confirms this theory. Our first turtle encounter resulted when a juvenile swam up to us and attempted to take some of the cuttlefish we were using tto attract eels for photographic purposes.

Scientists do know that once green turtles shift to benthic feeding grounds, they are herbivores. They feed on both seagrasses and algae.

Population Distribution and Size

The green turtle can be found throughout the world in all tropical and sub-tropical oceans. In the U.S., Atlantic green turtles can be found around the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and continental U.S. from Texas to Massachusetts. Important feeding areas for green turtles in Florida include Indian River LLagoon, Florida Keys, Florida Bay, Homosassa, Crystal River and Cedar Key.

Major green nesting colonies in the Atlantic are located on Ascension Island, Aves Island, Costa Rica and Suriname. In the U.S., green turtles nest in small numbers in the United States Virgin Islands, and in Puerto Rico. Greens nest in larger numbers in Florida but actual data is presently not helpful in assessing trends in nesting.

Reproduction

Female green turtle emerge at night to deposit eggs, the process taking an average of two hours. Up to seven clutches are deposited at 12 to 14 day intervals, but the average is probably two or three clutches. Accurate counts of the number of clutches per season are difficult to get. The average clutch size is usually 110-115 eggs, but this varies among populations.

It is uncommon for females to produce clutches in successive years. Usually 2, 3, 4 or more years intervene between breeding seasons. Mating occurs in the water off the nesting beaches. Little is known about the reproductive biology of males, but evidence is accumulating that males migrate to the nesting beach every year.

The hatching success of undisturbed nests is usually high, but on some beaches, predators destroy a hhigh percentage of nests. Large numbers of nests are also destroyed by inundation and erosion.

One interesting discovery in recent years is that incubation temperatures determine the sex of hatchling turtles. In 1985, Standora and Spotila reported this effect on green turtles. Eggs incubated below a pivotal temperature–which might vary among populations–produce primarily males, and eggs incubated above this temperature produce primarily females.

Movements

The navigation feats of the green turtle are well known, but poorly understood. We know that hatchlings and adult females on the nesting beach orient toward the ocean using light cues. For a long time, no one knew what cues were employed in pelagic movements, in movements among foraging grounds, or in migrations between foraging grounds and nesting beaches. Recently published work, however, has suggested that the earth’s magnetic field plays a role in these feats.

Because green turtles feed in marine pastures in quiet, low-energy areas, but nest on high energy beaches, their feeding and nesting habitats are, of necessity, located some distance apart. Green turtles that nest on Ascension Island forage along the coast of Brazil, some 1,000 km away! The location of the foraging grounds of green turtles that nest in Florida is still uunknown.

It has been generally accepted, but not proven, that green turtles return to nest on the beach where they were born. Green turtles do exhibit strong site-fidelity in successive nesting seasons. Our personal experience with Hawaiian green turtles is that they also exhibit strong site fidelity for their foraging grounds.

Atlantic Green Turtle Quick Facts

Green sea turtles are listed as threatened or endangered throughout their habitat.

• The green sea turtle is found world-wide in warm ocean waters

• A gentle vegetarian, feeding mainly on sea grasses and algae

• The most valuable of all reptiles, they are killed for their skins, calipee, meat and shells.

• Exploitation has already caused extinction of populations in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands

• In parts of Florida (Indian River) more than 50% of the green sea turtles are afflicted with fibropapilloma tumors

• The largest of the hard-shelled marine turtles: common adult weight of 150 kg and length of over 100 cm

• Hatchlings: 4-5 cm in length

• Green sea turtles that nest at Ascension Island forage along the coast of Brazil and so must make a migration of 1,000 km to reach their nesting site!

Corals

Coral reefs are the most biologically diverse ecosystems of the ocean

and are rivaled only by the tropical rainforests on land. As snorkelers and divers know, thousands of beautiful fish, mollusks and urchins are among the amazing marine life that populates coral reefs. In fact, the corals themselves are also marine animals. Almost a thousand coral species currently exist in fantastic shapes ranging from mushrooms to moose antlers, cabbages, tabletops, wire strands, fluted pillars, and wrinkled brains.

With the majority of humankind living in coastal regions, many people depend on living ccoral reefs for food and protection from storm surges and erosion, as well as the additional benefits of medical research, tourism and aesthetic beauty. Coral reefs contribute about 25 percent of the total fish catch in developing countries, providing food for one billion people in Asia alone. The calmer area behind a reef can shelter sea grass beds and mangrove forests that service as important nurseries for the young of even more fish and shellfish.

Unfortunately, human activities, including those aassociated with global warming are threatening these rainforests of the ocean. Increasing sea temperatures stress corals and cause damage, including bleaching. WWF is working to develop and test conservation strategies to better protect coral reefs from bleaching while also working tto stop global warming, the root cause of the almost epidemic coral bleaching currently underway.

Find out how you can help corals by becoming part of the solution to global warming.

Pandas

The lovable and charismatic panda is one of the most popular animals in the world. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most endangered.

Found only in China, one of the world’s most populous countries, the giant panda clings to survival, facing habitat fragmentation and poaching as its greatest threats. It is estimated that as few as 1,600 pandas remain in the wild today. WWF works to help giant pandas in the wild through a variety of programs, including scientific assessments, habitat conservation and outreach to local governments and ppeople within the panda’s home range.

Pandas have been an integral part of our mission for more than two decades. In 1979, WWF was the first international organization to be invited into China to work on panda conservation. To this day, we remain the primary international conservation organization protecting pandas in the wild, and with your help we can ensure their survival.

Tigers

Recognized throughout the world for its ferocity and unmistakable beauty, the tiger faces an uncertain future. Due to iincreases in both natural and human threats, the wild tiger population suffered major losses during the 20th century and has become one of our most endangered species. By the 1950s, tigers living around the Caspian Sea were extinct; between 1937 and 1972 the population of tigers that once inhabited the islands of Bali and Java disappeared; the South China tiger, with at best 20 to 30 individuals, is nearly extinct in the wild.

India today has the largest number of tigers, numbering somewhere between 3,030 and 4,735 and it is estimated that only 5,100 to 7,500 individual tigers now remain in the entire world. These remaining tigers are threatened by many factors, including growing human populations, loss of habitat, illegal hunting of tigers and the species they hunt, and expanded trade in tiger parts used for traditional medicines.

WWF and its conservation partners are working to combat these threats and save the tiger. Together, we can ensure that we leave our children a planet where tigers still roam wild.

Tigers

Pandas

Corals

Turtle

Elephant

Endangered Species

From our start in 1961, WWF has worked to protect endangered species. We’re ensuring that the world our children inherit will be home to elephants, tigers, giant pandas, whales and oother wildlife species, as well as people.

WWF safeguards hundreds of species around the world, but we focus special attention on our flagship species: giant pandas, tigers, endangered whales and dolphins, rhinos, elephants, marine turtles and great apes. These species not only need special measures and extra protection in order to survive, they also serve as umbrella species: helping them helps numerous other species that live in the same habitats.

In addition to our flagship animals, we work to protect numerous species in peril around the world that live within our priority ecoregions. Large predators like snow leopards and grizzly bears, migratory species like whooping cranes and songbirds, and a host of other species facing threats also benefit from WWF’s conservation efforts. Our wildlife trade experts at TRAFFIC work to ensure that trade in wildlife products doesn’t harm a species, while also fighting against illegal and unsustainable trade.

WWF is known for acting on sound science. Science leads and guides our strategies and approaches, from the best way to restore tigers in viable, breeding populations to deciding which areas need protection the most.

What is the definition of an endangered species?

WWF doesn’t determine which species are considered endangered. The IUCN (the WWorld Conservation Union) is the organization that WWF and other conservation groups, government agencies, scientists and academics look to for that information. IUCN brings together the world’s leading scientists, including those from WWF, to assess the conservation status of species, subspecies, varieties and subpopulations on a global scale, highlighting species threatened with extinction and promoting their conservation.