These figures have led conservation groups to demand that immediate action is taken to stop the elephant’s natural habitat from being destroyed.

The primary reason for the reduction in population numbers is deforestation, particularly in Indonesia. The IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) decided to change the status of these animals as they have tracked and found a reduction in the elephant’s habitat of around 69%.

This loss has only taken 25 years which means that conservation organisations are sitting up and taking notice of what is happening. It is thought that the total population in the wild of the Sumatran elephant is now only around 1,800.

The IUCN also stated that they fear for much of this is remaining population as many of the communities of elephants are in areas that are not protected by conservation programs. To back up this statement figures were shown that indicated that in Riau Province 6 herds disappeared between 2007 and 2009.

The IUCN also stated that unless something is done urgently it is likely that these animals will become extinct in this lifetime. As the plantations in Indonesia continue to grow more and more of the natural habitat of these animals is being destroyed.

Unfortunately unless money is put into these projects the authorities in Indonesia not likely to do anything about the plantation owners that continue this destruction.

News like this comes as a blow to conservationists around the world especially since the last Javan Rhino in Vietnam was found killed by poachers in October 2011 which means that this animal is now extinct in this part of the world.

These animals had previously been removed from the list by wildlife managers who believed that these creatures were no longer at risk as their numbers were on the increase in Yellowstone Park and surrounding areas.

The decision to remove these iconic American animals from the list was taken back in 2007 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

However, the new ruling which was made by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and saw the Yellowstone Grizzly Bears being placed back on the Endangered Species List and back under protection once again.

Why Grizzly Bears are Endangered Again

The reason given for this ruling was that the bears are suffering as a result of climate change which has increased the numbers of beetles that destroy the whitebark pine trees.

With fewer trees in their native area the bears will have to start foraging for food in areas that are more highly populated. This would then result in grizzlies, livestock and people coming into contact with each other, which is something that experts want to avoid.

Over the past few years grizzly bears have been responsible for the deaths of several tourists and hikers. This has led to around 75 grizzly bears being removed from the park or euthanized in 2010.

Obviously putting these bears down is not something that wildlife experts want to do, however, when they start to attack and kill humans are livestock there is little else that can be done. This is the reason that the Yellowstone grizzly bears needed to be back on the endangered species list.

Arriving at this Decision

The panel that was responsible for putting the Yellowstone grizzly bears back on the endangered species list was made up of three people.

After reviewing the evidence that was put before them they stated that the wildlife agency who had made the previous decision had “failed to adequately consider the impacts of global warming and mountain pine beetle infestation on the vitality of the region’s white-bark pine trees.”

Due to the unseasonably warm weather over the past few years the beetles responsible for decimating the trees in Yellowstone Park had not died off as they normally would do. This left the beetles to damage in excess of 25% of the trees in Yellowstone and destroy around 16% of them. Clearly this was a high percentage and the effects of these beetles could not be ignored.

Diana Tomback who is a whitebark pine expert from the University of Colorado discussed the fact that the scale of the problem that is being caused by these beetles is unprecedented and it could lead to the ravaging of much of the ecosystem within Yellowstone Park.

Studies have shown that trees that have been ravaged by beetles have a 90% plus chance of dying, which means that these beetles could destroy large areas in a short space of time.

The beetles responsible for this will bore into the tree barks and lay thousands of larvae within the tree. This will cause the tree stress and many of them will then turn red as a result.

How Endangered Status Helps

Thanks to previously being placed on the endangered species list, coupled with a recovery strategy, the grizzly population in the Yellowstone Park and the surrounding region had tripled in the past 35 years. In fact the population of these bears is estimated at 600 although the growth of this population has started to level out over the past few years.

As a result of this ruling the white bark pine has been scrutinised and the Fish and Wildlife Service believes that the trees themselves should be put on the endangered species list. Doing this would help to put strategies and processes in place that could help to increase the number of these trees in the Yellowstone area.

Rulings like this also highlight the fact that the executive branch and courts are realising the impact that global warming is having on areas across the globe. In some places global warming is totally transforming the natural landscape and this is leading to problems such as this one.

However, it is now felt that this review came around far too late for it to make a difference to these animals.

Chuck Underwood of the Fish and Wildlife Service was quoted as saying:

“We don’t have anything in our files that indicates that they’ve been seen in 50 years or more. We don’t think they’re out there anymore.”

The South Florida rainbow snake was one of the rainbow snake subspecies and it was known as living in the Fisheating Creek area which is close to Lake Okeechobee.

The Florida fairy shrimp was known to inhabit pools that were in the south of Gainesville, however these pools along with the Florida fairy shrimp were destroyed by commercial development in the area.

It was a thanks to a petition that was filed to the government from the Centre for Biological Diversity that made the review possible. In the petition is stated that the CBD wanted the government to review more than 400 aquatic species that were in the United States.

A recent legal decision was also made to hurry along the decisions that were to be made on 757 species that could be facing extinction and therefore could be liable to be protected.

One of the problems with these decisions is that many species will have to wait for many decades before a scientific hearing is granted on their protection eligibility.

One of the reasons that these two species didn’t survive is that neither of them were under protection from the Endangered Species Act. As this is the most powerful weapon conservationists have against species becoming extinct species with depleting numbers need to be covered by it.

Another issue that has got a lot of people worried is the fact that the Earth appears to be entering a period of mass extinction with the levels of extinction being thought to have risen up to 1000 times the average rate. As humans are the main factor in this mass extinction period something needs to be done in order to save more animals and allow them to live on into the future.

Stem cell research into endangered animals has been successful and scientists have recently been able to produce the very first stem cells from the white rhino and a species of monkey from West Africa called the drill.

It is believed that these stem cells might be used to create the vital eggs and sperm that are needed to artificially reproduced animals. If this is successful the two species may be saved from extinction.

So how can this happen?

Firstly not everyone is aware that research into stem cells has been going on since 1970s when a scientist Oliver Ryder began collecting skin cells, that were then frozen from in excess of 800 animals that were facing extinction. He termed this collection a Frozen Zoo and it was his dream that one day there would be the technology to use these cells in order to protect any species that were endangered.

Dr Jeanne Loring spent 5 years researching and trialling a process that is known as induced pluripotency, which generates stem cells. These cells can then be used to create any tissue that can be found in the body – such as sperm and eggs. These eggs and sperm can then be used to create embryos which can be used in IVF treatment in endangered animals.

While this method seems like the most effective to increase the numbers of endangered animals there are still other means of helping them to reproduce. The reason for this is that as there has been little research done on stem cell technology it could be too late to help certain animals, such as the West African Rhino, as their numbers have depleted so significantly.

However, that is not to say that this technology could not be used in other medicinal applications for animals that are suffering from various diseases which could reduce their numbers further.

So, as is often the case, it’s scientific breakthroughs which are providing real hope when it comes to endangered animal conservation.

An ecologist Alistair Melzer from Central Queensland University sums up the issues affecting the koala, with both human conflicts and climate change affecting the species:

“Unfortunately the best places for the koala are also best for humans, namely fertile land. If the climate changes these animals don’t migrate, so population groups won’t move south, where it’s cooler. They’ll die.”

The climate change issue is particularly worrying as there’s the possibility of huge numbers of koalas dying in Northern areas unless a widescale relocation programme was implemented.

In terms of their numbers, without serious investment in any counting programmes it’s hard to get accurate figures on the number of koalas alive in the wild in Australia, but the number is almost certainly between 50,000 and 100,000.

On the face of it this might seem like a healthy number but along the Gold Coast where population studies have been carried out, numbers have declined by 80% in only the last 20 years.

Today the Indian government claims that 1,411 tigers are still alive but this is a highly contentious figure. The real figure is likely to be closer to 750 and the race is on to save the Indian tigers from extinction. In fact, the situation has deteriorated to such as extent that tigers were actually placed on WWF’s 10 Most Threatened Species in 2010 list.

The situation is increasingly desperate, as Director of WWF Scotland, Dr Richard Dixon, says:

“We have a window of opportunity in which to step up and pull back some of the world’s most splendid animals from the brink of extinction. We urge everyone who wants to live in a world with tigers, polar bears, and pandas to make it their New Year’s resolution to help save these amazing and threatened species before it’s too late.”

One of the major problems facing tigers is the value of their skin, as just across India’s border in China a tiger skin can fetch as much as $20,000. As tigers continue to decline in numbers this value is only going to rise, further increasing the potential rewards of poaching.

Speaking to Dharmendra Khandal, who works for Tiger Watch, a privately funded organization trying to prevent and track down poachers, he mentions how they utilise paid informants to try to gain an upper–hand over the poachers:

“It’s a risky job. We have four regular paid informants from this community and we give them money in return for information. The community knows who the informants are. Some of them are resisting but there are cracks in the society now. Some of them are asking why they should live in such a primitive state.”

Although on the surface it might appear to be a losing battle against the poachers some real progress has been made. Tiger Watch also works extensively with the local communities and its work is starting to pay off, as Sanwali Kesra, the wife of a former poacher, illustrates:

“We are not willing to live in an atmosphere where the police are always coming after us. We had to move from here to there. Our forefathers were involved in poaching, but we don’t want to be involved in this trade any more.”

This view is shared by members throughout the local community, such as Asanti, a 26 year old from a family of poachers:

“We want our children to be educated. We want to learn more. We want a regular source of income. Hunting is not a regular source of income. Times have changed and our community is scattered. Now we want to live respectably.”

While the fight against poachers is gradually turning in the direction of conservationists, there are also major concerns over deforestation.

Aditya Singh, a conservationist and tiger expert, believes that the final straw for India’s tigers could be the destruction of the remaining corridors of forest that link the different nature reserves and parks together.

“There are still connections between the reserves, but in five years they won’t be there. I think the tigers have five years. They will stay in isolated pockets, but they will have reached an evolutionary dead end.”

Unless something can be done soon then India’s tigers will be gone forever. You can read more about the situation facing the Indian tigers over at the Guardian.