Top 10 Most Scarce Animals on Earth, Nearly Extinct Due to Human Hunting
1Short-beaked Dolphins: Resembling dolphins somewhat like whales, they have round, large heads and are not obviously mouthy. They are distributed in the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asian coasts and rivers, with dorsal fins located on the back, short and blunt, triangular in shape. Although they swim slowly, their maximum speed can reach 20-25 km per hour, but due to human capture, there are still over 7000 individuals worldwide.
2Greater Plains Antelope: This antelope is one of the species that survived the Quaternary Ice Age events, they can use flexible long noses to filter or warm inhaled air. Because the high-nosed antelope has ‘medical value’, poachers have hunted them in large numbers, now they have become a critically endangered species, there may be only about 1000 individuals left in the world.
3Florida Panther: Although called ‘mountain lions’, this animal is actually a member of the cat family, inhabiting southern Florida. Due to the rapid development of Florida, the number of traffic accidents involving mountain lions is constantly increasing, and mountain lions themselves compete for territory and kill each other, the current number is only 160.
4Coconut Crab: They can weigh up to 6 kg, the largest land-dwelling crustaceans currently. Because they are good at climbing, they can forage for food at the top of the tree. They usually use their pincers to break open the shells of coconuts to eat the coconut flesh.
5Sloth: They appear in nocturnal night animals with good nocturnal vision, from 1937 to 2002, the large-eyed sloth has been discovered four times, and once considered extinct. The small number of existing sloths appear in Sri Lanka, but due to local people’s superstitious belief that sloth’s meat and skin can cure madness and dispel curses, their lives are also precarious.
6Dwarf Mouse-kangaroo: They are mainly distributed in Rottnest Island in Western Australia, because they look cute and always look like smiling, so they are very popular. Because of low reproductive rates, threats from foreign species and human habitat destruction, they are on the verge of extinction.
7Harbour Seal: A seal species in the Arctic, they are distributed in the mid and northwest ice oceans, east to the Svalbard Islands, west to the St. Lawrence Bay, because of the protruding accessory organ on the noses of adult males, they are named. Due to human involvement in the Arctic, they are constantly hunted, only a small number remain.
8Mexican Axolotl: This cute aquatic amphibian is also known as ‘six-gon dinosaur’, living only in Mexico. Globally, especially in North America, they are raised as pets by many people, but because habitats are extensively destroyed, they were listed as critically endangered in 2010, and there are reports that they cannot be found in the natural environment anymore.
9Leaf Monkeys: This monkey lives with Asian high-altitude regions, smaller in size than other monkeys. Because forests are widely cut down, they gradually lose their habitat, so they are called endangered species.
10Tree Kangaroo: A tree-dwelling kangaroo species living in the rainforests of New Guinea and other regions, in recent years rainforests have been continuously cut down by humans, causing the habitat to become smaller and smaller, and they have been massively hunted by humans, their numbers have dropped to 1% of the past, and they have been listed as endangered species.
