Animals on the WWF 2018 Endangered List Quiz

Answer: Giant Panda

The giant panda is a bear which lives in south central China. It is easily recognised by its black and white markings. Baby pandas are born with circular black patches around their eyes and it is only as they mature that the patches become the shape of teardrops.

They can grow to approximately six feet tall and have a life span of 20 years in the wild or 20-30 in captivity. Although giant pandas have been on the endangered list for nearly thirty years, they are still critically endangered in 2018 with only around 1,000 pandas existing in the world.

Their main rival is human beings who encroach upon their homelands by farming and tree felling, leaving them a smaller area to forage for food. Poaching is also a terrible problem for them. In China they are considered a symbol of peace.

Answer: Brown or grey

The black rhino, also known as the hook lipped rhino, is native to southern and western Africa. They are a solitary species not seeking each other's company except at the time of mating. The female can give birth only every two and a half to five years, and the calf stays with its mother until it is three.

It is thought that there are eight subspecies of black rhino, two of which have already become extinct and one is on the verge of extinction Black rhinos have no natural predators because of their imposing size and weight, however they are very aggressive and quick to charge when they perceive any danger so a high proportion of them are killed in battle.

Answer: All are critically endangered

They are all critically endangered, as well as the western lowland gorilla. Gorillas are the largest living primates, and their DNA is 95-99% the same as humans, dependent on what is included in the measurement, and they are our closest relatives next to chimpanzees and bonobos. Gorillas live in forests or swamps in central Africa.

Their main adversary is humans who encroach on their homelands by cutting down trees and farming, leaving them a smaller area where they can forage for food and build the nests in the trees where they like to spend the daylight hours.

There are also terrible problems with poachers, many of whom take baby gorillas for the pet trade.

Answer: South China Tiger

There are no longer any south China tigers in the wild, and only a few left in captivity. There has been no sighting of this animal in the wild since 1947. The tigers have found themselves in this position because of poaching to sell their pelts and body parts, and loss of habitat.

The Chinese government is doing its best to preserve them, and has moved the remaining few animals which were in nature reserves to a more secure place. Many cubs have been born in the last five years. Of the other species listed the Sumatran tiger is also critically endangered, and the Siberian and Malayan tigers are endangered.

Answer: Vaquita

The vaquita is a type of porpoise which used to be found in the northern part of the Californian gulf. It was first described in 1958, based on observation of two skulls found in 1951 and 1952. Already, sixty years later, it is almost extinct and only about twelve to fifteen individuals remain. Vaquitas are so endangered partly because the area is illegally fished and the porpoises get caught in the nets and drown, and also partly because their swim bladders are used in Chinese medicine, where they are believed to be a cure for several illnesses, and fetch high prices on the black market.

Answer: Eastern Russia

The Amur leopard is probably the most endangered big cat, and it is believed by the World Wildlife Fund that there are only about eighty four specimens left in the world in 2018. Global warming has affected them badly because they are adapted to cope with cold weather conditions. Also deforestation, farming and the building of new roads has contributed to their demise.

It is also known that they suffer from poaching for their pelts. Named after the Amur river, they are very beautiful animals, slightly smaller than other leopards, and have slightly longer legs.

Answer: Sponges

The hawksbill turtle is named for its narrow head and hawk like beak. They are a critically endangered species on the list and have reduced in numbers by 80% over the last hundred years. They live in subtropical coastal areas around coral reefs and rocky shores.

The chief threat to them is being hunted for their beautiful brown and yellow shells, often called tortoise shell, which are made into jewellery, hair ornaments and other small items and are sold in markets. They belong to a group of reptiles which have been on earth for around one hundred million years, and are essential to maintain the health of coral reefs and sea grass beds.

Answer: Seals

Polar bears are endangered because global warming results in the melting of much of the ice they use as platforms from which to hunt seals. They are good swimmers, but must swim further and further between patches of ice. Because they spend more than 50% of their time on the sea ice they are considered to be marine animals.

A thick layer of fat below their skins, and water resistant fur, protects them from the extreme cold of the Arctic. Polar bears were listed as a threatened species in the US under the Endangered Species Act in May 2008, and are listed as vulnerable on the WWF list.

Answer: 1992

The deerlike saola was the first new species to be discovered in over fifty years. There are none in captivity and sightings of this animal are extremely rare. A survey team in north Vietnam, which was a collaboration between the World Wildlife Fund and the north Vietnam forestry ministry, found a very unusual skull in the house of a hunter, and realised that it did not come from any known animal.

The saola is approximately 33 inches tall at the shoulder and has two horns about 20 inches in length with very sharp points.

They live only in the forest lands of the Ammanite mountains of Vietnam and Laos.

Answer: Mauritius and Madagascar

The dodo was a large flightless bird. Because no complete specimens exist, it is difficult to say exactly what it looked like, but examination of remaining bones and contemporary descriptions point to the feathers being a greyish brown, and the head and neck bare.

Its legs were a yellowish colour and the beak was green, black and yellow. Like many animals which have evolved without any predators they had no fear at all of man, and this and the fact that they could not fly made them easy prey. It is now considered that its extinction was due more to other animals introduced by the increasing human population, especially pigs, dogs and cats, than to hunting by humans.