• From strawberry tigers to hairy nosed marsupials Discovery Channel Documentary
• We count down 15 of the rarest near-extinct animals ever to walk the Earth
15 - Javan Rhino • Also known as the "small-horned rhino"
• It used to be found all over the islands of Java, Sumatra, parts of India and China
• Today though, it's critically endangered - mainly due to poaching for its tiny horn
used in Chinese medicine • The Southeast Asian wars also obliterated
most of its habitat, so now Javan Rhino numbers barely exceed 40
14 - Amur Leopard • These are found in the Primorye regions
of southeastern Russia • This is the only leopard subspecies adapted
to a cold, snowy climate • And according to a 2008 study, there are
only around 15 adults left in the wild • The reason? Poaching, encroaching civilisations,
new roads, destruction of forests and climate change
13 - Tarsiers • These are found on the islands of Southeast
Asia, which includes Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and The Philippines, but since they became
critically endangered, you'll only really find them in Borneo
• The reason they're so rare and cherised is that these Tarsiers are the only primates
alive who are 100% carnivorous • They mostly go after insects, but they've
also been known to devour birds, bats, lizards and snakes
12 - Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat • This is one of three species of wombat
in existence • It used to live all over New South Wales,
Victoria and Queensland, but in the last 100 years the population has been declining quite
harshly • The reason? It has to fight for its food
against popular domesticated animals like cow and sheep, so now just over 100 of these
wombats are left
11 - Western lowland gorilla
• These live in central Africa, and also a wide area of the Congo jungles
• These gorillas show the intelligence of a young child; they fashion tools to dig holes,
they can learn sign language up to 1,000 signs, and we haven't yet discovered the full extent
of their mental capacity • They endured deforestation, farming, grazing
and expanding human settlements, but it was the Ebola virus in Africa that accounts for
90% of the species extinction, only leading to just over 500 left in captivity
10 - Okapi • This one looks like a strange zebra off-shoot,
but in reality it's a distant relative of the giraffe, a VERY distant relative
• It was first discovered in ancient egypt, the legend of an "african unicorn", and it's
considered a "living fossil" since it has no close living relatives, only those species
long, long dead • Currently there are between 10 and 20,000
thousand Okapi alive today
9 - Iberian Lynx
• This is a carnivorous mammal native to the Iberian Peninsula, Southern Europe
• It's numbers only total around 100 with the primary cause poaching of its main prey,
the European rabbit, and the Lynx is physically unable to alter its diet
• Numbers have also been reduced from habitat loss, car accidents, feral dog hunting and
certain types of illness
8 - Mountain Pygmy Possum
• This is a small, mouse-sized marsupial found in the dense apline rock screes and
boulder fields of Australia • It mostly feeds on fruits, nuts and seeds
• And the reason it's so rare? Ski resorts were built on its habitats, that combined
with climate change, death by feral cats and foxes and decline of the Bogong moth also
contributed to the decline to less than 100 total
7 - Sao Tome Shrew • These little guys are found only on Sao
Tome Island, a shield volcano off the Atlantic Ocean
• They were first disovered in 1886, and they're endangered due to habitat loss, deforestation
and a restricted range • Information on the shrews is limited and
conservation is difficult because they're so well cut off from the world, leading people
to believe they're closer to extinction than previously thought
6 - Tamaraw (the Dwarf Water Buffalo) • This is a small hoofed animal that used
to roam the island of Mindora in the Philippines, but due to habitat loss from farming, cattle
ranching and the expansion of urban areas, they're numbers now only total about 300
• Currently you can only find them in the Mount Iglit-Baco National Park, where they're
protected from poaching and disease
5 - Philippine crocodile
• Only one of two species of crocodile also found in the Philippines, it became critically
endangered in 2008 due to exploitation and unsustainable fishing methods, which includes
dynamite fishing, in which water is blown up to kill schools of animals for easy collection
• As of today, there exists only about 250 specimens of this crocodile alive, and there
are laws prohibiting the slaughtering of crocodile in that country
4 - Red Wolf • This is a cousin of the Gray Wolf, and
for a while during the 1980s it was believed the red wolf HAD gone extinct
• But some turned up in captivity, around 20, and thanks to conservation that number
rose to over 200 with 100 living in the wild, though the environmental factors that caused
to be nearly extinct still exist today - that their hunting grounds have become severely
depleted
3 - Hispid Hare
• A type of rabbit from the southern foothills of the Himalayan mountains
• It lives in tall grass but since mankind totalled its habitat and hunted a vast majority
of them, they're on the verge of extinction, just over 100 left in the wild
• It's unlikely the species will survive moving forward
2 - Golden Tabby Tiger • This one can ONLY be found in captivity,
and its odd coat has had some to title it the "strawberry tiger"
• Its species has been around since the early 1900s, and strangely enough they only
appeared in areas with a heavy concentration of clay in the soil
• As of today, less than 30 of these tigers are known to exist
1 - The Pinta Island Tortoise • This species is so rare that only 1 individual
was found • It's one of the famous giant Galapagos
tortoises, and sadly they were hunted remorselessly over the years for meat
• In the 1970s, an old male tortoise was found, believed to be the last of his kind, and they
called him lonesome george • A huge number of attempts to get him to
reproduce failed, and in 2012 he died • Though in that same year, 17 first gen
hybrids were discovered, bringing hope to that forever gone species
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