This is takin “kid”, or goat-antelope, is native to Tibet and the northern provinces of China. The takin is classified as vulnerable and inhabits the same bamboo forests as the giant panda. Its large, moose-like snout (more pronounced in adults) contains vast sinus cavities to warm and moisten the frigid mountain air before it gets to the sensitive lungs. This process prevents them from losing body heat while breathing.
Spots and stripes are found only on baby tapirs; adults are a uniform brown/gray. Like their name suggests, Brazilian tapirs live in South America and are endangered.
The mouse lemur is the smallest primate in the world, with a combined head, body, and tail length of less than 30cm (11.8"). It is native to Madagascar and is nocturnal. Mouse lemurs are considered cryptic species—with very little morphological differences between the various species, but with high genetic diversity.
Lemurs and mouse lemurs were announced by the IUCN as the most endangered of all vertebrates. There were 2 known mouse lemur species in 1992; by 2016, there were 24.
Schiedea globosa is another member of the pinks family, endemic to Hawaii, and though less imperiled than its cousin (previously posted Schiedea adamantis), it still experiences a threatened existence in the wild. It is native to many of the islands where it inhabits steep north-facing cliffs and rocky slopes, often in coastal habitats where it requires little water, contrary to the general perception of the environments of Hawaii. The globular flower clusters are not visually striking but offer a fairly unique scent, reminiscent of sweet butter and caramel.
This plant was part of a series enabled by Hana Hou! who brought me to Oahu for this project and Hui Ku Maoli Ola native nursery which generously lent me this among other plants to photograph.
Gossypium tomentosum, Ma’o, or Hawaiian cotton, is an another endemic member of the mallow family (Malvaceae). It is grown as a small shrub, a groundcover, and is enjoyed for its silky flowers and silvery leaves. Sadly, like many of the other Hawaiian plants I’ve been sharing, it is endangered and has been extirpated from at least one of the Hawaiian islands largely as a result of continued coastal development.
Besides the loss of beauty, variety, and ecological diversity, the extinction of a species always has potential to make lost traits which would have perhaps more conventional value. This cotton illustrates this as even while its population continues to decline, its genes persist in commercial cotton crops after being bred with them to confer enhanced insect and pathogen resistance. While for some the abstract consequences of extinction have no impact, there remain more concrete losses which should leave any person concerned.
Osa pulchra blooming at the Huntington Botanical Garden, San Marino, California.
Osa pulchra is the holy grail of showy tropical flowering plants and most of us have never heard of it. This spectacular member of the Rubiaceae is exceptionally rare, both in the wild and in cultivation. It is quite unusual that a flowering plant of such exuberant beauty can go virtually unknown for so long in cultivation. Its close relatives of better fame Portlandia grandifloraandCubanola dominguensis, are familiar to some horticulturists in tropical climates.
While in bloom this magnificent shrub may superficially resemble a coffee tree with white Brugmansia flowers hung from its branches, but surpasses both in elegance. The pendent trumpet-shaped fragrant white flowers are thick in texture and 22 cm in length.
I have been working with a good friend, Dylan Hannon, Curator of the Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science and Tropical Collections at the Huntington Botanical Gardens (San Marino, California) for the past 4 years to help insure this species’ survival ex situ within Hawai'i and in a few other suitable tropical countries.
Until 2007, this endangered species was only known from two disjunct populations in the south of Costa Rica, one on the Atlantic side and the other on the Pacific side in wet lowland rainforest. Less than 30 individuals exist between these two populations in which natural reproduction is very poor. In addition, because of the location and nature of both colonies, botanists have been hesitant to accept that these plants weren’t planted by humans at some point due to their proximity to human dwellings¹. Five years ago Osa pulchra was found for the first time in Bocas del Toro, Panama. University of Panama biologists Reyes Carranza and Fermín Hernández found this species during an environmental impact survey² . This exciting discovery may be the first record of a wild population.
Nearly all plants in cultivation outside Mesoamerica trace back to seven seedlings resulting from a pod collected in 1996 on a Missouri Botanical Garden expedition to the Osa Peninsula. About 100 F1 seedlings were raised at the Huntington and distributed to select conservatories in mainland USA in 2006¹. Notably showy specimens can currently be seen at the New York Botanical Garden, the Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Huntington.
Propagation of Osa pulchra is not for the impatient horticulturist. Growing from seed is the preferred method. Asexual propagation is possible but it exacts a sacrifice of the terminal stem. As with Portlandia,Osa have exhibited stubborn apical dominance, sometimes referred to as the ‘conifer effect’. Hand pollination must be carried out between two different clones because individual flowers are infertile. Gestation will take up to 11 months, upon which seeds must be sown with haste due to their limited window of viability.
¹ Hannon, DP. (2007). Osa pulchra: fragrant trumpet flowers from central america. Tropical Flowering Tree Society Quarterly, (Winter), 9-11. ² Aiello, A, Correa, M, Galdames, C, Alvarado, M, & Calderon, ML. (2007, August 31). Remarkable new plant record for panama. STRI News, Retrieved from striweb.si.edu/strinews/PDFs/August_31_2007.pdf
Sawfish were once very common in their range, but are now amongst the most threatened marine fish. Although they are technically rays, not sharks, sawfish fins are prized for sharkfin soup, and sawfish parts are often used in Chinese, African, South American, Mexican, and Indian traditional medicine. They are also popular game fish, and their saws and teeth command high prices as souvenirs and trophies. Because of this frequent overfishing and rising pollution rates, most species of sawfish are now critically endangered.
There has been much speculation as to the purpose of the sawfish’s saw. Speculation was that they were used to literally saw chunks of meat from large prey such as whales or dolphins. In fact, the saw is lined with thousands of sensory organs that allow the sawfish to detect the electric fields emitted by living creatures, thus helping them track prey. Once a fish is detected, the sawfish will strike the prey with a sideways slash of the saw, stunning it, or else use the saw to pin it to the sea floor. While the saw is not used specifically to cut prey, a fish may be sliced in half by a particularly vigorous swipe. The saw is also used to defend the sawfish against large predators such as sharks, or in battles with rivals.
In contrast to stories of sawfish cutting through the bottom of boats or sawing humans in half, sawfish are known to be docile and harmless animals when left undisturbed.
Thegreen sawfish, also known as the longcomb sawfish or narrowsnout sawfish, is quite possibly the largest species of sawfish, historically reaching lengths of up to 24 feet. It was once found in 37 separate countries, but now populations have been confirmed in only 11. The total population of this fish has declined by over 80% in the past three generations, making it critically endangered.
Thelargetooth sawfish is not only is number 1 on the EDGE Shark list, but also has the highest-ranking score of any EDGE species! While it is also known as the common sawfish, it is now critically endangered. Once found in over 75 countries, it is present in less than a third of its former range and is considered critically endangered. It is still, however, the species of sawfish most commonly found in captivity.
Sawfish are sometimes called “carpenter sharks”, but they are actually members of the ray family. They are among the world’s largest fish, with some species reaching up to 25 feet in length. Their most recognisable feature is, of course, the long, flattened, tooth-lined rostrum protruding from their face.
Theshoebill is primarily a silent bird, but one of the few noises it makes is a machine gun-like bill-clattering, generally used by members of a nesting pair to communicate with each other and their nestlings. Shoebills may also utter croaking sounds, cow-like moos, whines, and nestlings may beg for food with hiccups.
Most of the shoebill’s diet consists of large fish such as lungfish and tilapia, but they will also feed on fish, frogs, lizards, turtles, snails, waterfowl, and even juvenile crocodiles. There are even unconfirmed reports of shoebills devouring small antelope calves. When the shoebill gets ahold of prey too large to swallow in one piece, it will decapitate the animal with one blow of its massive beak.
Theshoebill, also known as the whalehead, is a large, stork-like bird distinguished by its huge, shoe-like bill. While it was once believed to belong to the stork family, recent genetic evidence has proven that it is actually more closely related to the pelicans.
While the vaquita is not deliberately hunted by humans, its downfall has been the extensive fishing of the totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder is a delicacy in China. Gill nets used to catch totoaba have quite literally massacred the vaquita - over 80% of their population disappeared between 2008 and 2015.
Government efforts to preserve the species were perfunctory - “vaquita-safe” nets proved nowhere near as effective as the old gill nets, fishermen rioted when a related fishery was shut down for fear of it being used as a cover for tatoaba poaching (ironic, as that fishery used safer nets), and compensatory monthly checks to men losing their livelihood were meager, sometimes less than a man could make in a single day’s fishing. The export of tataobas was banned and a marine reserve established, but poaching and smuggling is rampant, and there is little incentive to stop it. A single tatoaba bladder can bring in $20 000, while the fine for being caught poaching is about $500. Even now, the controversial Sea Shepherd is one of the few ships patrolling for poachers, and they can do little but film and report them. In the meantime, dead vaquita continue to be pulled from the waters.
The latest estimates say there may be only 12 vaquita left in the world. If the vaquita goes extinct, it will be the first extinction of a marine mammal since the loss of the baijiin 2006.
Thevaquita has the most restricted range of any marine cetacean, as they are endemic to the northern end of the Gulf of California. They have evolved to live in shallow, murky water, sometimes so shallow that their backs protrude from the water. Unlike many other marine animals, they can also cope with the rapid and extreme temperature changes that can occur in shallow water.
Because of the vaquita’s low numbers, the National Marine Mammal Foundation attempted to start a captive breeding program. However, after a female vaquita died of stress shortly after being captured, the program was abandoned. It is unlikely a similar program will be attempted in the future.
