Humans are destroying the planet through their activities that cause warming, climate change, loss of forest cover and so much more. But it is these animal species who are paying the price of our ventures.
GIANT PANDA
Pandas are highly sensitive mammals who cannot live in hot temperatures. As climate chnae warms the planet, they run out of cool habitats. Forced to climb higher for relief, they might lose their source of food-bamboos and plants. Bamboos grow slow and cannot migrate with the pandas, which has endangered the species.
SNOW LEOPARD
This gorgeous animal thrives in zones between 9,800 to 17,800 feet in altitude across the Tibetan Plateau, that keeps them cool and offers plenty of prey. However, rising temperatures are driving them up into isolated regions.
GIANT OTTER
Found only in South America, Giant otters are the largest otters in the world, with some as long as 6 feet. Now there only a few thousand believed to be surviving in the wild. They were hunted for their pelts causing a huge decline in numbers. However, now althought the hunting has stopped, their aquatic habitats have been degraded and destroyed, causing loss of food as well.
SUMATRAN RHINOCEROUS
The smallest of all the rhinos, they are also one of the most endangered. With probably, only 220-275 remaining, according to reports. Threatened by poaching, they are hunted for their horns.
WOODLAND CARIBOU
The deep snow of North America’s sodden, peat-covered forests has long kept competitors of the woodland caribou out of their region. However, warming temperatures have drawn in other deers and wolves, which has led to a huge decline in their population. They have lost the plants they eat, as they are trapped under a layer of ice caused by increasing ran. This vicious water cycle can starve to death tens of thousands of creatures at a time.
ADELIE PENGUIN
Their nests are built on barren, craggy ground and with rising temperatures on the West- Antarctic Peninsula has led to snowfall and made puddles becoming more common submerging their already exposed roosts. The cold, wet nests can prove fatal to the chicks, as they have yet to develop waterproof adult feathers—assuming the eggs don’t freeze in frigid puddles before the birds even get the chance to hatch. This has led to a decrease in population.
KOALAS
These marsupials rely on eucalyptus trees for everything: shelter, food, and water. However, due to human activities there is an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is changing the basic chemistry of eucalyptus leaves, making them poisonous. The increasing droughts has reduced moisture for Koalas as well, thus driving them to extinction.