# The Vanishing 100 — full dataset (snapshot 2026-06-12)

> A living census of the 100 most endangered animals on Earth — how many remain, where they survive, what threatens them, and the people fighting to bring them back.
> Figures are approximate estimates compiled from the IUCN Red List and conservation organisations. Cite individual species pages where possible.

## 1. Northern White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/northern-white-rhino.html
- Class: Mammal (Rhinoceros)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: 2 — both female
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Kenya (Africa)
- Habitat: Grassland and savannah (last two live under armed guard at Ol Pejeta Conservancy)
- Threats: Poaching for horn; Civil conflict across former range; Functionally extinct — no breeding pair
- Working to save it: International Rhino Foundation; Save the Rhino International; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation

Only two individuals remain on Earth — a mother and daughter — making this the rarest large mammal alive.

Najin and Fatu, the last two northern white rhinos, graze under 24-hour armed protection in Kenya. With no males left, the subspecies is functionally extinct; scientists are racing to create embryos via IVF using preserved genetic material and southern white rhino surrogates.

## 2. Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle (Rafetus swinhoei)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/yangtze-giant-softshell-turtle.html
- Class: Reptile (Freshwater turtle)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: 2–3 known
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Vietnam, China (Asia)
- Habitat: Large lowland rivers and lakes of the Red River and Yangtze basins
- Threats: Habitat destruction and dams; Historic hunting; Pollution; Tiny, fragmented population
- Working to save it: Turtle Survival Alliance; Wildlife Conservation Society; Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence

The world's rarest turtle — only two or three individuals are known to survive, and no breeding pair has been confirmed.

Once revered in Vietnamese legend as the Golden Turtle God of Hoan Kiem Lake, this giant softshell has been reduced to a handful of animals in Vietnamese lakes and a Chinese zoo. Conservationists survey remote lakes with environmental DNA, hoping an undiscovered female still survives.

## 3. South China Tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/south-china-tiger.html
- Class: Mammal (Big cat)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: 0 confirmed wild · ~200 captive
- Trend: Unknown
- Range: China (Asia)
- Habitat: Subtropical evergreen forest of south-central China (historic range)
- Threats: Eradication campaigns of the 20th century; Habitat loss; Prey depletion; Inbreeding in captive population
- Working to save it: Panthera — Wild Cat Conservation; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission; World Wide Fund for Nature

No wild sighting has been confirmed in over three decades — the entire future of this tiger rests on around 200 captive descendants.

Once the most numerous tiger in China, the South China tiger was hunted as a pest until they vanished from the wild. A captive population descended from just six founders is the focus of breeding and rewilding programmes that hope, one day, to return tigers to China's southern forests.

## 4. ʻAkikiki (Oreomystis bairdi)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/akikiki.html
- Class: Bird (Hawaiian honeycreeper)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~5 wild · ~50 in care
- Trend: Declining
- Range: United States (Oceania)
- Habitat: High-elevation ʻōhiʻa rainforest on the island of Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi
- Threats: Avian malaria spread by invasive mosquitoes; Climate change pushing mosquitoes uphill; Invasive predators; Habitat degradation
- Working to save it: BirdLife International; United States Fish & Wildlife Service; Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program

A tiny grey Hawaiian songbird being erased by mosquito-borne malaria — only a handful of wild birds remain on Kauaʻi.

As a warming climate lets mosquitoes climb into Kauaʻi's last high forests, avian malaria has collapsed the ʻakikiki population with terrifying speed. Biologists have airlifted eggs to biosecure facilities, and a landscape-scale release of incompatible male mosquitoes is underway to crash the malaria cycle before the species is lost.

## 5. Burmese Roofed Turtle (Batagur trivittata)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/burmese-roofed-turtle.html
- Class: Reptile (River turtle)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~6 wild females · ~1,000 captive
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Myanmar (Asia)
- Habitat: Large sandbanked rivers — today only the upper Chindwin River
- Threats: Egg collection; Fishing bycatch and gold dredging; Dam development; Tiny wild population
- Working to save it: Turtle Survival Alliance; Wildlife Conservation Society

Rediscovered in 2002 after being presumed extinct, this river turtle survives as a handful of wild females and a thriving rescue colony.

The grinning green face of the male Burmese roofed turtle has become a symbol of second chances. From five or six wild females found nesting on the Chindwin River, a head-starting programme has built a captive ark of nearly a thousand turtles, with juveniles now being released back into the river.

## 6. Vaquita (Phocoena sinus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/vaquita.html
- Class: Mammal (Porpoise)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~10
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Mexico (North America)
- Habitat: Shallow, turbid waters of the upper Gulf of California
- Threats: Drowning in illegal gillnets; Illegal totoaba swim-bladder trade; Weak enforcement
- Working to save it: Sea Shepherd Global; World Wide Fund for Nature; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

The world's rarest marine mammal — roughly ten porpoises survive in a sliver of Mexican sea, dying in nets set for an illegally traded fish.

The vaquita, 'little cow' in Spanish, is a shy, dark-eyed porpoise found nowhere but the upper Gulf of California. Gillnets set illegally for totoaba — whose swim bladders sell for thousands of dollars in black markets — drown vaquitas faster than they can breed, though the survivors remain healthy and still calve.

## 7. Kihansi Spray Toad (Nectophrynoides asperginis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/kihansi-spray-toad.html
- Class: Amphibian (Toad)
- IUCN status: Extinct in the Wild
- Estimated population: Extinct in the wild · thousands captive
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Tanzania (Africa)
- Habitat: Spray zone of a single waterfall in the Kihansi Gorge — a habitat of about two hectares
- Threats: Hydroelectric dam removed 90% of waterfall spray; Chytrid fungus; Microscopic natural range
- Working to save it: Amphibian Ark; Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

A thumbnail-sized toad that lived in the mist of one waterfall — extinct in the wild within a decade of a dam being built.

The Kihansi spray toad occupied perhaps the smallest range of any vertebrate: the spray meadows of one Tanzanian waterfall. When a dam cut the river's flow, the mist vanished and chytrid fungus finished the job. Zoo populations in the US and Tanzania now number in the thousands, and experimental reintroductions beneath artificial sprinklers offer a fragile second act.

## 8. Wyoming Toad (Anaxyrus baxteri)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/wyoming-toad.html
- Class: Amphibian (Toad)
- IUCN status: Extinct in the Wild
- Estimated population: Extinct in the wild · reintroductions ongoing
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: United States (North America)
- Habitat: Floodplain ponds and wet meadows of the Laramie Basin, Wyoming
- Threats: Chytrid fungus; Pesticides; Habitat alteration and drought
- Working to save it: United States Fish & Wildlife Service; Amphibian Ark; Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program

One of North America's rarest amphibians, surviving only through captive breeding and yearly releases onto the Wyoming plains.

The Wyoming toad collapsed in the 1970s as pesticides, habitat change and disease swept the Laramie Basin. Declared extinct in the wild, they persist because zoos and federal hatcheries release thousands of tadpoles and toadlets each summer — and in recent years, wild-hatched toads have started to appear again.

## 9. Panamanian Golden Frog (Atelopus zeteki)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/panamanian-golden-frog.html
- Class: Amphibian (Harlequin toad)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Possibly 0 wild · ~1,500 captive
- Trend: Unknown
- Range: Panama (Central America)
- Habitat: Mountain streams of west-central Panama's cloud forests
- Threats: Chytrid fungus pandemic; Habitat loss; Historic over-collection
- Working to save it: Amphibian Ark; Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation

Panama's national symbol of luck has not been seen in the wild since 2009 — they survive in a network of biosecure arks.

The golden frog waves to communicate over the roar of mountain streams, a behaviour found almost nowhere else in nature. Chytrid fungus swept their valleys in the 2000s and the species vanished from the wild; today around 1,500 frogs breed in captivity while scientists work on probiotic and resistance research to bring them home.

## 10. Spix's Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/spixs-macaw.html
- Class: Bird (Parrot)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~20 wild (reintroduced) · ~180 captive
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Brazil (South America)
- Habitat: Caraíba gallery woodland along seasonal creeks in the Bahian caatinga
- Threats: Trapping for the illegal pet trade; Loss of caraíba woodland; Tiny gene pool
- Working to save it: BirdLife International; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

The little blue macaw that inspired the film 'Rio' vanished from the wild in 2000 — and flew free again in 2022.

Driven extinct in the wild by trappers and habitat loss, Spix's macaw survived only in private collections. An international breeding programme returned the first birds to the Brazilian caatinga in 2022, and reintroduced pairs have since nested — the first wild Spix's eggs in a generation.

## 11. Red Wolf (Canis rufus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/red-wolf.html
- Class: Mammal (Canid)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~20 wild · ~270 captive
- Trend: Declining
- Range: United States (North America)
- Habitat: Coastal plain forests, wetlands and farmland of eastern North Carolina
- Threats: Vehicle strikes and gunshot mortality; Hybridisation with coyotes; Political and legal uncertainty
- Working to save it: United States Fish & Wildlife Service; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; Wildlife Conservation Society

America's own wolf — leaner and redder than their grey cousin — clings on as a few dozen animals in coastal North Carolina.

Declared extinct in the wild in 1980, the red wolf became the first carnivore ever successfully reintroduced from captivity. The recovered population once topped 100 before gunshot deaths and policy reversals cut it back to a few packs; new releases and coyote sterilisation are slowly rebuilding it.

## 12. Asiatic Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/asiatic-cheetah.html
- Class: Mammal (Big cat)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~20–30
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Iran (Asia)
- Habitat: Arid steppe and desert ranges of Iran's central plateau
- Threats: Vehicle collisions; Prey depletion; Herding-dog and farmer conflict; Tiny fragmented population
- Working to save it: International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission; Panthera — Wild Cat Conservation; Wildlife Conservation Society

The cheetah once raced across Asia from Arabia to India — today fewer than thirty survive in the deserts of Iran.

The world's last Asiatic cheetahs live at impossibly low densities across Iran's vast central deserts, where roads between reserves kill more cheetahs than any predator. Iranian conservationists camera-trap waterholes and campaign for road fencing, and a first cub was born in captivity in 2022.

## 13. Lord Howe Island Stick Insect (Dryococelus australis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/lord-howe-island-stick-insect.html
- Class: Invertebrate (Stick insect)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~25–35 wild · thousands captive
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Australia (Oceania)
- Habitat: A single melaleuca bush on Ball's Pyramid, a sea stack off Lord Howe Island
- Threats: Black rats (introduced 1918, now eradicated on Lord Howe); Single-site vulnerability; Inbreeding
- Working to save it: Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

The 'land lobster' presumed extinct for 80 years was found alive on the world's tallest sea stack — under one bush.

When rats from a shipwreck exterminated these hand-sized insects on Lord Howe Island, the species was written off. In 2001, climbers found about 24 survivors on a single shrub clinging to Ball's Pyramid. Zoos have since bred tens of thousands, and with rats now eradicated from Lord Howe, the land lobster is poised to come home.

## 14. Mountain Chicken Frog (Leptodactylus fallax)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/mountain-chicken-frog.html
- Class: Amphibian (Frog)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~30 wild
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Dominica, Montserrat (Caribbean)
- Habitat: Moist lowland forest and ravines of two Caribbean islands
- Threats: Chytrid fungus; Volcanic eruptions on Montserrat; Historic hunting for food; Invasive predators
- Working to save it: Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust; Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence; Amphibian Ark

One of the world's largest frogs lost 99% of their population to disease in under two decades.

Named for their size and their former place in island cooking pots, the mountain chicken was devastated when chytrid fungus reached the Caribbean in 2002. Heated 'frog saunas', captive breeding in European zoos, and trial releases on Montserrat are now testing whether the species can live with the fungus that nearly erased them.

## 15. Sumatran Rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/sumatran-rhino.html
- Class: Mammal (Rhinoceros)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~34–47
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Indonesia (Asia)
- Habitat: Dense lowland and montane rainforest of Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo
- Threats: Tiny, isolated populations that rarely meet to breed; Historic poaching; Habitat fragmentation
- Working to save it: International Rhino Foundation; World Wide Fund for Nature; Save the Rhino International

The smallest and hairiest rhino — a living relic of the woolly rhino lineage — now numbers fewer than 50 animals.

Scattered in pockets of Sumatran jungle too far apart to find each other, the species' greatest threat is now loneliness: isolated females lose fertility without regular breeding. A national sanctuary programme is gathering the last rhinos into protected breeding facilities, where five calves have been born since 2012.

## 16. Hainan Gibbon (Nomascus hainanus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/hainan-gibbon.html
- Class: Mammal (Ape)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~42
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: China (Asia)
- Habitat: A few square kilometres of montane rainforest in Bawangling, Hainan Island
- Threats: Historic logging and hunting; Single tiny population; Typhoon damage to forest corridors
- Working to save it: Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden; Fauna & Flora International; Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence

The world's rarest primate sings dawn duets in one patch of forest on a single Chinese island.

Reduced to fewer than ten individuals in the 1970s, the Hainan gibbon has clawed their way back to around 42 animals in five family groups. Rangers monitor every gibbon by their song, and canopy rope bridges built after a landslide reconnected the forest the gibbons travel through.

## 17. Southern Corroboree Frog (Pseudophryne corroboree)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/southern-corroboree-frog.html
- Class: Amphibian (Frog)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: <50 wild · thousands captive
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Australia (Oceania)
- Habitat: Sphagnum bogs of the Snowy Mountains, Kosciuszko National Park
- Threats: Chytrid fungus; Climate change drying alpine bogs; Bushfires; Invasive species
- Working to save it: Amphibian Ark; Australian Wildlife Conservancy; Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program

Australia's yellow-and-black alpine jewel survives in the wild only inside disease-proof enclosures in the Snowy Mountains.

The corroboree frog's bold stripes warn of toxins they brew from their own diet — unique among frogs. Chytrid fungus annihilated wild populations, and the species now persists through zoo breeding and releases into fungus-free fenced bogs high in Kosciuszko National Park.

## 18. Rice's Whale (Balaenoptera ricei)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/rices-whale.html
- Class: Mammal (Baleen whale)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~50
- Trend: Declining
- Range: United States (North America)
- Habitat: A narrow shelf-edge corridor in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico
- Threats: Vessel strikes; Oil-spill and drilling impacts; Ocean noise; Entanglement
- Working to save it: NOAA Fisheries — Protected Resources; World Wide Fund for Nature; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

A whale science only named in 2021 may be gone within our lifetime — about 50 individuals live in one corner of the Gulf of Mexico.

Rice's whale is the only baleen whale resident year-round in US waters, and one of the newest whale species known to science. Their entire world is a strip of water crossed by some of the planet's busiest shipping and drilling activity; slow-speed shipping zones are their conservationists' most urgent demand.

## 19. Māui Dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori maui)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/maui-dolphin.html
- Class: Mammal (Dolphin)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~54
- Trend: Stable
- Range: New Zealand (Oceania)
- Habitat: Shallow coastal waters off the west coast of New Zealand's North Island
- Threats: Gillnet and trawl bycatch; Disease (toxoplasmosis from cat-borne runoff); Tiny population
- Working to save it: New Zealand Department of Conservation; World Wide Fund for Nature; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

The world's smallest dolphin subspecies — about 54 remain off one coastline of New Zealand.

Māui dolphins are small enough to mistake for a child's bodyboard and live their whole lives within sight of New Zealand beaches. Net bans now cover much of their range, but toxoplasmosis washing from land and any remaining gillnetting could still tip a population that produces only a handful of calves each year.

## 20. Javan Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/javan-rhino.html
- Class: Mammal (Rhinoceros)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~76
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Indonesia (Asia)
- Habitat: Lowland rainforest of Ujung Kulon National Park, western Java — its only home
- Threats: Poaching (confirmed losses 2019–2023); Single-site risk: tsunami and volcanic eruption; Invasive arenga palm choking food plants
- Working to save it: International Rhino Foundation; World Wide Fund for Nature; Save the Rhino International

Every Javan rhino on Earth lives in a single national park on the tip of Java, within sight of an active volcano.

Once ranging from India to Java, the Javan rhino now survives only in Ujung Kulon, where the entire species could be lost to one tsunami, eruption or poaching gang — a risk made real by poaching arrests in 2024. Plans to establish a second population elsewhere in Indonesia have become the species' most important insurance policy.

## 21. Cat Ba Langur (Trachypithecus poliocephalus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/cat-ba-langur.html
- Class: Mammal (Monkey)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~85
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Vietnam (Asia)
- Habitat: Limestone karst cliffs and forest of Cat Ba Island, Ha Long Bay
- Threats: Historic poaching for traditional medicine; Tourism development; Tiny single-island population
- Working to save it: Fauna & Flora International; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

Golden-headed and cliff-dwelling, this langur fell to 40 animals on one Vietnamese island — and is slowly climbing back.

The Cat Ba langur sleeps in caves on sheer limestone cliffs rising from Ha Long Bay's emerald waters. Poaching cut the population to around 40 by 2000; two decades of guard patrols and community protection have roughly doubled it, though every birth still counts.

## 22. Madagascar Pochard (Aythya innotata)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/madagascar-pochard.html
- Class: Bird (Diving duck)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~90–100
- Trend: Stable
- Range: Madagascar (Africa)
- Habitat: Volcanic crater lakes and marshes of northern Madagascar
- Threats: Wetland conversion to rice farming; Introduced fish; Sedimentation; Very low chick survival
- Working to save it: Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust; BirdLife International

The world's rarest duck was rediscovered on one remote crater lake after going unseen for 15 years.

Presumed extinct until 22 birds were found on Lake Matsaborimena in 2006, the pochard has been rescued through captive rearing and reintroduction to Lake Sofia, where floating aviaries help young ducks adapt. Restoring the wetlands they need — shared with thousands of farming families — is the longer battle.

## 23. Addax (Addax nasomaculatus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/addax.html
- Class: Mammal (Antelope)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: <100 wild
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Niger, Chad (Africa)
- Habitat: Hyper-arid sand seas and gravel plains of the central Sahara
- Threats: Poaching by armed groups; Disturbance from oil exploration; Drought; Extreme remoteness hampering protection
- Working to save it: Sahara Conservation; African Parks Network; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

The ghost of the Sahara — a spiral-horned antelope that never needs to drink — has been hunted to the brink in their dune refuges.

Addax once moved in herds of thousands across the entire Sahara, tracking rain none of us would notice. Decades of conflict and motorised hunting have left scattered survivors in Niger and Chad, while large semi-wild herds in reserves and a major reintroduction in Chad offer a path back to the sands.

## 24. Saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/saola.html
- Class: Mammal (Wild cattle)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — feared under 100
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Vietnam, Laos (Asia)
- Habitat: Wet evergreen forest of the Annamite Mountains
- Threats: Industrial-scale wire snaring; Habitat fragmentation; Never bred in captivity
- Working to save it: World Wide Fund for Nature; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

The 'Asian unicorn', discovered in 1992 and last photographed in 2013, may be the rarest large animal on Earth.

The saola is so elusive that no biologist has ever seen one in the wild; everything known comes from villagers, snapshots and camera traps. Teams in Vietnam and Laos have removed hundreds of thousands of snares from the Annamites and are using eDNA to find survivors for a last-chance conservation breeding programme.

## 25. Orange-bellied Parrot (Neophema chrysogaster)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/orange-bellied-parrot.html
- Class: Bird (Parrot)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~100 wild (post-breeding)
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Australia (Oceania)
- Habitat: Breeds in Tasmanian button-grass moorland; winters on mainland salt marshes
- Threats: Migration mortality across Bass Strait; Loss of winter salt-marsh habitat; Tiny gene pool; Disease
- Working to save it: BirdLife International; Australian Wildlife Conservancy; Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program

One of only three migratory parrots on Earth — at its lowest, just 17 wild birds returned from migration.

Each spring this small grass parrot crosses the wild Bass Strait to breed in Tasmania's far southwest. The wild flock collapsed to 17 birds in 2016; intensive captive releases, nest protection and ranching of young birds have since pushed annual returns to record highs.

## 26. Red Handfish (Thymichthys politus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/red-handfish.html
- Class: Fish (Handfish)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~100
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Australia (Oceania)
- Habitat: Two tiny rocky reefs in Frederick Henry Bay, Tasmania
- Threats: Habitat loss to urchin barrens; Warming seas; Pollution and coastal development; Minute range
- Working to save it: International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation

Fish that walk on their hands across two reefs the size of football pitches — the entire species' world.

Red handfish don't swim so much as stroll, using pectoral fins like hands on the seafloor. Around 100 individuals survive on two fragments of Tasmanian reef being stripped by overgrazing urchins, so divers now run urchin culls, seagrass restoration and a captive breeding ark at local institutes.

## 27. Philippine Crocodile (Crocodylus mindorensis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/philippine-crocodile.html
- Class: Reptile (Crocodile)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~100–150 mature
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Philippines (Asia)
- Habitat: Freshwater rivers, creeks and marshes of Luzon and Mindanao
- Threats: Habitat conversion to rice paddies; Dynamite fishing; Persecution and entanglement; Fragmented populations
- Working to save it: Turtle Survival Alliance; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission; Wildlife Conservation Society

A small, shy freshwater crocodile found nowhere but the Philippines — and one of the rarest crocodilians alive.

Unlike the dangerous saltwater crocodile, the Philippine crocodile is a modest fish-eater that rarely exceeds three metres. Community sanctuaries in northern Luzon pay rice farmers to share wetlands with crocodiles, and head-started juveniles are released each year into guarded creeks.

## 28. Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/amur-leopard.html
- Class: Mammal (Big cat)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~100–120 wild
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Russia, China (Asia)
- Habitat: Temperate broadleaf forest of the Russian Far East and adjacent China
- Threats: Poaching for pelts; Prey depletion; Forest fires and roads; Inbreeding
- Working to save it: Panthera — Wild Cat Conservation; World Wide Fund for Nature; Wildlife Conservation Society

The world's rarest big cat survives winters of minus 30°C in the forests where Russia meets China.

Pale-coated and thick-furred, the Amur leopard fell to around 30 animals in the 2000s. The creation of Russia's Land of the Leopard National Park tripled the population in 15 years — one of conservation's quiet success stories, though every leopard still matters.

## 29. Cao-vit Gibbon (Nomascus nasutus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/cao-vit-gibbon.html
- Class: Mammal (Ape)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~135
- Trend: Stable
- Range: Vietnam, China (Asia)
- Habitat: Karst limestone forest straddling the Vietnam–China border
- Threats: Historic hunting; Firewood cutting and grazing in forest; Single tiny population
- Working to save it: Fauna & Flora International; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

The world's second-rarest ape lives in one patch of limestone forest on the Vietnam–China border.

Thought extinct for 40 years until rediscovered in 2002, the cao-vit gibbon survives in a single transboundary forest. Drone thermal surveys recently revised the population to about 135 animals, and both countries now manage a joint protected area around the species' last stronghold.

## 30. Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/great-indian-bustard.html
- Class: Bird (Bustard)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~150
- Trend: Declining
- Range: India, Pakistan (Asia)
- Habitat: Semi-arid grasslands and scrub, chiefly the Thar Desert of Rajasthan
- Threats: Collisions with power lines; Grassland loss to farming and solar parks; Slow breeding — one egg per year
- Working to save it: BirdLife International; World Wide Fund for Nature; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

One of the heaviest flying birds on Earth, brought down by the power lines crossing their last desert grasslands.

Standing a metre tall, the great Indian bustard has poor frontal vision and strikes wires they cannot see in time. Around 150 birds remain, mostly in Rajasthan, where courts have ordered cables buried, and a captive-breeding centre in Jaisalmer hatched its first chicks toward a future release flock.

## 31. Malayan Tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/malayan-tiger.html
- Class: Mammal (Big cat)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~150
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Malaysia (Asia)
- Habitat: Tropical rainforest of the Malay Peninsula
- Threats: Snaring by poaching syndicates; Habitat fragmentation by plantations and highways; Prey decline
- Working to save it: Panthera — Wild Cat Conservation; World Wide Fund for Nature; TRAFFIC — Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network

Malaysia's national animal has fallen below 150 individuals — wire snares have emptied whole forests.

A tiger recognised as a distinct subspecies only in 2004 may vanish within a generation: snares set for bushmeat and the wildlife trade have cut numbers from 3,000 in the 1950s. Malaysia has deployed nearly a thousand community rangers and military patrols in a last drive to save its national symbol.

## 32. La Gomera Giant Lizard (Gallotia bravoana)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/la-gomera-giant-lizard.html
- Class: Reptile (Lizard)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~160 wild
- Trend: Stable
- Range: Spain (Europe)
- Habitat: Two inaccessible cliff ledges on La Gomera, Canary Islands
- Threats: Feral cats and rats; Historic collection; Rockfalls on its last cliffs; Minute range
- Working to save it: International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission; Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence

A half-metre lizard presumed extinct for 500 years, found alive in 1999 on a single Canary Island cliff.

Cats brought by settlers drove this giant lizard from the whole of La Gomera, leaving survivors only on cliffs cats couldn't reach. A recovery centre above the Valle Gran Rey now breeds hundreds, and the species has become a flagship for restoring the Canaries' lost reptile giants.

## 33. Kakī / Black Stilt (Himantopus novaezelandiae)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/kaki-black-stilt.html
- Class: Bird (Wading bird)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~170 adults
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: New Zealand (Oceania)
- Habitat: Braided glacial rivers of the Mackenzie Basin, South Island
- Threats: Introduced stoats, ferrets and cats; Hydro development on braided rivers; Hybridisation with pied stilts
- Working to save it: New Zealand Department of Conservation; BirdLife International

The world's rarest wading bird, jet-black on pink legs, survives on New Zealand's braided alpine rivers.

Kakī dropped to just 23 birds in 1981 as introduced predators raided their riverbed nests. Nearly every wild egg is now hatched in incubators and the chicks released at nine months old — a programme that has hauled the adult population to about 170, its highest in decades.

## 34. Devils Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/devils-hole-pupfish.html
- Class: Fish (Pupfish)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~190 (2024 count)
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: United States (North America)
- Habitat: A single 3m × 22m limestone pool in the Mojave Desert, Nevada
- Threats: Groundwater extraction; Flash floods and earthquakes; Food scarcity on one shallow shelf; Smallest range of any vertebrate
- Working to save it: United States Fish & Wildlife Service; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

The entire species lives in one desert pool smaller than a swimming lane — the smallest known range of any vertebrate.

Devils Hole pupfish spawn on a single sunlit rock shelf in a water-filled cavern whose depths have never been mapped. The population fell to 35 fish in 2013; protected groundwater, supplemental feeding and a $4.5m replica refuge tank have lifted counts to their highest in 25 years.

## 35. Dama Gazelle (Nanger dama)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/dama-gazelle.html
- Class: Mammal (Antelope)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~100–200 wild
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Chad, Niger, Mali (Africa)
- Habitat: Sahelian grassland and sub-desert steppe
- Threats: Hunting from vehicles; Habitat degradation and overgrazing; Regional instability; Severely fragmented herds
- Working to save it: Sahara Conservation; African Parks Network; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

The largest and rarest gazelle — white and rust-red — survives as scattered handfuls across the Sahel.

Dama gazelles once flowed across the Sahel in their thousands; motorised hunting reduced them to a few tiny pockets in Chad and Niger. World herds in Texas ranches and zoos far outnumber wild animals, and reinforcement releases in Chad's Ouadi Rimé reserve are rebuilding a wild future.

## 36. Ploughshare Tortoise (Astrochelys yniphora)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/ploughshare-tortoise.html
- Class: Reptile (Tortoise)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: <200 wild
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Madagascar (Africa)
- Habitat: Bamboo-scrub around Baly Bay, northwestern Madagascar
- Threats: Poaching for the luxury pet trade; Brush fires; Tiny range; Collector prices in the tens of thousands of dollars
- Working to save it: Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust; Turtle Survival Alliance; TRAFFIC — Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network

The world's most trafficked tortoise is so coveted by collectors that conservationists deface shells to make them worthless.

The golden-domed ploughshare exists only around Baly Bay, where their beauty has made them a black-market trophy worth more than gold by weight. Guards now engrave identification marks into the shells of wild tortoises to destroy their trade value, while Durrell's breeding centre raises confiscated and captive-bred young.

## 37. Giant Ibis (Thaumatibis gigantea)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/giant-ibis.html
- Class: Bird (Ibis)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~200
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Cambodia, Laos (Asia)
- Habitat: Seasonal wetlands and dry dipterocarp forest of northern Cambodia
- Threats: Wetland drainage for agriculture; Hunting and egg collection; Logging; Drought intensified by climate change
- Working to save it: Wildlife Conservation Society; BirdLife International

Cambodia's national bird, a metre-tall shadow of the northern forests, numbers around 200 individuals.

The giant ibis survived war and famine in Cambodia's remote north only to face accelerating forest loss. Community nest-protection schemes pay villagers to guard breeding trees, tying the bird's fate to some of the most successful village-led conservation in Southeast Asia.

## 38. Kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/kakapo.html
- Class: Bird (Parrot)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~244
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: New Zealand (Oceania)
- Habitat: Predator-free island sanctuaries (Whenua Hou, Anchor and Te Hauturu-o-Toi)
- Threats: Introduced predators on the mainland; Infertility and inbreeding; Disease (aspergillosis); Boom-bust breeding tied to rimu fruiting
- Working to save it: New Zealand Department of Conservation; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; BirdLife International

The world's only flightless parrot — nocturnal, moss-green and owl-faced — is counted so closely every bird has a name.

Kākāpō evolved with no mammalian predators and nearly vanished when rats, cats and stoats arrived; by 1995 only 51 remained. Every bird now wears a transmitter on a predator-free island, with genomics-guided matchmaking and smart feeders driving record breeding seasons.

## 39. Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey (Rhinopithecus avunculus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/tonkin-snub-nosed-monkey.html
- Class: Mammal (Monkey)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~250
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Vietnam (Asia)
- Habitat: Subtropical karst forest of northern Vietnam
- Threats: Hunting; Forest clearance for cardamom and timber; Severely fragmented groups
- Working to save it: Fauna & Flora International; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

An upturned-nosed monkey thought extinct until the 1990s endures in fragments of northern Vietnam's cloud forest.

With their powder-blue face and whimsical nose, the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey is among the most striking primates alive. Community patrols around Khau Ca forest have protected the largest population so well it has more than doubled — proof that village guardianship can outperform fences.

## 40. Silky Sifaka (Propithecus candidus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/silky-sifaka.html
- Class: Mammal (Lemur)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~250 (est. 100–1,000)
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Madagascar (Africa)
- Habitat: Montane rainforest of the Marojejy massif, northeastern Madagascar
- Threats: Slash-and-burn clearance; Illegal rosewood logging; Hunting; No captive population exists
- Working to save it: Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence; Conservation International; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation

The 'angel of the forest' — a white silk-furred lemur — leaps through Madagascar's misty peaks in dwindling numbers.

Silky sifakas cannot survive in captivity, so their fate rests entirely on Marojejy's forests, which were plundered for rosewood during political crises. Local guides, ecotourism and ranger patrols are now the species' main shield.

## 41. Northern River Terrapin (Batagur baska)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/northern-river-terrapin.html
- Class: Reptile (River turtle)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: A few hundred, mostly head-started
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Bangladesh, India (Asia)
- Habitat: Tidal rivers and mangrove channels of the Sundarbans delta
- Threats: Centuries of egg harvesting; Fishing bycatch; Sand mining of nesting beaches; Sea-level rise
- Working to save it: Turtle Survival Alliance; Wildlife Conservation Society

Asia's great estuary turtle was eaten to the edge of extinction; breeding centres in the Sundarbans are rebuilding it egg by egg.

Once harvested by the boatload for feasts in colonial Bengal, the northern river terrapin all but vanished from the wild. Conservation hatcheries in Bangladesh and India now hold breeding colonies, and satellite-tagged females released into the Sundarbans are mapping the rivers the species will need to reclaim.

## 42. Chinese Alligator (Alligator sinensis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/chinese-alligator.html
- Class: Reptile (Alligator)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~300 wild · >20,000 captive
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: China (Asia)
- Habitat: Ponds, ditches and wetland fragments of the lower Yangtze floodplain, Anhui
- Threats: Conversion of wetlands to rice paddies; Historic persecution; Pesticide poisoning of prey; Tiny fragmented wild range
- Working to save it: Wildlife Conservation Society; Turtle Survival Alliance; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

The 'muddy dragon' of Chinese legend survives wild in farm ponds — while twenty thousand wait in breeding centres.

One of only two alligator species on Earth, the Chinese alligator hibernates in burrows through Yangtze winters. Their wild population collapsed with the floodplain's conversion to agriculture, but releases of captive-bred animals into restored wetlands have tripled wild numbers since 2000.

## 43. Vancouver Island Marmot (Marmota vancouverensis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/vancouver-island-marmot.html
- Class: Mammal (Rodent)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~300 wild
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Canada (North America)
- Habitat: Sub-alpine meadows of Vancouver Island, British Columbia
- Threats: Predation by cougars, wolves and eagles; Clear-cut logging altering meadow ecology; Tiny population effects
- Working to save it: International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission; Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program; Wildlife Conservation Society

Canada's most endangered mammal — a chocolate-brown alpine marmot found on one island — fell to 30 animals in 2003.

Logging roads funnelled predators into the high meadows where these sociable marmots whistle from boulders. A breeding programme spanning Canadian zoos has released hundreds of pups, pushing the wild population from 30 to around 300 across its mountain colonies.

## 44. Regent Honeyeater (Anthochaera phrygia)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/regent-honeyeater.html
- Class: Bird (Honeyeater)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~250–350 wild
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Australia (Oceania)
- Habitat: Box-ironbark woodland of southeastern Australia
- Threats: Loss of 90% of woodland habitat; Competition from aggressive miners; Population too sparse to maintain song culture
- Working to save it: BirdLife International; Australian Wildlife Conservancy; Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program

A gold-embroidered nomad so rare that young males are forgetting the species' own song.

Regent honeyeaters once moved in flocks of hundreds tracking eucalypt blossom; now the survivors are so scattered that wild chicks fail to learn their courtship song, deepening the decline. Zoo-bred birds are taught wild song from recordings before release into restored woodland corridors.

## 45. Cross River Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/cross-river-gorilla.html
- Class: Mammal (Ape)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~200–300
- Trend: Stable
- Range: Nigeria, Cameroon (Africa)
- Habitat: Rugged forested highlands of the Nigeria–Cameroon border
- Threats: Hunting; Forest clearance for farms and roads; Fragmentation into 11 small subpopulations
- Working to save it: Wildlife Conservation Society; Fauna & Flora International; Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International

The world's rarest great ape hides in the hill forests of the Nigeria–Cameroon border — so wary they are almost never seen.

Cross River gorillas survived by retreating to terrain too steep to farm, and decades of community work mean none are known to have been poached in years. Camera traps now capture families with infants — quiet evidence that the rarest gorilla is holding their ground.

## 46. North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/north-atlantic-right-whale.html
- Class: Mammal (Baleen whale)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~360 (~70 breeding females)
- Trend: Declining
- Range: United States, Canada (North America)
- Habitat: Coastal Atlantic waters from Florida's calving grounds to Canadian feeding gulfs
- Threats: Entanglement in fishing rope; Ship strikes; Shifting prey from ocean warming; Low calving rates
- Working to save it: NOAA Fisheries — Protected Resources; World Wide Fund for Nature; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

Whalers called them the 'right' whale to kill; today ropes and ships are finishing what harpoons began — about 360 remain.

More than 85% of North Atlantic right whales bear entanglement scars, and warming seas have pushed their copepod prey into busy shipping lanes. Ropeless 'on-demand' fishing gear and dynamic speed zones are the technologies conservationists are racing to scale before females fall below recovery numbers.

## 47. Black-footed Ferret (Mustela nigripes)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/black-footed-ferret.html
- Class: Mammal (Mustelid)
- IUCN status: Endangered
- Estimated population: ~370 wild
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: United States (North America)
- Habitat: Prairie-dog towns of the Great Plains
- Threats: Sylvatic plague; Prairie-dog eradication removing 90% of prey base; Habitat conversion to cropland
- Working to save it: United States Fish & Wildlife Service; World Wide Fund for Nature; Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program

Declared extinct twice, North America's masked prairie hunter was saved by a ranch dog named Shep who brought one home in 1981.

Every black-footed ferret alive descends from seven animals rescued from a Wyoming ranch. Releases at 30+ prairie sites, plague vaccines dropped by drone, and the first cloned ferrets — restoring lost genes from frozen tissue — have made this one of conservation's boldest recovery stories.

## 48. Hirola (Beatragus hunteri)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/hirola.html
- Class: Mammal (Antelope)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~300–500
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Kenya, Somalia (Africa)
- Habitat: Open grasslands of the Kenya–Somalia borderlands
- Threats: Rinderpest legacy and disease; Drought and habitat loss to bush encroachment; Predation on tiny herds; Regional insecurity
- Working to save it: Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission; African Parks Network

The world's rarest antelope — the 'four-eyed' hirola — would be the first mammalian genus lost since the thylacine.

Named for the dark glands beneath their eyes that look like spectacles, the hirola has no captive population anywhere: if they disappear from the Kenyan border grasslands, an entire genus disappears with them. Community conservancies led by Somali pastoralists run predator-proof sanctuaries that have begun raising numbers.

## 49. Blue-throated Macaw (Ara glaucogularis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/blue-throated-macaw.html
- Class: Bird (Parrot)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~350–450
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Bolivia (South America)
- Habitat: Palm-island savannas of the Llanos de Moxos, Beni
- Threats: Historic trapping for the pet trade; Loss of motacú palm groves to cattle ranching; Nest-site scarcity
- Working to save it: BirdLife International; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program

A turquoise-throated macaw rediscovered in 1992 now returns to Bolivian savannas where their feathers once adorned festival headdresses.

Trapping for the pet trade nearly erased the blue-throated macaw before their wild home was even known to science. Nest-box programmes across Beni ranchland fledge dozens of chicks yearly, and indigenous communities now craft festival headdresses from synthetic fibres instead of macaw feathers.

## 50. Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/spoon-billed-sandpiper.html
- Class: Bird (Shorebird)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~490 mature
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Russia, China, Bangladesh, Myanmar (Asia)
- Habitat: Breeds on Chukotka's tundra; migrates 8,000 km down the East Asian coast
- Threats: Reclamation of Yellow Sea tidal flats; Hunting and trapping on wintering grounds; Climate change on Arctic breeding grounds
- Working to save it: BirdLife International; Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence; Wildlife Conservation Society

A sparrow-sized shorebird with a spatula bill flies 8,000 km each year through the most threatened coastline on Earth.

The spoon-billed sandpiper's flyway threads the Yellow Sea, where most tidal flats have been claimed by concrete. Head-starting on the Russian tundra, hunting-free village agreements in Myanmar, and China's new coastal-wetland protections all underpin a fragile flicker of hope.

## 51. Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/ethiopian-wolf.html
- Class: Mammal (Canid)
- IUCN status: Endangered
- Estimated population: ~500
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Ethiopia (Africa)
- Habitat: Afro-alpine moorland above 3,000 m in the Ethiopian highlands
- Threats: Rabies and distemper from domestic dogs; Loss of alpine habitat to farming; Tiny isolated populations
- Working to save it: International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; African Parks Network

Africa's most endangered carnivore — a russet highland wolf that hunts giant mole-rats alone above the clouds.

Ethiopian wolves live only on a handful of alpine 'sky islands', where one rabies outbreak from village dogs can erase a third of a population in months. Vaccination campaigns — including oral baits for the wolves themselves — have become the species' lifeline.

## 52. Riverine Rabbit (Bunolagus monticularis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/riverine-rabbit.html
- Class: Mammal (Rabbit)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~500
- Trend: Declining
- Range: South Africa (Africa)
- Habitat: Dense riverside scrub of seasonal rivers in the Karoo desert
- Threats: Riverbank habitat ploughed for agriculture; Fragmentation by fences and roads; Low breeding rate — one kit per year
- Working to save it: Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

One of the world's rarest rabbits hides in ribbon-thin riverside thickets of South Africa's Karoo.

The nocturnal riverine rabbit produces only a single kit a year, making every lost individual costly. Because most survivors live on private farmland, conservation here means partnerships: farmers signing conservancy agreements to spare the riverine scrub their sheep don't need.

## 53. Bali Myna (Leucopsar rothschildi)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/bali-myna.html
- Class: Bird (Starling)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~400–500 wild
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Indonesia (Asia)
- Habitat: Monsoon forest and savanna of West Bali National Park
- Threats: Trapping for the songbird trade; Tiny range; Historic population of just 6 wild birds (2001)
- Working to save it: BirdLife International; Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program; TRAFFIC — Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network

Bali's snow-white emblem was stolen almost to extinction for songbird cages — at its lowest, six wild birds remained.

So beautiful they became a status symbol, Bali mynas were poached out of their own national park. A novel scheme licensing village breeders to keep and sell captive-bred mynas undercut the black market, and wild flocks around West Bali have climbed back into the hundreds.

## 54. Whooping Crane (Grus americana)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/whooping-crane.html
- Class: Bird (Crane)
- IUCN status: Endangered
- Estimated population: ~540 wild
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: United States, Canada (North America)
- Habitat: Breeds in Wood Buffalo's boreal wetlands; winters on the Texas Gulf Coast
- Threats: Power-line collisions; Coastal habitat loss and drought; Illegal shooting; Single main migratory flock
- Working to save it: International Crane Foundation; United States Fish & Wildlife Service; Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program

North America's tallest bird came back from 15 individuals — taught new migration routes by pilots in ultralight aircraft.

The whooping crane's recovery from 15 birds in 1941 to over 500 today spans eight decades of audacity: captive flocks, costume-rearing chicks, and ultralight-led migrations. The single wild flock that migrates 4,000 km between Canada and Texas remains the species' beating heart.

## 55. California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/california-condor.html
- Class: Bird (Vulture)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~560 (~350 wild)
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: United States, Mexico (North America)
- Habitat: Cliffs and canyons of California, Arizona, Utah and Baja California
- Threats: Lead poisoning from carcass ammunition; Micro-trash ingestion; Avian influenza; Slow reproduction
- Working to save it: United States Fish & Wildlife Service; Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation

In 1987 every California condor on Earth — all 22 — was taken into captivity. Today over 350 ride the thermals again.

North America's largest bird, with a three-metre wingspan, was rescued by the most famous captive-breeding gamble ever taken. Condors now breed wild in four states and Mexico, including releases by the Yurok Tribe in redwood country, but lead ammunition in carrion still poisons more condors than any other threat.

## 56. Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/sumatran-tiger.html
- Class: Mammal (Big cat)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~400–600
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Indonesia (Asia)
- Habitat: Tropical rainforest from lowland peat swamp to mountain cloud forest, Sumatra
- Threats: Deforestation for palm oil and pulpwood; Poaching and snaring; Human–tiger conflict; Island isolation
- Working to save it: Panthera — Wild Cat Conservation; World Wide Fund for Nature; Fauna & Flora International

The smallest surviving tiger — and the last in Indonesia after Bali's and Java's were lost — holds out in shrinking island forests.

Sumatra has lost more than half its forest since 1985, squeezing tigers into fragments where snares and conflict take a steady toll. Rangers destroy thousands of snares yearly, and certified deforestation-free palm oil is slowly changing the economics of the tiger's last island.

## 57. Jamaican Iguana (Cyclura collei)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/jamaican-iguana.html
- Class: Reptile (Iguana)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~500–600
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Jamaica (Caribbean)
- Habitat: Tropical dry forest of the Hellshire Hills, southern Jamaica
- Threats: Invasive mongooses, cats and pigs; Charcoal burning destroying dry forest; Proposed port development
- Working to save it: Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission; Association of Zoos & Aquariums — SAFE Program

Declared extinct in 1948, Jamaica's largest native land animal was rediscovered by a hunter's dog in 1990.

The Jamaican iguana's rediscovery in the Hellshire Hills launched one of herpetology's great rescues: headstarting hatchlings at Hope Zoo until they outgrow mongoose jaws has raised the wild population from fewer than 50 to several hundred, all in one last patch of dry forest.

## 58. Tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/tamaraw.html
- Class: Mammal (Wild cattle)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~600
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Philippines (Asia)
- Habitat: Grassland-forest mosaic of Mounts Iglit-Baco, Mindoro Island
- Threats: Historic hunting and disease; Habitat loss to farming; Confinement to a fraction of former range
- Working to save it: Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission; World Wide Fund for Nature

A dwarf buffalo found only on Mindoro Island — 10,000 once roamed; rinderpest and rifles left a few hundred.

The tamaraw is the Philippines' largest endemic land animal, a compact buffalo with V-shaped horns. Joint patrols by rangers and Indigenous Tau-Buid communities protect their core grassland, where annual counts have climbed steadily past 600.

## 59. Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/gharial.html
- Class: Reptile (Crocodilian)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~650 adults
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: India, Nepal (Asia)
- Habitat: Deep, fast-flowing rivers with sandbanks — Chambal, Girwa and Rapti-Narayani
- Threats: Dams and barrages fragmenting rivers; Sand mining of nesting banks; Fishing-net entanglement; River pollution
- Working to save it: Turtle Survival Alliance; World Wide Fund for Nature; Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence

A fish-eating crocodilian with a needle snout, down 98% in a century — males grow a pot on their nose to sing through.

Gharials never attack humans; their slender jaws are built purely for fish. India's National Chambal Sanctuary holds most of the world's breeding adults, where annual nest counts, hatchling head-starting and campaigns against illegal sand mining are inching the species back.

## 60. Bengal Florican (Houbaropsis bengalensis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/bengal-florican.html
- Class: Bird (Bustard)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~600–800
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Cambodia, India, Nepal (Asia)
- Habitat: Seasonally flooded grasslands of the Tonle Sap and Brahmaputra basins
- Threats: Grassland conversion to dry-season rice; Dam-driven changes to flood cycles; Hunting
- Working to save it: Wildlife Conservation Society; BirdLife International

A bustard that leaps black-and-white above the grass in display — their floodplain home is vanishing into rice paddies.

Most of the world's Bengal floricans display over the grasslands around Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake, a landscape transformed by industrial rice. Protected grassland reserves and bird-friendly rice schemes pay farmers to keep the floodplain mosaic the florican's dance requires.

## 61. Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/philippine-eagle.html
- Class: Bird (Eagle)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~600–800 (~400 pairs)
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Philippines (Asia)
- Habitat: Old-growth dipterocarp rainforest on Luzon, Samar, Leyte and Mindanao
- Threats: Deforestation of nesting forest; Shooting despite legal protection; Slow breeding — one chick every two years
- Working to save it: Philippine Eagle Foundation; BirdLife International

One of the largest, rarest eagles on Earth — each pair needs up to 100 km² of old-growth Philippine rainforest.

Crowned with a shaggy crest, the Philippine eagle is the national bird of a country that has lost most of its old-growth forest. The Philippine Eagle Foundation pairs captive breeding with Indigenous forest-guard programmes, because every wild nest protected matters more than any aviary.

## 62. Forest Owlet (Athene blewitti)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/forest-owlet.html
- Class: Bird (Owl)
- IUCN status: Endangered
- Estimated population: ~250–1,000
- Trend: Declining
- Range: India (Asia)
- Habitat: Dry deciduous teak forest of central India
- Threats: Forest clearance and illegal logging; Firewood collection; Patchy, fragmented range
- Working to save it: BirdLife International; World Wide Fund for Nature

Lost to science for 113 years, this small day-hunting owl was rediscovered in 1997 in central India's teak forests.

The forest owlet hunts lizards and rodents in broad daylight from bare teak branches. Rediscovered after more than a century of presumed extinction, they survive in scattered forest blocks where conservationists work with forest departments and villages to keep mature teak standing.

## 63. Hooded Grebe (Podiceps gallardoi)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/hooded-grebe.html
- Class: Bird (Grebe)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~750–800
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Argentina, Chile (South America)
- Habitat: Windswept basaltic plateau lakes of Santa Cruz, Patagonia
- Threats: Invasive American mink; Introduced trout eating food supply; Kelp-gull predation; Drying lakes under climate change
- Working to save it: BirdLife International; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation

Discovered only in 1974, this Patagonian dancer performs one of the most spectacular courtship ballets in nature.

Hooded grebes breed on remote plateau lakes where introduced mink can destroy a whole colony in a night. 'Colony guardian' biologists camp beside every known breeding lake each summer — a thin human shield credited with halting the species' free-fall.

## 64. Tapanuli Orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/tapanuli-orangutan.html
- Class: Mammal (Ape)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~800
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Indonesia (Asia)
- Habitat: Batang Toru montane forest, North Sumatra — a range smaller than London
- Threats: Hydropower dam in core habitat; Gold mining and agriculture; Range split into three fragments
- Working to save it: Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; World Wide Fund for Nature; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

Described in 2017 as the first new great ape in 90 years, they instantly became the most endangered great ape on Earth.

The Tapanuli orangutan exists only in the Batang Toru forest, where a hydroelectric dam threatens the corridor linking their three subpopulations. Scientists and NGOs continue to contest the project while community forest agreements shore up the edges of their tiny mountain realm.

## 65. Siamese Crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/siamese-crocodile.html
- Class: Reptile (Crocodile)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~500–1,000 wild
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia (Asia)
- Habitat: Slow rivers, marshes and lakes of the Cardamom Mountains and Mekong basin
- Threats: Collection for crocodile farms; Hydropower flooding river habitat; Fishing gear entanglement; Hybridisation on farms
- Working to save it: Fauna & Flora International; Wildlife Conservation Society; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

Declared 'effectively extinct in the wild' in 1992, Cambodia's sacred crocodile is being rebuilt river by river.

Revered by Khmer communities who consider harming one taboo, the Siamese crocodile survived in remote Cardamom rivers. DNA-screened purebred animals from farms are released annually, and 2024 brought a record wild hatching of more than a hundred young — the best sign yet of a comeback.

## 66. Plains-wanderer (Pedionomus torquatus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/plains-wanderer.html
- Class: Bird (Grassland bird)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~250–1,000
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Australia (Oceania)
- Habitat: Sparse native lowland grassland of the Riverina, New South Wales and Victoria
- Threats: Grassland conversion to crops; Grazing pressure changing grass structure; Drought and flood cycles; Foxes
- Working to save it: Australian Wildlife Conservancy; Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence; BirdLife International

A bird so evolutionarily distinct they have no living relatives — 60 million years of history balancing on Australia's last native grasslands.

The quail-like plains-wanderer is ranked the world's most evolutionarily distinct endangered bird. They need grassland neither too thick nor too bare, so conservation here is delicate grazing management on private stations, paired with a growing zoo insurance population.

## 67. Pygmy Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus pygmaeus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/pygmy-three-toed-sloth.html
- Class: Mammal (Sloth)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~500–1,500
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Panama (Central America)
- Habitat: Red mangrove fringes of Isla Escudo de Veraguas, 17 km off Panama's coast
- Threats: Mangrove cutting; Tiny single-island range; Visiting fishers and tourism pressure
- Working to save it: Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; Conservation International

The world's smallest sloth swims between mangroves on one tiny Caribbean island — and exists nowhere else.

Marooned on Isla Escudo for 9,000 years, the pygmy sloth shrank to half the weight of their mainland cousins. Their fate depends on a few square kilometres of mangrove, now the focus of protection agreements with the local Ngäbe communities who steward the island.

## 68. Greater Bamboo Lemur (Prolemur simus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/greater-bamboo-lemur.html
- Class: Mammal (Lemur)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~1,000+
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Madagascar (Africa)
- Habitat: Bamboo-rich rainforest of eastern Madagascar
- Threats: Slash-and-burn agriculture; Bamboo harvesting; Climate shifts in bamboo growth; Hunting
- Working to save it: Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust; Conservation International; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

A lemur that eats giant bamboo laced with cyanide — daily consuming doses that would kill a human.

Once thought extinct, the greater bamboo lemur was rediscovered in the 1980s and has slowly recovered from a few hundred known individuals. Their cyanide-rich diet ties them utterly to bamboo corridors, which communities now replant as living bridges between forest fragments.

## 69. Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/mountain-gorilla.html
- Class: Mammal (Ape)
- IUCN status: Endangered
- Estimated population: ~1,063
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Rwanda, Uganda, DR Congo (Africa)
- Habitat: Misty montane forest of the Virunga volcanoes and Bwindi
- Threats: Human disease transmission; Snares set for other animals; Civil unrest around parks; Tiny total range
- Working to save it: Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International; World Wide Fund for Nature; African Parks Network

The only great ape whose numbers are rising — from 254 in 1981 to over 1,000, guarded by rangers who risk everything.

Mountain gorillas became conservation's defining cause through Dian Fossey's work in the Virungas. Gorilla tourism now funds armies of trackers and vets who treat snare wounds in the forest, and the population has more than quadrupled — hope, hard-earned and still fragile.

## 70. Orinoco Crocodile (Crocodylus intermedius)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/orinoco-crocodile.html
- Class: Reptile (Crocodile)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~250–1,500 wild
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Colombia, Venezuela (South America)
- Habitat: Rivers and seasonal lagoons of the Orinoco basin llanos
- Threats: Historic hide-hunting (millions killed); Egg collection and meat hunting; Habitat alteration; Political instability limiting protection
- Working to save it: Wildlife Conservation Society; Turtle Survival Alliance; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

South America's largest predator — up to six metres — was skinned by the million for handbags; a few hundred breeders remain.

Between the 1920s and 1960s, commercial tanneries emptied the llanos of Orinoco crocodiles. Venezuelan ranches and Colombian breeding stations have released thousands of head-started juveniles, but recovery limps against ongoing egg harvest and the region's instability.

## 71. Chinese Crocodile Lizard (Shinisaurus crocodilurus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/chinese-crocodile-lizard.html
- Class: Reptile (Lizard)
- IUCN status: Endangered
- Estimated population: ~1,200 wild
- Trend: Declining
- Range: China, Vietnam (Asia)
- Habitat: Slow forest streams and pools in subtropical hill forest
- Threats: Illegal collection for pet trade and traditional medicine; Streamside forest clearance; Pollution and dams on small streams
- Working to save it: Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence; Fauna & Flora International; TRAFFIC — Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network

A living fossil — the only living member of an ancient family — that naps motionless on branches above forest pools for hours.

Locals call them the 'sleeping snake' for their motionless basking trances. The only living species of an ancient reptile family, they are poached for the pet trade from tiny stream fragments in southern China and northern Vietnam, where breeding stations and trade enforcement fight to hold the line.

## 72. Yangtze Finless Porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/yangtze-finless-porpoise.html
- Class: Mammal (Porpoise)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~1,250
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: China (Asia)
- Habitat: The Yangtze River and its great lakes, Poyang and Dongting
- Threats: Vessel traffic and propeller strikes; Sand mining destroying habitat; Historic overfishing of prey; Pollution
- Working to save it: World Wide Fund for Nature; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

The world's only freshwater porpoise — the 'smiling angel of the Yangtze' — swims where the baiji dolphin was already lost.

After the Yangtze's baiji dolphin was declared functionally extinct in 2007, China moved to spare its porpoise the same fate: a ten-year fishing ban across the entire river, relocations to oxbow reserves, and the first population increase ever recorded — up 23% since 2017.

## 73. Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/axolotl.html
- Class: Amphibian (Salamander)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~50–1,000 wild
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Mexico (North America)
- Habitat: Canals and wetlands of Lake Xochimilco, Mexico City
- Threats: Urban pollution of remnant canals; Invasive tilapia and carp; Water extraction for the city; Disease
- Working to save it: Amphibian Ark; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission; Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence

Millions live in laboratories and aquariums — yet the axolotl is nearly gone from the one lake system they call home.

The Aztecs knew the axolotl as the incarnation of the god Xolotl; science knows them as masters of regeneration, able to regrow limbs and parts of their brain. In Xochimilco's last canals, conservationists work with chinampa farmers to build pesticide-free refuges filtered by aquatic plants.

## 74. Cuban Crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/cuban-crocodile.html
- Class: Reptile (Crocodile)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~2,400
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Cuba (Caribbean)
- Habitat: Zapata Swamp and Lanier Swamp — the smallest range of any crocodilian
- Threats: Hybridisation with American crocodiles; Illegal hunting for meat; Sea-level rise into freshwater swamp; Tiny range
- Working to save it: Wildlife Conservation Society; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission; Turtle Survival Alliance

The 'pearly crocodile' — boldly patterned, famously athletic, able to leap from water — survives in two Cuban swamps.

Cuba's endemic crocodile is losing their identity as well as their habitat: widespread interbreeding with American crocodiles dilutes the pure population. The Zapata captive-breeding farm maintains genetically screened bloodlines while rangers combat the bushmeat trade.

## 75. Sumatran Elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/sumatran-elephant.html
- Class: Mammal (Elephant)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~2,400–2,800
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Indonesia (Asia)
- Habitat: Lowland rainforest of Sumatra — the same forests cleared fastest for palm oil
- Threats: Loss of 70% of habitat in one generation; Human–elephant conflict and poisoning; Poaching for ivory; Isolated herds
- Working to save it: World Wide Fund for Nature; Fauna & Flora International; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

Sumatra's elephants lost two-thirds of their forest in 25 years — herds now wander plantations that were jungle a decade ago.

As lowland Sumatra converted to oil palm and pulpwood, elephants were squeezed into fragments and conflict soared. Conservation now centres on securing corridors between herds, rapid-response teams that steer elephants from crops, and protecting the great peat forests that remain.

## 76. Tristan Albatross (Diomedea dabbenena)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/tristan-albatross.html
- Class: Bird (Albatross)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~5,000 (~1,700 pairs)
- Trend: Declining
- Range: United Kingdom (Tristan da Cunha) (Global Oceans)
- Habitat: Breeds almost solely on Gough Island; forages across the South Atlantic
- Threats: Invasive house mice eating live chicks; Longline fishing bycatch; Single breeding island
- Working to save it: BirdLife International; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation

On one of the remotest islands on Earth, introduced mice eat albatross chicks alive in their nests.

Nearly every Tristan albatross hatches on Gough Island, where ordinary house mice — grown unusually large — devour seabird chicks by night. An eradication attempt in 2021 narrowly failed, and planning for a second strike continues while bycatch-reduction measures protect adults at sea.

## 77. White-rumped Vulture (Gyps bengalensis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/white-rumped-vulture.html
- Class: Bird (Vulture)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~6,000
- Trend: Declining
- Range: India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Cambodia (Asia)
- Habitat: Open country, villages and carcass dumps across South Asia
- Threats: Diclofenac poisoning from cattle carcasses; Other toxic veterinary drugs; Food scarcity; Collisions and electrocution
- Working to save it: BirdLife International; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

Once perhaps the most numerous large raptor on Earth — tens of millions — they lost 99.9% of their population in 15 years.

The veterinary painkiller diclofenac, harmless to cattle, destroys vultures' kidneys when they feed on treated carcasses; South Asia's skies emptied in a decade. Drug bans, 'vulture safe zones' and breeding centres have finally slowed the fall — and the first signs of stabilisation are appearing.

## 78. Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/black-rhino.html
- Class: Mammal (Rhinoceros)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~6,400
- Trend: Recovering
- Range: Namibia, South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania (Africa)
- Habitat: Savannah, scrubland and desert margins of eastern and southern Africa
- Threats: Poaching for horn; Habitat loss; Small fragmented populations
- Working to save it: Save the Rhino International; International Rhino Foundation; World Wide Fund for Nature; African Parks Network

Africa's hook-lipped browser lost 96% of their kind in two decades of poaching — and is now slowly, defiantly recovering.

Between 1970 and 1993 black rhino numbers crashed from 65,000 to barely 2,300. Intensive protection zones, dehorning programmes and translocations to rebuild lost range have doubled the population since — yet a rhino is still poached in Africa roughly every day.

## 79. Grauer's Gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/grauers-gorilla.html
- Class: Mammal (Ape)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~6,800
- Trend: Declining
- Range: DR Congo (Africa)
- Habitat: Lowland and mid-altitude rainforest of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
- Threats: Bushmeat hunting around mining camps; Armed conflict in core range; Habitat clearance; Disease
- Working to save it: Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International; Wildlife Conservation Society; Fauna & Flora International

The world's largest gorilla lost 60% of their population in a single generation amid eastern Congo's conflict.

Grauer's gorillas live amid one of the world's longest-running conflicts, where artisanal mines for minerals used in electronics draw hunters deep into the forest. Community reserves run by traditional landowners now protect more Grauer's habitat than the national parks themselves.

## 80. Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/kemps-ridley-turtle.html
- Class: Reptile (Sea turtle)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~7,000–9,000 nesting females
- Trend: Stable
- Range: Mexico, United States (North America)
- Habitat: Gulf of Mexico waters; nests almost entirely on one Mexican beach, Rancho Nuevo
- Threats: Shrimp-trawl bycatch; Oil spills in core habitat; Cold-stunning events; Single main nesting beach
- Working to save it: NOAA Fisheries — Protected Resources; United States Fish & Wildlife Service; World Wide Fund for Nature

The world's smallest and most endangered sea turtle storms ashore in daytime mass nestings called 'arribadas' — once 40,000 strong in a single day.

A 1947 film shows an estimated 40,000 Kemp's ridleys nesting at Rancho Nuevo in one day; by 1985 fewer than 250 females nested all year. Fifty years of binational beach protection and turtle-excluder devices in trawls rebuilt nesting to thousands — recovery that stalled after the Deepwater Horizon spill.

## 81. Hawksbill Sea Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/hawksbill-turtle.html
- Class: Reptile (Sea turtle)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~8,000+ nesting females
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Global tropics — 70+ countries (Global Oceans)
- Habitat: Coral reefs and rocky coasts throughout tropical oceans
- Threats: Centuries of tortoiseshell trade; Coral reef collapse; Egg collection; Fishing bycatch and plastic
- Working to save it: World Wide Fund for Nature; Conservation International; Sea Shepherd Global

The source of all 'tortoiseshell' — millions were killed for jewellery and spectacles; reefs are quieter without them.

Hawksbills sculpt coral reefs by grazing the sponges that would otherwise smother coral. An estimated nine million were taken for the tortoiseshell trade over 150 years; though the trade is banned, online sales persist while the reefs the species depends on bleach and fade.

## 82. Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/sumatran-orangutan.html
- Class: Mammal (Ape)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~13,800
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Indonesia (Asia)
- Habitat: Tropical rainforest of the Leuser Ecosystem, northern Sumatra
- Threats: Forest conversion to palm oil; Roads splitting the Leuser Ecosystem; Illegal pet trade; Fires
- Working to save it: World Wide Fund for Nature; Fauna & Flora International; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation

The red ape of Sumatra survives almost entirely in one ecosystem — Leuser — the last place on Earth where orangutans, tigers, rhinos and elephants share one forest.

More arboreal and social than their Bornean cousins, Sumatran orangutans rarely descend from the canopy. Their fate is tied to the Leuser Ecosystem, a forest the size of Belgium under relentless pressure from palm oil and road building; rescue centres rehabilitate confiscated pets back to protected forest.

## 83. African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/african-penguin.html
- Class: Bird (Penguin)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~19,800 mature (~9,900 pairs)
- Trend: Declining
- Range: South Africa, Namibia (Africa)
- Habitat: Offshore islands and two mainland colonies on the Benguela coast
- Threats: Sardine and anchovy collapse from fishing and ocean change; Historic guano and egg harvesting; Oil spills; Noise from ship-to-ship bunkering
- Working to save it: BirdLife International; World Wide Fund for Nature; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

Africa's only penguin was uplisted to Critically Endangered in 2024 — on current trends they could be functionally extinct in the wild by 2035.

A million pairs of African penguins bred a century ago; guano mining stripped their nesting burrows and overfishing emptied their seas. In 2024 the species became the first penguin listed as Critically Endangered, prompting court-ordered fishing closures around key colonies.

## 84. Bornean Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/bornean-orangutan.html
- Class: Mammal (Ape)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: ~104,000
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Indonesia, Malaysia (Asia)
- Habitat: Lowland rainforest and peat swamp forest of Borneo
- Threats: Deforestation for palm oil, pulp and mining; Fires on drained peatland; Killing during crop conflict; Pet trade
- Working to save it: World Wide Fund for Nature; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; TRAFFIC — Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network

More than 100,000 survive, yet Borneo lost half its orangutans in 16 years — numbers alone don't equal safety.

The Bornean orangutan shows how fast even a large population can fall: an estimated 148,000 were lost between 1999 and 2015. Rehabilitation centres care for hundreds of orphans, but the species' future depends on whether Borneo's remaining forests stay standing.

## 85. Chinese Sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/chinese-sturgeon.html
- Class: Fish (Sturgeon)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — no natural spawning since 2017
- Trend: Declining
- Range: China (Asia)
- Habitat: Yangtze River and adjacent seas; historically migrated 3,000 km upstream to spawn
- Threats: Gezhouba and Three Gorges dams blocking spawning runs; Vessel strikes; Pollution; Historic overfishing
- Working to save it: International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission; World Wide Fund for Nature

A 140-million-year-old giant that once swam 3,000 km up the Yangtze to spawn — dams cut the journey, and natural spawning has ceased.

Chinese sturgeon outlived the dinosaurs but not the damming of the Yangtze. With no confirmed natural reproduction since 2017, the species hangs on through massive hatchery releases — over a million fry in some years — and the river-wide fishing ban, while scientists attempt to engineer new spawning grounds.

## 86. Beluga Sturgeon (Huso huso)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/beluga-sturgeon.html
- Class: Fish (Sturgeon)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — wild stocks down >90%
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Caspian states, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine (Europe)
- Habitat: Caspian and Black Sea basins, spawning up the Volga, Ural and Danube rivers
- Threats: Caviar poaching; Dams blocking 90% of spawning habitat; Decades to reach breeding age; Pollution
- Working to save it: World Wide Fund for Nature; TRAFFIC — Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

The source of beluga caviar can live 100 years and weigh more than a horse — their eggs made them the most valuable fish on Earth, and the most plundered.

A female beluga may carry caviar worth more than her weight in silver, a price that fuelled rampant poaching after the Soviet collapse. Wild breeding females in the Caspian are now vanishingly rare; Danube protection, caviar trade bans and restocking are the species' remaining lifelines.

## 87. Mekong Giant Catfish (Pangasianodon gigas)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/mekong-giant-catfish.html
- Class: Fish (Catfish)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — down ~90% since 1990s
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam (Asia)
- Habitat: Deep pools of the Mekong mainstem; once migrated the river's length to spawn
- Threats: Mainstem dams blocking migration; Historic overfishing; Riverbed alteration and sand mining; Climate-shifted flood cycles
- Working to save it: World Wide Fund for Nature; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

One of the largest freshwater fish ever recorded — up to 300 kg — now so rare that a single sighting makes national news.

The Mekong giant catfish is a vegetarian leviathan sacred to river communities, who once held ceremonies before daring to catch one. Dams now stand across their migration routes; conservationists track the few adults encountered in fishers' nets, releasing them tagged in hope of finding the last spawning grounds.

## 88. European Eel (Anguilla anguilla)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/european-eel.html
- Class: Fish (Eel)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — glass eel arrivals down ~95%
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Across Europe, North Africa (Europe)
- Habitat: Born in the Sargasso Sea; lives in European rivers and lakes for decades before returning
- Threats: Illegal glass-eel trafficking to Asia; Hydropower turbines and barriers; Habitat loss; Parasites and pollutants
- Working to save it: Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence; TRAFFIC — Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

Every European eel is born in the Sargasso Sea and crosses an ocean twice — a migration now ambushed by 1.3 million barriers and a billion-euro smuggling trade.

The arrival of juvenile 'glass eels' on European coasts has collapsed by around 95% since the 1980s. Eel trafficking to Asian farms is considered one of the world's largest wildlife crimes by volume, while dam removal and 'eel passes' slowly reopen the rivers of a once-ubiquitous fish.

## 89. Smalltooth Sawfish (Pristis pectinata)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/smalltooth-sawfish.html
- Class: Fish (Sawfish (ray))
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — declined >95%
- Trend: Declining
- Range: United States, Bahamas (North America)
- Habitat: Shallow coastal waters and mangrove estuaries; last strongholds in Florida and the Bahamas
- Threats: Net entanglement — the saw snags every fibre; Mangrove and estuary loss; Unexplained 2024 mortality event in Florida; Slow reproduction
- Working to save it: NOAA Fisheries — Protected Resources; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

A shark-like ray wielding a metre-long toothed blade — their saw, once a curio nailed to dockside bars, made them fatally easy to catch in nets.

Sawfish use their saws to sense and slash schooling fish, but the same organ entangles hopelessly in fishing nets. The US population fell by more than 95% before protection; Florida's mangrove nurseries are now the species' heartland, shaken in 2024 by a mysterious die-off scientists are still investigating.

## 90. Angelshark (Squatina squatina)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/angelshark.html
- Class: Fish (Shark)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — vanished from most of its range
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Spain (Canary Islands), United Kingdom, Ireland (Europe)
- Habitat: Sandy seabeds of the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean; stronghold in the Canary Islands
- Threats: Centuries of trawl bycatch; Coastal development on nursery beaches; Slow reproduction; Disturbance from marine tourism
- Working to save it: Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

A flat shark that buries themselves in sand to ambush prey — trawl nets swept them from almost the entire European coast.

Once common enough to be a fishmonger's staple across Europe, the angelshark now survives mainly around the Canary Islands, where divers report sightings to a community science atlas. Nursery beaches are gaining protection, and tagging is revealing the secret lives of one of Europe's rarest fish.

## 91. Chinese Giant Salamander (Andrias davidianus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/chinese-giant-salamander.html
- Class: Amphibian (Salamander)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — wild populations crashed >80%
- Trend: Declining
- Range: China (Asia)
- Habitat: Cool, fast mountain streams and rivers across central and southern China
- Threats: Poaching for luxury food trade; Farm escapes mixing distinct lineages; Dams and water pollution; Habitat fragmentation
- Working to save it: Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence; Fauna & Flora International; Amphibian Ark

The world's largest amphibian — up to 1.8 metres, essentially unchanged for 170 million years — has been eaten out of their rivers.

Despite millions living on commercial farms, wild giant salamanders have all but disappeared, harvested for banquets where they sell by the kilo. Surveys of hundreds of rivers found almost none; conservation breeding of genetically distinct lineages — likely several separate species — is now a race against homogenisation.

## 92. Titicaca Water Frog (Telmatobius culeus)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/titicaca-water-frog.html
- Class: Amphibian (Frog)
- IUCN status: Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — mass die-offs recorded
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Peru, Bolivia (South America)
- Habitat: Entirely aquatic, in the cold high-altitude waters of Lake Titicaca at 3,800 m
- Threats: Harvesting for 'frog juice' tonics; Untreated sewage and mining pollution; Invasive trout; Climate-driven lake changes
- Working to save it: Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust; Amphibian Ark; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

The world's largest fully aquatic frog breathes through extravagant folds of skin — locals call them the 'scrotum frog', and blenders empty the lake of them.

Adapted to the thin air of the Andes, this frog never needs to surface, breathing through baggy skin folds. Thousands are harvested for supposed virility tonics, and pollution events have killed frogs by the ten-thousand; a binational programme now links lakeside communities, zoos and regulators in their defence.

## 93. Archey's Frog (Leiopelma archeyi)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/archeys-frog.html
- Class: Amphibian (Frog)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — two small populations
- Trend: Stable
- Range: New Zealand (Oceania)
- Habitat: Misty native forest of the Coromandel Peninsula and Whareorino, North Island
- Threats: Introduced rats and pigs; Chytrid fungus; Mining proposals on Coromandel habitat; Tiny fragmented range
- Working to save it: New Zealand Department of Conservation; Zoological Society of London — EDGE of Existence

A frog from the age of dinosaurs — they have no tadpole stage, no croak, and fathers carry froglets on their backs.

Archey's frog is ranked the world's most evolutionarily distinct amphibian, a living line 200 million years old. They hatch as a fully formed froglet and climb onto their father's back; predator control and a captive colony guard a lineage older than the islands they live on.

## 94. Radiated Tortoise (Astrochelys radiata)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/radiated-tortoise.html
- Class: Reptile (Tortoise)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Millions historically — collapsing fast
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Madagascar (Africa)
- Habitat: Spiny forest of southern Madagascar
- Threats: Industrial-scale poaching for meat and pets; Spiny forest clearance for charcoal; Drought; Trafficking networks
- Working to save it: Turtle Survival Alliance; Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust; TRAFFIC — Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network

Ten thousand starburst-shelled tortoises were found crammed in a single smuggler's house in 2018 — the spiny forest is being emptied.

The radiated tortoise's golden star-patterned shell makes them both a beauty of the spiny forest and a trafficker's prize. Confiscations now number in the tens of thousands, overwhelming rescue centres that rehabilitate tortoises for staged returns to community-guarded forest.

## 95. Sunda Pangolin (Manis javanica)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/sunda-pangolin.html
- Class: Mammal (Pangolin)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — declined >80% in 21 years
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos (Asia)
- Habitat: Lowland rainforest, plantations and gardens of Southeast Asia
- Threats: World's most trafficked mammal — scales and meat; Organised smuggling networks; Habitat loss; Electric fences and snares
- Working to save it: TRAFFIC — Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network; World Wide Fund for Nature; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation

A creature that defends themselves by rolling into an armoured ball — perfect against tigers, useless against poachers who simply pick them up.

Pangolins are the most trafficked wild mammals on Earth, their scales — mere keratin, like fingernails — ground into traditional medicine. Seizures of Sunda pangolin scales run to the tens of tonnes; rescue centres in Vietnam release rehabilitated survivors fitted with tracking tags into guarded forest.

## 96. Chinese Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/chinese-pangolin.html
- Class: Mammal (Pangolin)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — functionally extinct in much of China
- Trend: Declining
- Range: China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Nepal, India, Myanmar (Asia)
- Habitat: Subtropical forest and grassland burrows from the Himalayas to southern China
- Threats: Poaching for scales and meat; Demand from traditional medicine; Habitat fragmentation; Slow reproduction — one pup a year
- Working to save it: TRAFFIC — Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network; Wildlife Conservation Society; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

A burrowing engineer whose abandoned tunnels shelter dozens of other species — emptied from their forests by relentless demand for their scales.

The Chinese pangolin digs deep insulated burrows that whole communities of animals inherit. Decades of harvesting made them functionally extinct across much of China, though Taiwan offers a counter-story: with strong protection it hosts the world's densest pangolin population.

## 97. Philippine Pangolin (Manis culionensis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/philippine-pangolin.html
- Class: Mammal (Pangolin)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — Palawan only
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Philippines (Asia)
- Habitat: Forest and scrub of the Palawan island group — found nowhere else
- Threats: Trafficking via maritime smuggling routes; Local hunting; Single-archipelago range; Forest clearance
- Working to save it: TRAFFIC — Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

Found only on Palawan, the world's least-known pangolin could vanish before science properly describes their life.

The 'balintong' is endemic to a single Philippine island group, making them acutely vulnerable to trafficking syndicates moving scales by sea. Indigenous Palawan communities, local NGOs and port enforcement form the species' thin line of defence.

## 98. Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur (Varecia variegata)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/black-and-white-ruffed-lemur.html
- Class: Mammal (Lemur)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — declined >80%
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Madagascar (Africa)
- Habitat: Tall eastern rainforest of Madagascar — strictly canopy-dwelling
- Threats: Slash-and-burn deforestation; Bushmeat hunting; Cyclones intensified by climate change; Dependence on big old fruit trees
- Working to save it: Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust; Conservation International; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation

The world's largest pollinator of their size class — they spread pollen face-first from the traveller's tree — is losing the tall forest they cannot live without.

Ruffed lemurs need mature rainforest with giant fruiting trees, making them the first to vanish when forests are logged — and key seed dispersers whose loss echoes for centuries. Reforestation corridors and community reserves around Ranomafana and Masoala anchor their future.

## 99. Rusty Patched Bumble Bee (Bombus affinis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/rusty-patched-bumble-bee.html
- Class: Invertebrate (Bee)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — gone from 87% of range
- Trend: Declining
- Range: United States, Canada (North America)
- Habitat: Prairie, meadows and gardens of the American Midwest and Northeast
- Threats: Pathogens from commercial bumble bee trade; Neonicotinoid pesticides; Prairie habitat loss; Climate stress
- Working to save it: United States Fish & Wildlife Service; International Union for Conservation of Nature — Species Survival Commission

Twenty-five years ago they buzzed through backyards from Maine to Minnesota; they have vanished from nearly nine-tenths of their range.

The first bumble bee ever federally listed as endangered in the continental US, the rusty patched bee likely fell to diseases spilling from commercial greenhouse bees, compounded by pesticides. Their survivors persist in scattered Midwestern pockets where prairie restoration and pesticide-free corridors give colonies room to recover.

## 100. Staghorn Coral (Acropora cervicornis)

- URL: https://vanishing100.com/species/staghorn-coral.html
- Class: Invertebrate (Coral)
- IUCN status: Critically Endangered
- Estimated population: Unknown — declined >80% since 1980s
- Trend: Declining
- Range: Caribbean — 30+ countries and territories (Caribbean)
- Habitat: Shallow fore-reefs of the Caribbean, Florida and the Bahamas
- Threats: Marine heatwaves and bleaching; White-band disease; Ocean acidification; Storms and pollution
- Working to save it: NOAA Fisheries — Protected Resources; Conservation International; Re:wild — Global Wildlife Conservation

An animal that builds cities — staghorn thickets once sheltered a quarter of all Caribbean reef life, and 2023's record heat bleached even the nurseries meant to save them.

Staghorn coral grows like an antlered forest, fast enough to rebuild reefs within decades — which makes them restoration's great hope. Tens of thousands of nursery-grown fragments are planted yearly, with heat-tolerant strains and 'coral gene banks' emerging after the 2023 Florida marine heatwave killed entire restoration sites.