Animal Conservation - Page 21

Even though the last reliable evidence of the presence of the cat on the island was from a 1910 diary entry, biologists suspected that the notoriously elusive animal had avoided extinction for many years.

It is the last living representative of a 3 million year old evolutionary lineage, but is critically endangered.

Habitat fragmentation and loss have played their part, but the main threat the giraffes currently face is poaching.

The leading country in the online trade is China, where 18,590 animal products were found on sale, nearly 78% of which were ivory products.

Once found across the UK, wildcats are now confined to north of the Central Belt in Scotland. They are so rare and elusive that population estimates have been as low as 35, making them 70 times rarer than the giant panda.

The global population was down to just 15 tortoises by the 1960s. Now there are some 1,000 tortoises breeding on their own. The population is secure. It’s a rare example of how biologists and managers can collaborate to recover a species from the brink of extinction.

All domestic and international ivory markets should be closed, according to the study, and government stockpiles of ivory that are located all over the world must be destroyed, as they are a significant source of ivory appearing in the illegal trade.

It is hoped that Bio-Boundaries could be used for other large predators and territorial species that are under threat from conflict with our ever-increasing human population.

Most extinctions in the past have been due to natural causes, but now we live on a planet which is increasingly shaped by the actions of man.