Before I talk in a little more detail about specific endangered species and what is being (and needs to be) done to help them, I want to explain the different terms used by conservation workers and environmentalists to describe how endangered a species is.
Threatened is used to describe a species when its population drops quite low for no apparent reason or when a natural disaster affects its breeding. These species are monitored very closely but nature is usually allowed to prevail. Threatened species are not seriously endangered and several species have been removed from this category after successful breeding programmes raised their numbers.
For endangered species, the situation is a little more desperate and serious attention is paid to helping them recover. It is rare for species to be removed from this category but the chances of them becoming extict are, in the greater scheme of things, slim.
Critically endangered species are as close to becoming extict as they can be without being extinct and drastic action is often needed to save them. By this stage, though captive breeding programmes have spared some species from extiction, conservationists are usually fighting a losing battle.
Extinct species are those for whom help is either not given or given too late. A species becomes extinct when one or both of the last surviving breeding pair dies. The rate of extiction is now so fast (three species per hour) that species are becoming extict before they're even discovered.
Among the many billions of species considered to be near to extinction, the most well publicised are: the blue whale, the African elephant, the rhino, the chimpanzee, tigers (all types), turtles (all types) and the pink river dolphin of the Amazon. All of these beautiful species and many others are in the dire situation they face because of our inhumanity and greed.
Many whales are hunted for their meat and the oil they produce but thousands more are killed each year after becoming entangled in large industrial trawler nets. The African elephant is hunted for its tusks which are made of ivory. After they've been removed from the dead elephant, the tusks are used to make ornaments or ground up to make illegal drugs. Rhino horns are also used in drugs. Some animals are not hunted but become extinct due to habitat destruction or getting caught in traps designed for other creatures.
Chimpanzees are dying due to the destruction of the forests they inhabit for cheap land and timber. They are also kept illegally as pets. Pink river dolphins are also suffering due to the destruction of their habitat. When the trees surrounding the Amazon river are felled, the soil is left exposed to the torrential downpours of rain and ends up being washed into the river which is quickly polluted. Another threat is the fishing nets which are set up illegally and in which they often become entangled.
Despite the fact that the rate of extinction is increasing at an almost impossible rate, conservationists are making efforts to save as many endangered species as they can. These efforts include working directly with the animals and indirectly in their habitats, emergency measures to deal with the problem here and now and working to ensure their survival on a long-term basis.
Working directly with the animals can involve fitting them with electronic 'tags' which allow their location and condition to be monitored continually, finding them when they are sick or injured in the wild and nursing them back to full health, breeding them in captivity and then releasing them and providing them with food and water when it is scarce.
Work to improve their habitats includes clean up operations and tree planting schemes and large-scale projects in the furthest corners of the globe aimed at clearing illegal fishing nets and traps. These projects are mainly short-term but long-term projects are also running. These focus mainly on education.