Rarest Animals in the World

Rarest Animals in the World
15-05-2008

Here is a link that lists what are supposedly the Top Ten rarest animals on the planet. Of course we could all come up with slightly different lists, but this one is quite specific in terms of data. There are certainly many other animals that are just as rare, but I'm assuming that the designers of this particular list wanted to come up with an overview of many contrasting species.

» The 10 Rarest Animals in the World - Green Expander

This next link is to an awesome, full-colour book that was published late last year. I know that it has already been mentioned on ZooBeat before, but it is appropriate to this thread as it lists 100 rare animals and contains a wealth of information.

15-05-2008

Well, for obvious reasons no animal can be rarer than Pinta giant tortoise.

I think Hainan gibbon is now pretty well documented to be below 20 individuals. Some island birds could also go lower.

15-05-2008

Anyone know of any other species that could be called "the living dead", those like the tortoise that have individuals alive but no hope of reproducing?

15-05-2008

For example the Baiji and maybe Rafetus swinhoei...

Actually, it's pretty much pointless to argue which animal is the rarest, as in the case of a lot of species, all we know about the species is one single specimen collected many years ago or spotted only once in the last decades. Due to this data deficiency, it is hard to say whether this particular species is just hard to spot, but still exists in larger numbers, or is rare and maybe even extinct. So we can have "lazarus species" or must realize that a species went extinct or was wiped out without anybody noticing. Additionally, due to new results, former populations thought to represent different (sub)species can be united as one (making the overall population larger) or former uniform populations have to be divided in seperate subspecies-or even species on their own.
In case of "Lonesome Georg", some other individuals of his kind might still exist...

15-05-2008

Lonesome George belongs to a subspecies rather than a separate species, which isn't quite so bad...

This link describes the death of what may be the last po'ouli - only described in 1973 and ?extinct in 2004.

CRES News: Po`ouli Death Leaves Species' Future Uncertain

15-05-2008

Closest maybe come Annamite javan rhino (3 ind, supposed to be all females),
northern white rhino (4-5 in the wild and few in zoos, but it is unsure if any females survive in the wild, and zoo females might be too old to breed) and giant softshell turtle (less than 10 old animals, not known if any female is able to breed).

Kouprey was recently described that 1-2 may live hidden somewhere in Cambodia, but cannot survive longer term.

Rarest birds which situation is reasonably well known, mostly small island endemics:

kakapo, spix macaw, black stilt (22 wild, 25 captive) chinese tern (less than 50), grenada dove (96), raso lark (30 females, 60 males) White-chested White-eye (less than 50) cozumel thrasher (very few, but apparently still live) and mangrove finch (60-140). A number of Hawaiian songbirds is very rare, but all might be extinct within last years.

Rather strikingly, travelling birdwatcher can still expect to see stilt, tern, dove, lark and finch if he travels to their small home ranges. Surely not possible with sumatran rhino!

I am talking about those species which situation is reasonably well known. Status of lots of animals is unknown.

16-05-2008

One of the latest Lazarus species is Beck's petrel, recently rediscovered nearly 80 years after the first sighting:

Beck’s Petrel flies back from extinction

17-05-2008

The Lord Howe Stick Insect is pretty rare, I think only 4 wild individuals have been observed...

18-05-2008

I'm a little surprised that the Ethiopian Wolf, Panamanian Golden Frog and South China Tiger aren't on the list. It is a good list nonetheless. I haven't even heard of the Tamaraw or Dwarf Blue Sheep -- learn something new every day! It would be very sad to lose them, especially when not much was known about them.

18-05-2008

Amur Leopard too..!

18-06-2008

The Iriomote cat, bay cat, kodkod and several other cat species are also extremely rare.

I think the iriomote cat is down to less than 100 individuals on Iriomote island
and the Andean Mt. Cat population isn't even known yet, same for the bornean bay cat.

09-08-2008

Would anyone here know the count of the Caspian tiger? Is the species actually still around?

10-08-2008

Caspian what..?

10-08-2008

Sorry I meant Caspian tiger, they say that it has been extinct in the wild but there have been claims of sightings, photos and apprently army officials (not sure what country) shot one individual not far back, but won't have it examined,

20-08-2008

Officially - considered extinct. Unofficially - there seems to be a number of very credible accounts of individuals in a very desolate, largely uninhabited region of Turkey and the northern stretches of the Middle East. Places like Azerbaijan, Turmenistan and Georgia. You know, the politically stable ones...

There is some difficulty in verifying any accounts, as you can imagine. Persian leopards and wolves seem to eake out an existance in these areas, so it is entirely possible that tigers may still be there.