Living in a balanced ecosystem keeps us from having to make all our food in a lab or pollinating our own plants.
Source: The Guardian, BBC
Animals help keep the natural world moving, and without them, we'd have to do all the things that happen naturally ourselves.
Source: The Guardian, BBC
The more animals that go extinct, the closer we are to having to recreate the natural world ourselves. Sadly, within just the past decade, several species have become endangered.
Subspecies of lions in India and West and Central Africa are threatened by human development.
Source: Washington Post, the Guardian, IUCN
While the okapi looks like a mixture of different mammals, it's one of the oldest mammal species in the world. The central African creature is endangered primarily because of deforestation.
Source: Okapi Conservation, the Guardian, IUCN
And so is it's famous cousin, the giraffe. There are nine subspecies of giraffes, and three of them are endangered.
Sources: IUCN , Giraffe Conversation, Smithsonian
The biggest threats to the tallest animal in the world are the loss of habitat to development and poachers. Some people poach giraffes because of food insecurity in their villages, while others poach the animal for sport, keeping their tails as a symbol of high status.
Sources: IUCN , Giraffe Conversation, Smithsonian
People have also been known to keep an oryx horn as a lucky charm after a hunt, and the East African oryx has also been added to the endangered species list.
Sources: African Wildlife Foundation, IUCN
Like the giraffe, the oryx is threatened by people hunting them and developing their habitats.
Sources: African Wildlife Foundation, IUCN
And five subspecies of African antelope, including the Mountain Reedbuck, are now endangered because of hunting and development.
Source: EMagazine, IUCN, Sunday Times
In Southern Africa, the grey crowned crane is losing its habitat to agriculture. On top of that, pollutants from agriculture are degrading the wetlands where the crane breeds.
Another South African bird, the hooded vulture, is endangered too, because of agricultural pollution and loss of habitat.
Source: Krugerpark News, IUCN
A different kind of South African bird was added to the endangered list, too: The African penguin is a subspecies of penguin that's threatened by industrial fishing.
Source: National Geographic, IUCN
Found just east of Southern Africa in Madagascar, the southern woolly lemur is endangered because it lost the majority of its habitat to agriculture.
Source: IUCN, Species Conservation
In the Americas, the Mexican Orange Beauty is an endangered species of tarantula found in Mexico.
Sources: IUCN, Nature, the Guardian
They face many threats to their habitat and lifestyle, including agriculture, development, and being used as pets.
Warmer water temperatures in Canada have kept Chinook salmon from thriving, so much so that they're now endangered, too.
Hawaii's yellow-faced bees became endangered in 2016, and they were the first bees to be added to the US Endangered Species list.
Source: NPR
These bees face many threats, including habitat destruction, invasive species, and natural disasters.
Source: NPR
Similarly, the rusty patched bumblebee was the first US bee subspecies to be listed as endangered in the continental US. The population decline comes from development and agriculture.
Source: National Geographic, Forbes
The spotted turtle is another endangered species in the US that's broken records. This turtle lives in the eastern US.
A 2015 report by the Endangered Species Coalition named this turtle one of the 10 US species most threatened by habitat fragmentation.
Habitat fragmentation led to the decline of the US's Great Green Macaw, too, which is also endangered.
Source: The Weather Channel, IUCN
While it's also threatened by development, mining, and tourism, the San Jose Brush rabbit is critically endangered mainly because of introduced predators, like cats, goats, and dogs.
Source: IUCN, Edge of Existence
Down in Peru, the Paramo toad is facing critical endangerment after decades of being threatened by mining and agriculture. In fact, there are believed to be less than 50 of them left.
Sources: IUCN, Edge of Existence
Another Peruvian animal has been added to the list as well. The Andean night monkey is threatened by deforestation.
Source: the Guardian, IUCN
Another monkey on the list comes from Africa. The endangered Red-capped Mangabey is illegally hunted for meat, and its habitat is being developed for agriculture.
The world's most threatened subspecies of sea lions is the New Zealand sea lion. The species is endangered because of commercial fishing, which not only harms the sea lions ...
The woolly flying squirrel is a lot bigger than this, but they've become so endangered that it's hard to find a photo of them. In fact, this northern Pakistani cave dweller is the heaviest gliding mammal in the world. It's endangered mainly because of deforestation.
Source: IUCN, WCS Pakistan
Off the coast of Belize, the Splendid Toadfish is endangered as a result of tourism and overfishing.
Source: The Weather Channel, IUCN