Stunning new photos show the faces of animals on the verge of extinction
Sudan, pictured here, is the last male northern white rhinoceros in the world.
It used to be possible to find 16-feet-long Beluga sturgeon in and around the Black and Caspian Seas. But those giants are gone, and the small ones still around are threatened by people who harvest their valuable eggs.
Saiga antelope have survived since the ice ages — the species has shared the world with woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats. But catastrophic disease and poaching have put the species in a critical place.
Snow leopards, among the most elusive cats in the world, are losing their habitats as forests move up the slopes in the warming Himalayas.
Carrion-eaters like these whiteback vultures suppress the spread of disease and alert game wardens to poachers. But some poachers have started poisoning their kills in order to eliminate the endangered birds that draw attention to illegal hunting.
The Philippines has started to employ indigenous people to replant the forests that Philippine eagles live in, and to try to prevent poaching.
Fireflies are helping us learn how bioluminescence works, though light pollution and loss of forests threaten these creatures.
Yunan snub-nosed monkeys were believed to be extinct before one was spotted in 1962 — though the remaining populations are small and isolated.
Ploughshares are the rarest tortoises in the world — these were photographed at a breeding sanctuary.
Yellow-eyed tree frogs are affected by climate change — they're threatened by a fungus that's spreading through forests, and their eggs are hatching early or late because they're sensitive to temperature.
Hippos are hunted for their meat and their ivory teeth.
Pangolins are one of the creatures most threatened by the illegal wildlife trade. This white-bellied pangolin can be seen hanging from its mother's tail.
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