What is your favorite endangered species? What is your second favorite? Is there a tie? And why is it your favorite, and how did it become endangered?
Please post and tell me.
Mine:

Favorite: California Condor
Close Second: Kakapo Parrot
The condor was driven to the brink of extinction by destruction of habitat, lead poisoning, electrocution on power lines, and just plain superstition. At their lowest, the populationg consisted of only twenty-six birds, and scientists began a recovery program. There are currently almost 300 condors in existence, which still makes them one of the most endangered species on the planet. I love them because they are just such magnicifent birds, and they are so rare, I have never seen one in the wild.
The Kakapo is the worlds heaviest and only flightless parrot. It lives in New Zealand, and was an easy target for dogs, cats, rats, and humans, as its survival techniques were not suited for dealing with these predators. They began a rapid decline, and there are currently 86 left, probably the second most endangered bird on Earth, only bested by one small Hawaiian songbird, which has only three individuals. I love them because they are so comical, and rather cute as well. Such peculiar and fascinating birds, and I hope to see one someday.

Orangutan - Habitat destruction.
People are cutting down the forests of Malaysia for farming.
I love orangutans cuz they're like orange and they're apes.

Favorite: Asiatic Black Bear - Bile Extraction, Hunting
Close Second: None, really. Nothing can top the Asiatic Black Bear.

I love the A.B.B. They are just so majestic. A plus is that they are very quiet. Its something you'll never forget if you ever see them. They are the coolest little bears at the SD Zoo. It is sad they are endangered. The Chinese & Vietnamese round them up and put them on bile farms. I will tell you about them later in the post...Anydoi, here is what Wikipedia has:

The bears are thrown into and live in cages little bigger than themselves, for ease of "milking." They are normally hit and abused if they are not being milked for their bile. Their bile( the stuff in your gall bladder that hepls digest food) is taken out through a cut made in the bear's abdomen and into the gall bladder, where bile is stored afer being secreted by the liver via the hepatic duct. A tube is inserted into this opening to tap the bile. Between 10 and 20 milileters of bile is tapped from each bear twice every day.This makes me sick that we do this to animals. During milking, investigators saw bears moaning, banging their heads against their cages, and chewing their own paws. The mortality rate is between 50 and 60 per cent, which means most of them die. When the bears stop producing bile after a few years, they are moved to another smaller cage, where they are either left to starve and be killed for their paws. Bear paws are considered a delicacy in Asia.

the Saltwater Crocs-Hunting,habitat destruction

second-none

i love Saltys because of the fact that there huge and magestic and not to mention fast as lightning in the water!

The great white shark.

The Great White shark is endangered?

Yeah. As a matter of fact, several shark spieces are endangered. For more information, go to http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/shark.../sharkweek.html

Reviving another old topic... I'd have to vote Condor. :P

Yay!

The Siberian Tiger. I think that animal is majestic. i think, before when it was legal ,people hunted them to the brink of extinction for their beautiful fur. :frown

Second, i dont know. any animal that is endangered. :ThumbsUp

It is hard to pick favorites, sometimes, because all animals are fascinating. :P

Aye. Condor is just so amazing. Here's a bird with a ten foot wingspan that lives right here in the US. There are only three hundred of 'em in the world.

i also like the Bald eagle

A draw between Mountain Gorilla and Orangutan.

All in all it doesn't matter what we do, all of these animals will still probably go extinct. That's life. Still, I believe some of them don't deserve this.

Well, that's kind of obvious. All creatures go extinct, unless you think that humans will exist forever, which I doubt(and no offense meant). All we can do is postpone their extinction. I certainly want to. When it is time for them to cease to exist, then it will happen, we won't be able to change that. But we can save them for now.

Yeah, with changes in the environment and humans being as destructive as always, some animals just wont be able to make it. The least we can do is try.

Yeah... and SOME people at this board should stop judging me because I try... sorry... I should not bring this into here but... I'm seriously upset by it, and my feelings got really hurt. I got seriously judged. *breathes*

I wish humans would just stop and realize what they're doing sometimes.

I am sorry to say that will never happen. We can't save us from ourselves. The majority of us are self-centered, greedy,ignorant,and lazy.
I hope I don't sound rude. I can't set a tone on a message...
:frown

Yeah. I think the people that do the most damage are those rich, company owners. They waste the world away and hear about Global Warming and stuff and they think it doesnt apply to them. That money will get them out of that problem. They just dont care and pollute the atmosphere and destroy animal habitats. Humans need a rude awakening, but it might not come in time. So everybody that does care will keep doing their parts, and try to help an already scarred Earth.

Minstelae SilentClaw, i think you do one of the best, umm, "sevices" for nature. Trying to help animals in need is something to be proud of. :ThumbsUp

exactly

It would be nice to take care of animals like that, but unfortunately there arent any nearby places like that over here.

By all means, keep trying. There is probably nothing more noble that you can do than helping them with all the possible means. The least I can do is to donate money for their cause as I can't go to them.

I think the most, to say the least, retarded side in all this is that the environment we're so committedly destroying could hold a lot of pharmacy and medicine to our common diseases and other health problems. The thought of people in Asia destroying the Orangutan's habitat for un-healthy and quickly obsolete palm oil is sickening.

Sriver, I just got lucky in moving here, and my bf was wanting to volunteer there, and he told me about it and of course, I thought it had awesomeness potential, since I'm a HUGE animal lover, so I applied, and they decided to let me volunteer, too. And it's just about the most rewarding thing I've ever done. It's soo coool! :P Anyways...

I know what you mean, Dino_Slayer. If people would try and work together with nature, perhaps they would be given gifts. But then, most people just don't care all that much, and I really don't see too much of a change happening.

It doesnt even matter if it was lucky. :P

It does to me. I don't want to give myself credit. :P

The wonderful thing about the people on this site is that we are all fascinated by creatures that have been extinct for millions of years. We all wish we could have seen them in life, and so we wish the same for modern species that are in trouble. We care about the environment more than most people because of this. That's what makes this site so great!

I never really thought about it, but that just might be true. :P I don't know. But it's nice to know there are other people out there who care.

Just on a side note. The bald eagle has been taken off of the endangered species list. It's very recent, I think, though I'm not sure of the exact date.

http://www.fws.gov/endangered/

Before you freak out, I think it's a good thing. They are still protected. Just not endangered.

And I suppose I can vouch for that. I've seen lots of them recently, at least, at certain nature parks we go to for bird-watching and stuff. They seem to do quite well up here.