ENDANGERED SPECIES

PANAMANIAN GOLDEN FROG

• Atelopus zeteki

HABITAT

• western-central Panama, in the Central Cordilleran rainforests and cloudforests
• They are found associated with montane streams in two habitat types, montane wet forest and montane dry forest.

CAUSE OF DECLINE

• This species has declined in numbers by over 80% over the past decade, most likely due to chytridiomycosis. It is also threatened by collection for local zoos and hotels, illegal pet trading, deforestation, and habitat alteration by logging and farming
• Chytridiomycosis is an infectious disease of amphibians, caused by the chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a nonhyphal zoosporic fungus.

BASEBALL PLANT

Euphorbia obesa

• Found in: southern Africa
• This plant lives in very dry conditions

WHY IS IT ENDANGERED?

• Because it is hardy and considered aesthetic, Euphorbia obesa was harvested to endangerment in the early 1900s.
• Essentially over harvesting has caused this plant to be endangered.

WHAT IS BEING DONE

• A trade ban has prohibited removing it from its habitat, reducing collection and allowing some revival of the natural population. Unsurprisingly, it also faces habitat destruction as another threat, but domestic gardens and greenhouses provide a safety net against total extinction and serve alongside the trade ban as the main measures preventing the extinction of Euphorbia obesa.

BLACK RHINO

Diceros bicornis

• eastern and central Africa, and currently can be found in reserves in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Swaziland, and Angola.
• deserts, grasslands and woodlands, shrublands, and savannahs.

CAUSE OF ENDANGERMENT

• The black rhinoceros has primarily been hunted and poached to near extinction

WHAT IS BEING DONE?

• There are Unfenced reserves which are under heavy protection. Steps have also been taken to take down the illegal trade of rhinoceros horns from Africa to other areas worldwide.