Childrens Illustrated Encyclopedia

CONSERVATION AND ENDANGERED SPECIES

143

CONTROLLING TRADE

Some animals and plants are taken from the wild for their skins

and other products. Elephants are killed for their ivory tusks.

Colorful flowers are made into pulp to make dyes. The

Convention on International Trade in Endangered

Species (CITES) has lists of hundreds of species,

or kinds, of plants and animals. Selling or

exporting these animals or their products

without a special license is illegal. All whales,

dolphins, and porpoises are on this list;

so are all monkeys, apes, and lemurs.

SNOW LEOPARD

The snow leopard lives high in the mountains of the

Himalayas and Central Asia. In the winter, its fur becomes

thicker to keep out the bitter cold. In the past, the snow

leopard’s winter coat was highly prized by fur traders. Today, the

snow leopard and many other big cats are protected by the CITES

agreement, but they are still hunted illegally in some remote areas.

SNAKE SKIN

The brightly colored objects shown above were once

the skins of snakes and lizards. The skins are dyed

different colors, and then made into all sorts

of leather goods, including bags and shoes.

CAPTIVE BREEDING
One way to help an endangered species
recover its numbers is by breeding it in
captivity. Experts capture a few animals
from the wild, raise them carefully, and
encourage them to breed in captivity.
Later, they release, or reintroduce,
the offspring into a suitable area.
The takahe is a flightless bird that
scientists believed to be extinct until it
was rediscovered in 1948. Eggs from its
nests are hatched in an incubator, and
the chicks are kept warm with tiny
electric blankets. They are fed by
someone wearing a puppetlike glove
that resembles the parent bird.

JACKASS PENGUIN

This flightless sea bird is also called the African or

black-footed penguin. Its numbers have decreased in

South Africa because of water pollution and because

fishing boats catch the fish the penguin eats.

MONK SEAL

Nature reserves have been set up for

the Mediterranean monk seal so that

it will not be disturbed by tourists on

the coasts where it breeds.

HABITAT LOSS

Tropical rain forests are being destroyed at

an alarming rate. Trees are burned or sold

for timber, and the land is farmed or used

for roads, buildings,

and mines. Scientists

believe that many

rain forests contain

kinds of animals and

plants that we have

never seen. For every

plant or creature that is

threatened or extinct,

there may be 100 that

we do not know about.

SUMATRAN

RHINOCEROS

Rhinoceroses are in great

danger of extinction, but

poachers (illegal hunters)

still kill them and sell their horns.

The horns are carved into dagger

handles or powdered into traditional

Chinese medicine. There are fewer

than 100 Sumatran rhinoceroses left in

Sumatra and mainland Southeast Asia.

QUEEN

VICTORIA’S

BIRDWING

The Queen Victoria’s

birdwing was first

collected by scientists in

1855, when they shot it

with guns. Today, this

crustaceans Crabs and other

kinds of butterflies are

declining due to deforestation.

DODO
The dodo was a flightless
bird that lived on islands in
the Indian Ocean. The dodo
was extinct by about 1800.

GOLDEN

LION TAMARIN

Clearing forests

for timber and farmland

endangers the lives of many

monkeys. Many tamarins

and marmosets have been

killed in South America for

the food and pet trade, and

because for a time it was

thought they spread disease.

Find out more

Animals

Ecology and food webs

Forest wildlife

National parks

Plants

Pollution

Takahe