<p>No trace of the wild South China tiger, Panthera tigris amoyensis (critically endangered, possibly extinct in the wild), has been seen for more than a decade. Zoos hold fewer than 200 in breeding programs. If a Chinese plan to return some to the wild fails, they could become the fourth subspecies of tiger to go extinct. (<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/vanishing-what-we-lose-when-an-animal-goes-extinct-feature">Learn more about what we lose an animals go extinct</a>.)</p>
<p><i>These images are from the Photo Ark, the world’s largest collection of animal studio portraits and a joint project of National Geographic and photographer Joel Sartore. Learn more at <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/photo-ark/">natgeophotoark.org</a>.</i></p>
No trace of the wild South China tiger, Panthera tigris amoyensis (critically endangered, possibly extinct in the wild), has been seen for more than a decade. Zoos hold fewer than 200 in breeding programs. If a Chinese plan to return some to the wild fails, they could become the fourth subspecies of tiger to go extinct. (Learn more about what we lose an animals go extinct.)
These images are from the Photo Ark, the world’s largest collection of animal studio portraits and a joint project of National Geographic and photographer Joel Sartore. Learn more at natgeophotoark.org.
Suzhou South China Tiger Breeding Base
Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic Photo Ark
Animals are vanishing at hundreds of times the normal rate, primarily because of shrinking habitats. Their biggest threat: humans.
Photographs byJoel Sartore
ByElizabeth Kolbert
Published September 24, 2019
Most of the animals shown here are among the more than 28,000 species of animals and plants that the International Union for Conservation of Nature says are threatened with extinction. That number actually understates the risk. Since 1964, when the IUCN established a “red list” of threatened species and began compiling data gathered worldwide, the list has become the preeminent global database of endangered life and an essential tool for conservation policy. Yet the IUCN has been able to assess only about 106,000 species of the more than 1.5 million species of animals and more than 300,000 plants that scientists have described and named—which they estimate is less than a quarter of what’s really out there. A recent intergovernmental report on the biodiversity crisis estimated that extinction threatens up to a million animal and plant species, known and unknown. The IUCN hopes to raise the number of species assessments to 160,000 by 2020. Next up on its agenda: a “green list” of conservation successes. It will be much shorter than the red one.
