Black Rhinoceros

Weighing anywhere from 1,760 to 3080 lbs at 6 ft tall the Black Rhinoceros is not to be dealt with.

As seen here, the black rhino isn't black, but grey. The black rhino is actually classified by the shape of their lip. The black rhino has a pointed upper lip that allows it to pluck leaves and fruit from branches on trees and bushes. Their counterpart, the white rhino, has a squared lip used to graze on grasses.
Black Rhinos are found to only mate once every two and half to five years. The rest of the time they are solitary creatures.
However, the baby rhinos will stick with their mother for up to three years, so don't worry.

Black Rhinos take on a nocturnal lifestyle of sorts. Feeding during the dark hours of dawn and dusk and taking cover under trees during the day to survive the blistering African sun. Rhinos live a simple life, grazing the plains following the paths of rhinos before them in search of water holes. A funny habit that rhinos do is to roll in mud to apply a sunscreen of sorts.

But what happens in the face of danger? Well it depends, usually when attacked Rhinos use their trademark horns to fight back. An adult male rhino's horn can grow up to 5 ft! But what about when the Rhino can't fight back? What about in the face of poachers?

Poaching, as stated by Dictionary.com, "is the illegal practice of trespassing on another's property to hunt or steal game without the landowner's permission." Poaching is a serious issue in the Africa region especially for rhinos. Killed primarily for their horns to be used in Asian medicines it is said that 388 rhinos were killed in 2012! (WWF) So the next time you think about rhinos remember why they are in danger!

Check out Nation Geographic to find out more about these awesome creatures!

Species 2: The Giant Panda

When you think of a Giant Panda, you think of the large black and white bear in Asia eating bamboo. You might even find them adorable. But I have news people, bad news. Now before present this news, let me start off by saying I love animals and think they are beautiful creatures.

However, the news is... that of all the animals that are endangered, pandas are the absolute number one contender for being on the list.
"What? But but... how could you say something so horrible!"
Well, because its true. Before I explain why, lets get a sense of who we are dealing with.

Just look, his eyes use trickery.

Lets examine the panda above. He is quite cute, has loving eyes, and seems to be pretty happy. Let's name this panda Steve. Steve's people can be found in coniferous forests in mountain ranges near Central China. Steve's diet consists of almost entirely bamboo. 

Time out. Let's go deeper into the diet of the Giant Panda. Their diet it their first fault. As elaborated on by the website HowStuffWorks the dietary system of a panda is more fit for digesting meat. In fact, it sucks at digesting bamboo. That's right, pandas literally don't know how to capture prey in the wild so they eat bamboo which they can barely digest. In fact, the pandas must eat 26-28 pounds of bamboo per day to have the energy to live. 

This tastes so bad, but it's all I have. 

Now, I don't want to make the panda's seem like bad creatures, they are pretty cool in the fact they can climb trees extremely well even though they weigh over 330 pounds as an adult. This is comparable to an obese person actually climbing the stairs instead of taking the elevator. 

Besides the issue with the panda's diet, they are basically trying to die. The mating season of a panda lasts about 3 weeks in springtime and only about 2-3 days of this time period does the female panda have the ability to conceive. In fact, most zoos find it difficult to get the pandas to mate at all. 

So we have a creature who has a horrid diet of hard to digest bamboo and mates only 3 weeks a year. They are definitely trying hard to get out of that endangered zone right? But although pandas seem quite out of the loop of their evident extinction, we still love them and care for them. 

One of the largest issues according to the World Wildlife organization is the loss of habitat in the wild. With the pandas eating 26 pounds of bamboo everyday they require lost of forest space. However with industrialization raving at large forest destruction is a major issue. China does have reserves to protect pandas but only about 61% of the panda population is protected. The WWF is aiming to increase policy-level conservation in China. We can help too by raising awareness. 

Just remember, we love pandas, but don't be too sympathetic. Learn from their horrible diet choices and look for something in your life to remove and improve. Check out the Smithsonian National Zoo website for more information. 

Species 1: Snow Leopards

The snow leopard is a beautiful creature. With bright white fur, piercing yellow eyes, and dark black spots, you cannot deny its beauty. Just look.

Fierce, I know. Now you may be saying, "I don't really know much about snow leopards.... I wish I could learn more." 

WELL DON'T WORRY!
That's why I'm here.










Located in Central Asia, the snow leopard inhabits cold environments. Their thick fur acts as insulation and there wide fur-covered feet make natural snow shoes. Snow leopards are on the top of their food chain acting as deadly predators. Their large powerful legs can jump as far as 50 feet!

Soaring

These powerful predators prey on blue sheep and mountain ibex found in the Himalayas. Although they can kill creatures three times their weight, they are still lazy cats, as a result they also eat smaller game such as hares, birds, and marmots.

However, you may be saying, if we have such a powerful beautiful cat why are they endangered? What is threatening them? Well the cats are a bit stupid. They let the laziness get the best of them and sometimes prey on domestic animals. I mean wouldn't you want to taste one of the fat juicy sheep that seem to walk around in groups for no reason? I know I would.

Well, if you know anything about cause and effect, the snow leopards do not get away with eating free food. They are punished by the herders and farmers who are forced to retaliate to protect their animals.

The enemy

"But Justin, we have to stop the cruel killings of these snow leopards. Why can't the farmers just protect their sheep better with out killing the cats?" 

Well, good question. And in fact the answer is they can! The World Wildlife Fund is working with communities to monitor the leopard activity and help prevent domestic animal attacks. You can help by donating and informing others about the leopards.

If you wish to learn more about snow leopards check out National Geographic's info page. You can also receive a free snow leopard stuffed animal if you give me free lunch for 3 days. (Disclaimer: may or may not be scam) I hope you learned a little bit about snow leopards!