Rare Animals

If you want to talk about rare animals they do not get any rarer than Lonesome George! Lonesome George is the last known Pinta Island Tortoise or his scientific name Geochelone Nigra Abingdoni known to exist. The Pinta Island Tortoise is one of eleven subspecies of the giant Galapagos Islands Tortoise.

Scientist thought that the Pint Island Tortoise was extinct until Lonesome George was discovered on December 1, 1971 by a snail biologist Joseph Vagvolgyi. Since then Lonsome George has been moved to the Charles Darwin Research Station and labeled the worlds rarest animal! The Charles Darwin Research Station also has a reward out of $10,000 for anyone who is able to find another pure bred Pint Island Tortoise.

While we are talking about rare animals North American’s tallest bird should also be on this list. The Grus Americana or as it is commonly known as the Whooping Crane is definitely one of those animals endangered by dwindling numbers. Even though the whooping crane has a long lifespan of somewhere around 24 years these large birds are only breeding fast enough to sustain a very small population. It has been estimated that there are only about 250 of these rare birds left in the wild.

Another rare animal is the Visayan Spotted Deer is an endangered species of nocturnal deer that lives mostly in the rain forests of Negros and Panay Islands in the Philippines. This rare deer has been suffering in numbers because of a decrease in it’s wild habitat. In 1996 scientists estimated that there were around 2,500 Visayan Spotted Deer left in the wild, since that time the numbers have dwindled down to an estimated 300 of these rare animals left in the wild.

Although the rare animals in this post are just a small portion of the animals endangered by dwindling numbers and the possibility of becoming extinct. Unfortunately some of these rare animals may never recover and some day in the near future disappear completely from the wild!