There are countless amounts of animals that will make your heart melt: puppies, kittens, the list goes on and on. What is your favorite animal? What if I told you that there is a 30-50% of all species are heading towards extinction by this mid century. According to research conducted by conservation scientist, David Wilcove estimates that there are 14,000 to 35,000 endangered species in the United States. Below are my favorite beauties of this world that are sadly decreasing in population as we speak.

Elephants (African and Asian)

These majestic creatures are the largest mammals on Earth. They are indigenous to Sub-Saharan Africa and SouthEast Asia. As many as 100,000 African elephants were reportedly killed between 2010 and 2012. Threats that are imposed upon the elephant population include poaching and illegal trade of ivory tusks. These beautiful creatures are slowly losing their habitats, because of their size they are forced to places where they can not survive. In Thailand, elephant rides are a popular tourist attraction. In reality these rides “break” elephants both physically and emotionally. Their spines are not made to carry the weight of humans which paralyses them over time. Emotionally? They are abused and driven to insanity by isolation.

Polar Bears

Polar bears are marine mammals indigenous to the Arctic. Their population is rapidly decreasing ultimately because of the environment. This causes a shift in the ecosystem. Polar ice caps melting leaving many of the bears swimming for their lives in search of other caps. Though these amazing creatures can swim a great distance (30 miles) ice caps are becoming harder to find which results in polar bears drowning in the sea. Another reason for their endangerment is the lack of food. Polar bears spend 50% of their lives searching for food, but less than 2% of their hunts are successful.

What you can do to help

• Do not buy ivory! New ivory is strictly banned, but antique ivory can be legally available for purchase
• Adopt an elephant/polar bear
• Go green
• Conserve water