Where have all the animals gone?

❚ Africa’s elephant population has crashed by an estimated 111,000 in the past decade, primarily due to poaching. ❚ The maned wolf, along with other large mammals including the giant anteater, is threatened by the increasing conversion of grasslands into farmland for grazing and growing crops in the Brazilian Cerrado. ❚ Hellbender salamanders underwent population declines of 77 per cent across five locations in Missouri between 1975 and 1995. ❚ Orca numbers in European waters are under threat from organic pollutants. Only 50,000 remain. ❚ Just 1864 giant pandas remain in the wild in Asia. ❚ In Africa, only 880 of the critically endangered mountain gorillas remain in the wild.