Sunday 23 August 2009

World's weirdest animals at risk

Tuesday January 16 2007 12:08 GMT

A campaign's been launched to protect some of the world's weirdest and most unusual animals because they're in danger of becoming extinct.

Animal experts have named some of the most vulnerable species which they say we really need to take better care of.

One of them is the bactrian camel. It has two humps, one more than you're probably used to seeing, but there are only 1,000 of them left in the wild.

One of the world's smallest mammals, the bumblebee bat, is also under threat.

Click here to see pix of some of the animals

Experts believe the tiny bat has evolved as a species over 43 million years, but now the places it likes to live in western Thailand and south east Burma are being threatened by forest burning.

An expert from the zoological society, which is behind the campaign, said: "It is a tragedy that many of these species are being ignored and are slipping silently towards extinction."

He said that if these animals disappear, there will be nothing similar left on the planet.
  • Pygmy hippopotamus

  • Attenborough's long-beaked echidna

  • Hispaniolan solenodon (pictured above)

  • Bactrian camel

  • Yangtze River dolphin

  • Slender loris

  • Hirola antelope

  • Golden-rumped elephant shrew

  • Bumblebee bat

  • Long-eared jerboa
What is an endangered animal? Find out here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6260000/newsid_6265900/6265925.stm?ls

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