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Mountain Zebra Quagga

The African world is graced with three species of beautiful horse-like creatures, each with a distinctive stripe pattern. These graceful animals - Grévy's zebra (named after the former French president Jules Grévy, who served from 1879 to 1887), the mountain zebra, and the plains zebra (which is also known as Burchell’s zebra) - are endangered today due to illegal hunting and habitat destruction.

These animals, though extant, might soon be extinct just like the quagga that were hunted down around 1870s. They range across Eastern and Southern Africa savannahs, plains, and mountainous areas.

Apart from lions and hyenas, the regular Zebras’ predators, humans have posed a greater threat to their survival over the last 200 years with the advent of sophisticated firearms, though they have been hunted for both their meat and for their hides for thousands of years before.

• Oryx

Scimitar Oryx Gemsbok

The oryx are native to Africa and the Middle East. Oryx is the common name for the three species of horned antelopes that range in grasslands of south-western Africa and the Middle East. The largest and best known of them is gemsbok which has long, straight horns as its distinguishing features. Equipped with great stamina, gemsbok can outrun horses and hunting dogs. Both the white (or Arabian) oryx and the Scimitar oryx are listed as endangered species. The oryx are distinctive with their straight long horns which project slightly backward and a hump above their shoulders. The oryx are members of the subfamily Hippotraginae in the family Bovidae. The gemsbok is classified as Oryx gazella; the Scimitar oryx as Oryx dammah; and the White oryx, as Oryx leucoryx. The oryx are endangered due to habitat loss and poaching.

• Gorilla

Mountain Gorilla

Gorillas, like chimpanzees, orang-utans, and other great apes, are members of the primate order. They are the largest of the great apes and one of the closest living relatives of the human species. Some scientists classify gorillas in the family Pongidae and others place them in the family Hominidae. Unlike the previous notion held about their aggressiveness, ferociousness and might directed to destructive and negative reactions towards people, recent studies by American zoologists George B. Schaller and Dian Fossey revealed that gorillas are relatively gentle vegetarians who attack only if directly threatened.

Gorillas, for many years, were classified as a single species within the genus Gorilla; but recent genetic evidence suggests that this classification should be modified to distinguish two separate species: the western (classified as Gorilla gorilla) and eastern gorillas (classified as Gorilla beringei), each represented by several subspecies. Western gorillas range in the western portion of central Africa traversing Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Mbini); while Eastern gorillas range in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, formerly Zaire), Rwanda, and Uganda.

Of interest are the mountain gorillas (sub-species of Eastern gorillas) ranging on the borders of the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda, along with a small population of gorillas on the Nigeria and Cameroon border which are most at risk. Although gorillas are legally protected in all countries where they abound, yet they are threatened with extinction as a result of habitat loss and illegal hunting of gorillas for meat, trophies, or the subsequent sale of their young ones. Their populations have been reduced greatly.

Because of this life-threating trend, major gorilla conservation projects have been established in selected areas within African tropical forests on which they depend in order to reverse the trend of declining population sizes, which has birthed ecotourism. Conservationists tirelessly work with the locals educating them on the best ways to preserve the tropical forests even while they embark on their lumbering and agricultural activities.

Horrific was the deadly Ebola virus incidence that emerged as a new threat to gorillas and claimed more than 5,000 gorillas in the Republic of Congo and in Gabon between 2002 and 2004 as presented in scientists’ report, 2006. Ebola is contagious and has killed more than 1,200 humans in Africa since 1976. The virus coupled with poaching and habitat destruction will definitely threaten some gorilla populations with extinction.

• Cheetah

Cheetah, which is a member of the cat family, belongs to the species Jubatus; genus Acinonyx; family Felidae; order Carnivore; and is classified as a mammal. It is one of the fastest land animals in the world, accelerating up to a speed of more than 97 km/h (60 mph) but in just two to three seconds. Of importance are cheetah’s long skull, large nasal passages and large lungs which help it to trap enough oxygen when running. While its footpads equipped with grooves aid better traction at high speeds, its long tail acts as a balance and aids in high-speed turns.

Cheetahs grazed in open habitats throughout Africa, the Middle East, and southwest Asia as far as central India but not until the past century. Uncontrolled hunting and habitat destruction have reduced the cheetah’s range and populations to isolated parts of Africa - south of the Sahara and a few tens of thousands respectively. In some remote areas of Iran, fewer than 100 cheetahs survive as extant.

Cheetahs are carnivores and they prey on antelope, wildebeest, hares, impala reedbuck and zebra. With their acute eyesight and bursts of speed, cheetahs hunt their prey during day. Despite the fact that cheetahs range in protected areas where they occur at extremely low densities, their survival is threatened because their main competitors, hyenas and lions also thrive there.

Apart from hunting and habitat destruction, other major threats to cheetah are the bigger cat - lion and the hyenas which usually prey upon its cubs. Nearly two thirds of cubs die before they are able to leave their lair. Cheetah declining populations will remain a source of concern even as the protected areas are being encroached upon by humans day by day.

• Sawfish

Sawfish

Of interest is the way sawfish were exploited in Nigeria especially in the old Nembe kingdom in Niger Delta. Their extinction from the estuary and coastal waters of the Niger Delta is historic. Legend has it that before fishermen start their fishing endeavour, they will firstly sing a certain traditional song. This song is believed to lure many sawfish out at once to be caught. And for a very long time until around the 1960s, the last of their kind are drained out of the less turbulent coastal waters of Niger delta with sweet melodious songs I suppose.

Incidentally, sawfish disappeared when petroleum exploitation peaked in Nigeria, essentially in the Niger Delta region. Exploitation activities which often result into environmental issues like water pollution certainly plays a role in the disappearance of sawfish. This is because during that time, a number of water pollution from oil spillages was filed. So, overfishing and pollution as well as predators threaten the existence of sawfish in the tropical waters of Africa.