Top Ten Endangered Animals 2014

The Amur leopard is one of the world's most endangered cats with an estimated remaining wild population of 30-40 in Russia and China. The Amur leopard is one of the world's most endangered cats with an estimated remaining wild population of 30-40 in Russia and China.

Javan rhinos are the most threatened of the five rhino species, with only 58-68 individuals that live only in Ujung Kulon National Park in Java, Indonesia. Javan rhinos once lived throughout northeast India and Southeast Asia. Vietnam’s last Javan rhino was poached in 2010.

The northern sportive lemur, also known as the Sahafary sportive lemur or northern weasel lemur, is a species of lemur in the family Lepilemuridae. It is endemic to Madagascar. As a result of severe ecological and human pressures, the lemur is classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List, and is one of the world's most endangered primate species.

The western lowland gorilla is the most numerous and widespread of all gorilla subspecies. Populations can be found in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea as well as in large areas in Gabon and the Republic of Congo.

The saola is called a phantom animal because it was completely unknown until recently, even though it has a body length of one meter. The horns of a saola were discovered in 1992, and in the 20 years since then only two have been captured, one in 1996 and one in 2010.

Leatherback turtles are named for their shell, which is leather-like rather than hard, like other turtles. They are the largest sea turtle species and also one of the most migratory, crossing both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The Bengal tiger is classified as endangered by the IUCN. Indochinese tigers (Panthera tigris corbetti) are located in Thailand, Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam. The population of this subspecies had fallen by more than 70 percent in slightly more than a decade, and the total population of Indochinese tigers is estimated at fewer than 300 individuals.

The Chinese giant salamander, the world’s largest amphibian and a critically endangered species, has quietly slipped towards extinction in nature.

The North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis), which means "good, or true, whale of the ice") is a baleen whale, one of three right whale species belonging to the genus Eubalaena, all of which were formerly classified as a single species.

The vaquita is considered the most endangered of 129 extant marine mammal species. It has been classified as one of the top 100 evolutionary distinct and globally endangered (EDGE) mammals in the world. The vaquita is an evolutionarily distinct animal and has no close relatives.