There are only about 20,000 lions left in Africa, according to Dereck Joubert, a National Geographic explorer-in-residence and filmmaker who lives among the iconic big cats in Botswana with his wife, Beverly. About 50 years ago, there were 450,000 lions — a decline of more than 95 percent, he said. About five wild lions are killed every day throughout Africa, Joubert added.
Trophy hunters, mostly Americans, kill about 600 lions per year, typically males with large manes. More than 90 percent of these trophies are taken back to the United States and the activity often takes place in "canned" hunts where lions are placed in small enclosures or even cages and then shot, Joubert added.
Rhino poaching has more than doubled since 2010 in South Africa, according to the country. And this year, rhinos went extinct in the adjacent country of Mozambique, according to news reports. One rhino is shot in Africa every 9.5 hours, Joubert said.
Rhinos are desired for their horns, which are wrongly thought to be able to cure cancer and fevers, Joubert added. Horns can sell for around $30,000 per pound, according to the BBC.
Elephants are in trouble, according to conservationists. Poaching of elephants has risen dramatically in the past few years due to soaring demand for ivory, primarily in China and Southeast Asia. Five African elephants are killed every hour, Joubert said.
There are a total of about 300,000 African elephants left, and as many as 40,000 are killed each year. With these levels, elephants won't be around for much longer, Joubert said.
Since humans arrived in Madagascar about 2,000 years ago, about 15 to 20 species of lemurs have gone extinct, likely due to habitat loss and hunting, including species whose males grew nearly as large as gorillas, said University of Illinois primatologist Paul Garber. But this was over the course of hundreds and thousands of years. Humans are cutting down the lemurs' habitat at much faster pace now
Currently, 93 lemur species are endangered, critically endangered or threatened.
About 100 million sharks are killed each year to be made into shark fin soup, a Chinese delicacy. This trade takes the form of shark finning, in which the animals' fins are hacked off and they are thrown back into the ocean to slowly die
Nevertheless, one-third of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction, according to a 2009 study by the IUCN. For this reason, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) voted in March of this year to prohibit the trade in shark fins of five threatened species.