Top 10 Rarest Animals In The World

Animals are loved by nearly everyone in the world, yet humans are the biggest threat to their survival. Every single one of the animals on this list is not only rare, but also critically endangered or “just” endangered. The low population of these rare animals is primarily due to habitat loss, hunting, or accidental death caused by human activities.

10) Black-footed Ferret: The Black-footed Ferret is often touted as a conservation success story as the species has come back from extinction status twice through the efforts of conservationists. Originally, the Black-footed Ferret was native to the Great Plains of North America and ranged from southern Canada to northern Mexico. However, the population of the Black-footed Ferret sharply declined throughout the 20th century and was declared extinct in 1979. A few years later, in 1981, the Black-footed Ferret was re-discovered by a dog in Wyoming. That remaining population only survived until 1987 and the Black-footed Ferret was extinct in the wild again. Since then, a captive breeding program was launched by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and thousands of Black-footed Ferrets were re-released in Arizona, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Montana throughout the last few decades. While, the program has mostly been a success, recent updates only put the wild Black-footed Ferret population between 300 to 400 individuals.