26 animal species humans are pushing to the brink - IV
A captive peacock parachute spider at Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas. Destruction of the spider's selective habitat in India has made it highly vulnerable.
The eponymous river, in Venezuela and Colombia, is the sole habitat of the Orinoco crocodile. Fewer than 250 remain in the wild.
Early nature writers Frank and John Craighead with Indian Prince R. S. Dharmakumarsinhji, and an Indian bustard they had shot. The large, primitive birds have suffered catastrophic decline due to hunting, predation and habitat loss.
A flapper skate is measured for data before release off the west coast of Scotland. Flapper skates - whose population has been decimated due to overfishing - can reach 100kg, and 2 metres in length.
A male ploughshare tortoise at the Turtle Conservancy in Ojai, California. Illegal poaching and a narrow habitat in Madagascar has pushed this already rare tortoise to the brink of extinction.
An illustration from the Field Museum of the recently described 'vika' - or Vangunu giant rat – which was rumoured to dwell in trees in the Solomon Islands. It was reputed to be three times bigger than its European equivalent and able to open tough tree nuts with its teeth.
