Endangered Animals By: Sohan       Have you ever thought about all the different types of pollution we are making? Because of all this pollution, there are many animals in the world that are  critically endangered. Three of these critically endangered species are the Leatherback Turtle, the Sumatran Elephant, and the Cross River Gorilla.                                        The Leatherback Turtle has been around for 100 million years, but is now facing extinction. There may as little as 2,300 adult leatherback turtles in all of the world’s oceans together. Leatherback turtles can be up to 6 feet long. They can weigh up to 500 pounds and have white spots on their dark colored shell. Leatherback turtles are the world’s largest sea turtles. The main reasons for the leatherback turtles dying out are: habitat loss, wildlife trade (poaching), climate change, and pollution. Leatherback turtles are being forced to adapt to new conditions because of pollution and other reasons. Some turtles cannot cope with these new conditions, so they die. Others are poached for their eggs and meat.                                                          There are only about 2000 Sumatran elephants in the world. These elephants are found mainly on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Their numbers are diminishing mainly because of deforestation for palm oil plantations. They have already lost 80% of their natural habitat. There is also the problem of poachers. The male elephants have tusks, but the females rarely do. Poachers hunt these elephants for their ivory tusks. These elephants are herbivores (which means that they eat only plants), so the deforestation is affecting them. These elephants are usually very strong, so they have only one main predator, the Sumatran tiger.                                              Cross River Gorillas have been very hard for scientists to study until the last decade. These gorillas stay away from humans and live in rugged areas. There are only about 300 of these gorillas and they are spread out into about 11 different groups. There habitat is about 3000 square miles big and it is spread out over the African countries Cameroon and Nigeria. That might seem like a lot, but it is only the size of two Rhode Islands side by side. The main cause of such a small population is poachers. Humans are also clearing their habitat for fields for agriculture. The loss of even a few of these gorillas would be disastrous with such a small population.                                 All of these animals are critically endangered. It would be great if these small populations could grow back into what they were. To help with this, some zoos keep some of these endangered species to make sure they are not deliberately killed. Do you support this or are you against this? What can people do to save some of these species? Please respond in your comment. And remember, anybody can make a difference to help save these species.