CONSERVATION and BEHAVIOUR
Which animal would you choose to conserve?
After finding people preferred large, cool-toned and multicoloured imaginary animals (see here for more information), we wanted to find out whether people liked the same things in real animals. After 16 animals were carefully selected, artist Rory McCann drew the beautiful images below for the experiment. Find out more about each animal by hovering over its image.
Funded by the National Geographic Society
Mauritius fody
Foudia rubra
160-220 individuals
Stable population
Like many birds, the Mauritius fody is sexually dichromatic - males and females have different colours. The female Mauritius fody is a duller yellow and brown.
Grevy's zebra
Equus grevyi
900-1100 individuals
Stable population
Found only in Ethiopia and Kenya, Grevy's Zebra is the largest zebra species, and the largest wild equid (horses, donkeys and zebras)
Jamaican blackbird
Nesopsar nigerrimus
1500-7000 individuals
Declining population
Only found in the Jamaican highlands, the Jamaican blackbird's call has been described as sounding like a film camera motor.
Golden lion tamarin
Leontopithecus rosalia
3200 individuals
Stable population
Female golden lion tamarins usually give birth to twins, but sometimes have triplets or quadruplets.
Djoongari
Pseudomys fieldi
10,000 individuals
Stable population
Now, the djoongari can only be found on a few islands in Shark Bay, Australia. But in the 19th century it was found across mainland Australian, even as far inland as Alice Springs, 750 miles from the coast.
Striated caracara
Phalcoboenus australis
1000-2500 individuals
Stable population
Striated caracara have the most southern distribution of any bird of prey, found in the Falkland Islands and Tierra del Fuego.
Stella's sea eagle
Haliaeetus pelagicus
3700 individuals
Declining population
Stella's sea eagle is the heaviest eagle in the world, and females can weight as much as 9kg.
Eurasian lynx
Lynx lynx
60,000 individuals
Stable population
In areas where their prey is less common, male Eurasian lynx can have hunting areas as large as 450 square kilometres.
Brush tailed rock wallaby
Petrogale penicillata
20,000 individuals
Declining population
Found in south east Australia, 70% of the brush tailed rock wallaby's habitat was destroyed by bush fires in January 2020.
Tonkin's snub-nosed monkey
Rhinopithecus avunculus
250 individuals
Declining population
Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys were thought extinct until a small population was discovered in Northern Vietnam in the 1990s.
White rumped falcon
Polihierax insignis
300,000 individuals
Stable population
Found in south-east Asia, the white rumped falcon eats insects, lizards and even small birds.
Bactrian camel
Camelus ferus
950 individuals
Declining population
The wild bactrian camel is a different species from domesticated bactrian camels, and only found in China and Mongolia.
Northern cassowary
Casaurius unappendiculatus
10,000-20,000 individuals
Declining population
Although first described to Western science from individual an aviary in India, the 1.8m Northern Cassowary actually lives on New Guinea.
African spoonbill
Platalea alba
7,300-73,000 individuals
Stable population
African spoonbill's are found across sub-Saharan African in marshy wetlands, where is swings it's head from side to side to catch small fish and invertebrates.
Black honey buzzard
Henicopernis infuscatus
6,000-15,000 individuals
Declining population
Little is known about the shy black honey buzzard, which is found only on the island of New Britain.
Bonobo
Pan paniscus
15,000-20,000 individuals
Declining population
Bonobos have a matriarchal society, which means social interactions centre around females which have higher status than males.