In Asia,tigers have been hunted foe sport or for their skins for hundreds of years.As a result of this hunting,there are now only a few tigers left in China.In Bengal,however,the popilation of tigers is thriving—it has increased from 2000 to 5000 animals.This is because the Indian government decided to protect the population of tigers in 1972.
Hunters also threaten elephants,which are killed for their ivory tusks,and rhinoceroses,whose horns are used in traditional Chinese medicine.There are now fewer than 8000 rhinos left in Africa,and probably less than 1000 living in Indodesia.If these animals are not properly protected,they will die out.
Cutting down trees in the rainforests has reduce the natural habitat of apes.The orangutan in Sumatra,the lion tamarin in Brazil and the red lemur in Madagascar have all suffered a decline in their numbers,because year by year they have less and less natural habitats to live in.
The giant pandas have a variety of survival problems.They only eats one type of food—a special bamboo plant which only flowers once every 60years.They finds it difficult to reproduce too,so there are very few baby pandas to increase the panda population.The Chinese government has made the panda a species.If someone hunts and kills one of these animals,the punishment is death.Neverthless,only a few thousand of these shy beasts still survive in the wild today.
In the ocean,some animals have been hunted until they are almost extinct.Whales in particular have suffered because their meat and bones are very valuable.Other animals,such as dolphins,are killed when they get caught in large drift nets used by tuna fishmen.These nets catch and kull any sea creature that happens to be in their way,as well as the tuna.In shallow waters,many fish have died as a result of pollution from human waste and oil spills.
Organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund are struggling to save animals threatened by extinction.They have forced government to protect some animals and to punish poachers illegally selling animal products.One of its biggest successes was in 1990 when a complete ban on ivory trading was introduced.
Nowadays,some countries are beginning to promote eco-tourism.Eco-tourism is a type of tourist industry which encourages tourism without damaging animals’ habitats.Tourists are encouraged to shoot animals-which cameras,not guns.
參考答案:在亚洲，将捕杀老虎作为一项运动或为猎取老虎皮而捕杀老虎已经有了几百年的历史。所以现在在中国，老虎的数量已经所剩无几了。然而在孟加拉，老虎的数量却在猛增——已经从以前的2000只增加到了5000只。这是因为印度政府早在1972年就做出了保护老虎的决定。
捕猎者也威胁到了大象和犀牛的生存。他们为了得到珍贵的象牙而捕杀大象或者为了能在传统中药中入药的犀牛角而捕杀犀牛。迄今为止，非洲只剩下不到8000头犀牛，生活在印度尼西亚的也很有可能不到1000头了。如果这些动物都不能得到有效的保护，它们迟早是要灭绝的。热带雨林的滥砍滥伐已经使猿类的栖息地锐减。苏门答腊岛上的猩猩，巴西的狮绢毛猴和马达加斯加岛上的红狐猴也都因为栖息地的减少而遭受了灭顶之灾。
大熊猫更是面临着各种各样的生存问题。它们只吃一种很特别的60年才开一次花的竹子。它们的繁殖也很困难，所以熊猫很难通过繁殖后代来增加种群的数目。中国政府已经将熊猫列为珍稀物种。如果有人捕杀熊猫，他将被判处死刑。尽管如此，在今天的大自然中，也只存活有几千只这种害羞的动物了。
在海洋中，有些生物已经被捕杀得近乎灭绝。鲸鱼更是由于价值不菲的鱼肉和鱼骨而惨遭捕杀。其他动物，比如海豚，当捕鱼者用巨大的流网抓住它们时，它们只有死路一条。这种流网会抓住并杀死任何碰巧被它碰到的海洋生物，就连金枪鱼也不例外。在浅水，还有许多鱼类死于人类排放的垃圾和油污产生的污染。
许多组织，比如世界野生生物基金，正在为拯救濒临灭绝的动物们做出自己的努力。他们强迫政府保护动物并惩罚非法倒卖畜产品的偷猎者。他们取得的最大的成果之一就是在1990年提出了全面禁止象牙贸易。
今天，有些国家正开始提倡生态旅游。这种旅游鼓励人们以保护动植物栖息地为前提进行旅游参观；并鼓励游客们用照相机给动物拍照而不是用枪来捕杀动物。
