A Perfect Time for Pandas: A Merlin Mission (7 page)

Here’s an excerpt from

Endangered Species

It’s difficult to give the total number of endangered species because many have yet to be discovered. It’s estimated that there are almost 10,000 endangered species of plants and animals and another 10,000 that are at risk. The list includes everything from beautiful Fender’s blue butterflies to Steller sea lions, which can reach over 2,000 pounds!

Overfishing has caused many ocean species to become endangered and almost
extinct. Coral reefs are dying off in record numbers due to climate change and pollution. Until recent years, we knew more about the surface of the moon than the depths of the ocean.

Excerpt copyright © 2012 by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce. Illustrations copyright © 2012 by Sal Murdocca. Yellow-eyed penguin photograph © Tui De Roy/Minden Pictures. Published by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Strange and Wonderful

Many people know about endangered animals such as tigers, elephants, and whales. But there are also wonderful animals that few people have ever heard of.

There’s an endangered bat that lives on only a few islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Mariana fruit bat is considered to be a delicacy, so it is illegally hunted and eaten by humans.

There are about 10,000 bird species; 600 are endangered.

There are endangered penguins in New
Zealand with glowing yellow eyes called yellow-eyed penguins. Because the coastal forests where they nest are being cleared, their habitat is disappearing, and, sadly, so are they.