Do we need to change our plans for protecting the tiger to save it?

This question from Alayna is a great way to start out - with one of the most charismatic of all threatened wildlife species, the tiger.  Traditionally tiger conservation has focused on preserving blocks of habitat, and enforcing rules and agreements to discourage hunting.  The World Wildlife Fund has selected seven major regions in the tiger’s range where populations have a chance of long-term survival, as well as four more places where conservation will be more challenging but still possible.  The WWF is working to protect tiger habitat in these areas, and to eliminate illegal hunting and trade in tiger parts.  To be effective, such conservation efforts must take the needs of local human communities into account, and working with nearby villages to include local people in conservation efforts is an essential part of successfully preserving the tiger.  At the same time, awareness is growing that to effectively conserve tigers (and many other species) we must also consider the impact of global warming on their habitat.  In Bangladesh, a major tiger population is threatened by rising sea levels resulting from global warming.  The tiger is a great example of a charismatic animal that’s received a lot of conservation attention up to this time - but for which we must adjust our conservation strategy in a warming world. 

Is the strawberry crab endangered?

While answering this question from Miracle, smirrah reminds us there are animals about which we simply don’t enough to judge the health of populations and decide how to conserve them.  The strawberry crab, recently discovered off the coast of Taiwan by Professor Ho Ping-ho from the National Taiwan Ocean University, is one such creature.  With the announcement of its discovery coming just a few months ago, scientists don’t really know very much about this crab.  What is known is that the Taiwan strawberry crab lives in a habitat threatened by pollution from cargo ships.  Ironically, the species was discovered during research on the environmental impact of a ship wreck.  In cases like the strawberry crab, the best way to ensure healthy populations survive probably will be to focus on conserving the marine ecosystem it depends on.  In the process, we may end up saving other species about which little is known, or which have not even been discovered yet!

Who said it was OK for Japan to hunt whales?

This question from meghanmejia, and answer from benz, brings up the complexities involved in conserving species on an international scale.  Within US borders, environmentalists can use US laws to fight for protection of endangered species.  In the case of whales threatened by whalers from Japan and a handful of other countries, however, it's less clear how US activists can have an impact.  The Japanese government supports whaling, and Japan is a powerful enough country that even international bodies have a hard time telling it what to do.  Partly for this reason, organizations like Greenpeace have a history of interfering directly with whaling by putting their bodies in the way of harpoons.  Greenpeace and other groups also work with Japanese society and Japan-based companies to challenge whaling.  Some people believe Greenpeace is extreme with its methods, or even that there's an element of racism involved in targeting Japan.  However I use Greenpeace as an example because I think they're actually quite careful in their analysis of Japanese whaling.  Greenpeace makes it clear their quarrel is with the Japanese government- not the people of Japan.  Ultimately it is the Japanese government that's given itself permission to hunt whales, but it will probably be the people of Japan who put a stop to whaling for good. 

What is the difference between extinct and endangered species?

In this question tyrell brings up the point that sometimes environmentalists throw around words like "endangered" and "extinct" without clarifying what these terms actually mean.  As greenrobby89 says, the difference an extinct and an endangered species is that endangered species are in immediate danger of disappearing forever, whereas an extinct species is already gone.  The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies declining species into several categories including extinct and endangered.  When an endangered species fails to turn up during repeated and thorough surveys over a long period, researchers may determine that it has disappeared completely and should be classified as extinct.  Perhaps the most critical difference between extinct and endangered is that, for an endangered species, there is still hope that it might recover with proper protection.  Once a species is truly extinct however, like the famous passenger pigeon, there is no hope we will ever see it again. 

How many Tasmanian devils are left in the wild?

This question from wiggins is a great chance to point out that declining animal populations are not always due mainly to habitat loss or over-hunting.  Though both these factors have posed a threat to Tasmanian devils in the past, by far the largest threat today is a strange disease, referred to as “facial tumor disease,” that began ravaging devil population in the mid-1990s.  It's hard to estimate the exact population of devils remaining in the wild, but it may be as low as 20,000 individuals.  This is about a 70% decline from before the disease, and conservationists continue to fear for the survival of this species.  No cure for the facial tumor disease has been found yet, so efforts at devil conservation have focused largely on keeping healthy animals from being introduced to infection.  Organizations involved in trying to save the devil include the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park, where at least one population of devils has been kept isolated from the facial tumor disease.