Among the fish populations that could be harmed by the Xayaburi dam in Laos is the critically endangered Mekong giant catfish, considered by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the world’s largest freshwater fish. The fish, which grows to 650 pounds and about 10 feet long, is only found in the Mekong River. It is migratory, moving between downstream habitats in Cambodia upstream to northern Thailand and Laos each year to spawn. Some experts fear the Xayaburi dam could block the migration and drive the giant catfish to extinction. (Photo by Courtesy of Zeb Hogan/University of Nevada, Reno)

Ary Borges feeds his tiger named Dan at his home in Maringa, Brazil, Thursday, September 26, 2013. Borges is in a legal battle with federal wildlife officials to keep his endangered animals from undergoing vasectomies and being taken away from him. He defends his right to breed the animals and says he gives them a better home than they might find elsewhere in Brazil. (Photo by Renata Brito/AP Photo)

Armed officers of Lewa Wildlife Conservancy's (LWC) anti-poaching unit look out from a ridge at dawn in Meru, on July 31, 2021, as they wind up their nightly security patrol against poaching and illegal incursions into the conservancy. Despite the global condemnation of poaching and the resources that have been mobilised to safeguard endangered wildlife, well-funded and well-equipped poaching groups continue to pose a real threat to Africa’s wildlife. (Photo by Tony Karumba/AFP Photo)

The secretive indri (Indri indri) of Madagascar, the largest living lemur. It is also critically endangered and highly evolutionarily distinct with no close relatives, which makes its branch one of most precarious on the mammal evolutionary tree. In the likely event that the indri goes extinct, we will lose 19m years of unique evolutionary history from the mammal tree of life. (Photo by Pierre-Yves Babelon/Aarhus University)

Cheetah Darcy enjoys her newly-developed Cheetah Territory that covers 10,000 square at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, near Doncaster, UK on Wednesday, August 16, 2023. Darcy, who is four-years-old, travelled from Ireland's Fota Wildlife Park to YWP last week where she will be joined by 13-year-old male Brooke who is on his way from the Bristol Zoo Project as a recommendation by the European Endangered Species Programme. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images)

This picture taken on January 1, 2014 shows giant panda “Li Li” sleeping on a tree in Hangzhou Wild Animal World in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang province. Giant pandas, notorious for their low s*x drive, are among the world's most endangered animals. Fewer than 1,600 pandas remain in the wild, mainly in China's Sichuan province, with a further 300 in captivity around the world. (Photo by AFP Photo)

This watering hole is the social hub of the veldt; the scrubby grasslands that stretch across Namibia. The scorched earth supports sometimes fragile populations of magnificent wildlife – from endangered predators to plentiful herds of game. But these gentle giraffes and elephants need to be careful: lions don’t sleep at night, they hunt! The spectacular starscape above southern Africa is unchanged since explorers first mapped the continent. The photographer, Pietro Olivetta from Italy, said he had to be patient to capture these shots – but it was worth the wait. (Photo by Pietro Olivetta/Caters News)

A woman poses for a photo with the Rafflesia Arnoldii flower at Palupuah Forest, Agam District, West Sumatra, Indonesia on September 16, 2024. Palupuh forest is located at an altitude of 975 meters above sea level, with temperatures reaching 18-20 degrees Celsius. According to The West Sumatera Nature Conservation Agency (BKSDA), in the province of West Sumatra there are 36 points where this endangered flower grows. (Photo by Adi Prima/Anadolu via Getty Images)