The Amazon has the richest biodiversity of all biomes, with more than 480 tree species per hectare, while only 700 species are found in all of North America. Insects are also abundant in the Amazon, with more than 50,000 insect species per square mile. The Amazon represent the last last refuges for many South American species, like jaguars, pink dolphins, harpy eagles, two-toed sloths, pygmy marmosets and tamarin monkeys. However, in the past 40 years, deforestation has destroyed almost 20 percent of the Amazon.
More than 1,000 species are endangered in Southeast Asia, including the Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi), the Visayan wrinkled hornbill (Aceros waldeni), the Philippine tarsier (Tarsius syrichta), the bumblebee bat (Craseonycteris thonglongyai) and the tamaraw or mindoro dwarf buffalo (Bubalus mindorensis). Human activities related to habitat loss and deforestation are the main causes of biodiversity loss in Southeast Asia.
Tasmania contains the largest temperate rainforest in the southern hemisphere, which is home to dozens of endangered species. Located in northwest Tasmania, the Tarkine Forest is home to the endangered Tasmanian devil, which is declining in population due to a contagious facial tumour. Planned mining exploration in the area can accelerate the animal's extinction. Other species facing extinction in the area include 60 rare, threatened and endangered species, including the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle and the 3-feet-long giant freshwater lobster.
Eastern Africa is home to many endemic species, some of them threatened by extinction. Among the vertebrates alone, there are 72 endemic vertebrates that are threatened and can disappear in the wild. Eastern Africa's non-endemic species at risk of extinction include the African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), the dorcas gazelle (Gazella dorcas), Soemmerring's gazelle (Gazella soemmerringii), the beira antelope (Dorcatragus megalotis), the large-eared free-tailed bat (Otomops martiensseni) and the dugong (Dugong dugon), a marine mammal closely related to the manatee.