What do the pygmy hippopotamus, the bumblebee bat and the rare slender loris have in common? Well, these weirdest creatures face extinction.

According to the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), 85 per cent of the top 100 of the world’s weirdest and most endangered creatures are receiving very little conservation attention and will disappear if no action is taken.

The society, which has drawn up a list of some of the creatures threatened with extinction, has recently launched an amphibians conservation and fund-raising initiative called EDGE that aims to save the animals.

“Tragically, amphibians tend to be the overlooked members of the animal kingdom, even though one in every three amphibian species is currently threatened with extinction, a far higher proportion than that of bird or mammal species.

“These species are the ‘canaries in the coal mine’ — they are highly sensitive to factors such as climate change and pollution, which lead to extinction, and are a stark warning of things to come.

The ZSL has identified and is starting work to protect 10 of the most unusual and threatened EDGE amphibian species this year. They include: Chinese giant salamander, Sagalla caecilian, purple frog, ghost frogs of South Africa, lungless salamanders of Mexico, olm, etc.