1. African Lion

1. African Lion

The threats to these iconic big cats—including loss of prey, conversion of protected habitat to grazing and agriculture, and a growing number of human-lion conflicts—are accelerating. In late October 2014, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service proposed Endangered Species Act protection for the African lion, which would ban commerce in lions and lion products. A public comment period ends in late January. Emerging science suggests a close genetic relationship between west central African lions and highly endangered Asiatic lions, which could lead to stronger protections.

(Photo: Sirko Hartmann/Getty Images)

2. Sierra Nevada Red Fox

2. Sierra Nevada Red Fox

There are only about 50 of these rare mountain foxes left in California and Oregon. Livestock grazing, logging, and other activities have altered the forest, mountain meadow, and shrub land habitats the fox calls home. Trapping and poisoning have also slashed the animal’s numbers. As with the Alexander Archipelago wolf, the federal government is supposed to decide in 2015 whether to protect the Sierra Nevada red fox under the Endangered Species Act.

(Photo: Getty Images)

3. Antarctic Minke Whale

3. Antarctic Minke Whale

Anti-whaling activists celebrated when the International Court of Justice ruled this year that Japan’s whaling activities violated the hunting moratorium set by the International Whaling Commission. But Japan, which has long called its commercial whaling effort a “scientific program,” has made clear it intends to keep hunting the minke whales of the Southern Ocean under a revised scientific plan. With the IWC’s next scientific committee meeting set for spring 2015 in San Diego, the minke should show up in the headlines.

(Photo: Ira Meyer/Getty Images)

4. West Coast Fisher

4. West Coast Fisher

Fishers have become rare in Washington, Oregon, and California after decades of trapping, as well as the logging of old-growth forests. Now they also threatened by illegal marijuana plantations, which growers protect from predation with rodenticides. The federal government proposed protection for the West Coast fisher in October 2014, and the formal listing under the Endangered Species Act should come before the end of 2015.

(Photo: Don Johnson/Getty Images)

5. Alexander Archipelago Wolf

5. Alexander Archipelago Wolf

This subspecies of gray wolf lives in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, where it is losing its old-growth forest habitat to logging and road building. In response to a petition from the non-profit Center for Biological Diversity (which is also working on saving the fisher and the fox), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is scheduled to decide whether to protect it under the Endangered Species Act by the end of 2015.

(Photo: Thomas Kitchin/Getty Images)