With as many as a million species threatened with extinction due to mankind's destruction of the planet, there have been scant conservation successes in recent years.

Some creatures, such as the giant panda and the red tuna, have fared well, while efforts to save others, including sharks and cedars, have largely missed the mark.

Ahead of the release of a landmark UN report on the state of Earth's biodiversity, here are some successes and failures in conservation efforts.

- Giant panda -

The giant panda, native to China, has been on the IUCN's "Red List" of endangered species for years. Determined to protect its national treasure, the Chinese government began replanting the bamboo the bears feed on exclusively and organised funding for zoos to host pandas.

The panda has become something of a totem for species preservation, instantly recognised the world over. It however remains classified as "vulnerable" with less than 2,000 thought to remain in the wild.

- Bearded vulture -

The bearded vulture, which can attain a three-metre wingspan, had almost disappeared in Europe by the start of the 20th Century. But 30 years ago it became part of a reintegration programme in the mountains of France. Its population in France currently sits at around 60 couples.

- Red tuna -

The red tuna, a delicacy particularly in Japanese cuisine, was decimated by decades of overfishing in the Mediterranean and Atlantic before being added to a UN protected species list.

New quotas and protection measures have allowed stocks to largely recover, though there are fears for the long-term viability of other tuna breeds, including big eye and bluefin.

- Sehuencas water frog -

Until recently this frog, indigenous to Bolivia, was thought to be on the way to extinction with just a single known specimen, a male named Romeo.

But an expedition last year discovered a living female specimen, who was named -- you guessed it -- Juliet. It is hoped that the pair will mate and save one of the world's most imperilled species.

- Cedars -

The mighty cedar trees of Lebanon are mentioned in the Bible and have clung to the mountains along the eastern Mediterranean for centuries.

But as climate change makes water cycles less dependable and brings more pests such as insects, the "Cedars of God" are under threat like never before.

In 2012 Lebanon's agriculture ministry launched a programme to plant 40 million cedars by 2030. The tree is still classified as "vulnerable" by the IUCN.

- Corals -

Coral reefs cover less than 0.2 percent of the ocean bed but support around 30 percent of all known marine life. They are under threat from warming seas, which kill the coral and prevent reefs regenerating, as well as pollution, invasive species and tourism.

The UN's intergovernmental panel on climate change in a landmark report last October warned that even with just 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) of global warming could see 70-90 percent of Earth's coral reefs vanish.

- Sharks -

Sharks have stalked the oceans for more than 400 million years but they are now under threat from an even more devastating predator -- humans.

Of the 59 species of rays and sharks evaluated so far by the IUCN, 17 are classified at risk of extinction as overfishing and habitat destruction continues apace.

- Galapagos tortoise -

When Lonesome George, a 90-year-old giant tortoise in the Galapagos Islands, died in 2012, so did his species.

The islands' giant tortoise population was ravaged by pirates and poachers in the 18th Century and the creatures -- which lived to over 100 and took decades to reach maturity -- could not reproduce quick enough to save themselves.

Cute or creepy: why humans love some species, loathe others
Paris (AFP) May 2, 2019 - The Chinese giant salamander, the largest amphibian in the world, is not cute.

Weighing as much as an adult human, it has slimy brown skin, a giant mouth curled to a gormless grin, and puny, mistrustful eyes.

It is also one of the world's most endangered species.

And yet, unlike its compatriot the giant panda, the giant salamander rarely makes the news.

Why do some animals strike a chord with humans, prompting them to donate millions towards their conservation, while others draw little more than disgust?

And is a sad-eyed panda really worth saving more than a slimy salamander?

Size, intelligence, behaviour, rarity, how closely an animal resembles the human form -- all play a part in our reaction to various endangered creatures.

"One of the biggest factors is 'cuteness': physical characteristics such as big eyes and soft features that elicit our parental instincts because they remind us of human infants," Hal Herzog, emeritus professor at West Carolina University's Department of Psychology, told AFP.

An expert in human-animal relationships, Herzog said the dark rings around pandas' eyes triggered humans nurturing instincts.

"Compare that to the Chinese giant salamander," he said. "Google it. It looks like a six-foot-long, 150-pound bag of brown slime with beady little eyes."

The salamanders are a vital part of their ecosystem, just as worms are essential to soil health around the steams and lakes they live in -- which is just about everywhere.

Yet, like maggots, rats and snakes, the main instinct they inspire in humans is revulsion.

- 'Learned' disgust -

According to Graham Davey, a specialist in phobias from the University of Sussex's School of Psychology, we learn to revile certain creatures at a young age.

"Disgust is a learned emotion. Babies are not born with it... it's probably transmitted socially, culturally and within families," he said.

Some animals are reviled due to their resemblance to "primary disgusting things" such as mucus or faeces, Davey said, while others are perceived -- rightly or wrongly -- to pose a direct danger to the beholder.

"In terms of threat to humankind, disease and illness are bigger than being attacked by an animal," he said.

This might explain why most of us don't find lions and bears repellant -- they are covered with the same type of soft fur that coat cuddly toys for children, even if it might be better to avoid one in real life.

- An orca by any other name -

As with most things, popular culture has a huge effect on how society perceives animals.

Whereas the movie "Free Willy" prompted a wave of sympathy for the protection of endangered orcas, "Arachnophobia" hardly helped spiders' cause.

See also: "Jaws" for sharks.

Even the depiction of fictional creatures can have a knock-on effect on public perception towards certain animals.

Take the main being in "Alien", for example.

"Seeing the one from the first film that had that mucus-y drawl dripping from the alien's mouth... sensitises people to disgusting things," Davey said.

Nor is it just the public at large who are liable to "speciesism", or discrimination against other species in favour of our own.

A study in 2017 found a strong correlation between society's preferred animals and those most studied in scientific research.

"Maybe that's because it's easier to get money" to study well-known animals, said Frederic Legendre, a researcher at France's National History Museum.

And popular species make money in return, according to Christo Fabricius from WWF -- a conservation group indelibly linked to its panda logo.

"Reptiles, for example, are not very marketable," he said.

- 'Protect species, protect habitat' -

Not that favouring certain cute or charismatic species is necessarily a bad thing for conservation.

"When we protect an iconic species, we protect their habitat and therefore all the organisms within it also benefit," said Legendre.

But such species can become a victim of their own popularity.

One recent study suggested that a "virtual" presence of wild animals such as elephants and tigers -- be that on computer screens, T-shirts or in children's books -- can fool people into thinking they are more common in the wild than they really are.

The populations of most megafauna -- from hippos to giraffes and gorillas -- remain in peril.

Then there's the risk of poaching.

The rarer the species "the more value they provide for traditional medicine, for trophy hunting, and therefore they are poached more often," said Franck Courchamp, an ecologist at France's National Centre for Scientific Research.

So the next time you see a picture of a Giant Chinese Salamander, remember that there's more to saving Earth's wild species than looks.

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Cute or creepy: why humans love some species, loathe others
Paris (AFP) April 29, 2019
The Chinese giant salamander, the largest amphibian in the world, is not cute. Weighing as much as an adult human, it has slimy brown skin, a giant mouth curled to a gormless grin, and puny, mistrustful eyes. It is also one of the world's most endangered species. And yet, unlike its compatriot the giant panda, the giant salamander rarely makes the news. Why do some animals strike a chord with humans, prompting them to donate millions towards their conservation, while others draw li ... read more