Comeback Critters.

These five species almost vanished-but their populations rebounded once humans stepped in to help

Giant Panda

After poaching and deforestation nearly wiped out these bears in the 1980s, the Chinese government began enacting protections and restoring bamboo forests. By 2014, there were 1,864 pandas in the wild, enough to take the species off the endangered list.

Bald Eagle

In 1963, there were only about 400 wild nesting pairs of the U.S. national bird.

This was due in part to the widespread use of DDT, a pesticide that contaminated the bald eagles' food. But the federal government passed protection laws and banned DDT, and now 14,000 nesting pairs can be found in the lower 48 states.

Gray Wolf

Decades of hunting nearly exterminated the American wolf population-in 1975, only about 1,000 were left in the contiguous states. But they received endangered species protections that same year, and their numbers have grown to about 5,000 today.

Lesser Long-Nosed Bat

There were fewer than 1,000 of these bats in the late...