The Jungle Book: Get to Know the Animals in The Movie

Mowgli and his friends taught people a lot of things about friendship and belongingness. The Disney Animated film was recently remade for a live-action version, and while the film was enjoyable to watch, some of the animals featured in the stories aren't enjoying their lives out in the wild.

In fact, according to National Geographic, many of the animals described in the original works by Rudyard Kipling are now endangered due to the impact of humans on nature. Here are some things you should know about them:

Bagheera - Black Panther
Black panthers are actually just a color variant of the spotted leopards. They are but black all over with jsut some markings showing up in certain lights. While leopards are still the most widely distributed wild cat in the world, their numbers have been dwindling. This is due to mainly two reasons: they are persecuted when they come near humans or are hunted for illegal trading or Chinese medicine. Currently, their conservation status are defined as "near threatened" or "vulnerable."

Baloo - Sloth Bear
The "sleepy brown bear" would suggest that he's a sloth bear. The only difference is that in in the movie, Baloo ate nuts and honey. In real life, they eat insects, mealworms, and crickets. Of course, the color also differes as sloth bears are known to have black, dusty coats. However, Kipling's stories are fiction, so Baloo could be a bear version of a vegetarian. On the other hand, sloth bears are found only in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and India and are currently labeled as "vulnerable." In India they are technically safe, but are being traded for their gallbladers.

Shere Khan - Bengal Tiger
The villain in the story is a Bengal Tiger. According to National Geographic, even though new estimates say that there had been an increase in tiger population since 2010, not everyone is convinced that the increase is truly a representation of their recovery, as the technology for assessing their numbers may have just gotten better. Still, the efforts being made to conserve all the wild tigers have been exemplary, with India as the major contributor in tiger conservation. It is also true that the populations are said to be stable or increasing.

Akela and Rashka - Indian Wolves
The adoptive canine parents in the story are Indian wolves or simply wolves that live in India, not any distinct kind of species. They are of "least concern" in conservation efforts as their numbers are doing fairly well. However, they don't actually raise children.

King Louie - Orangutan/Gigantopithecus
He didn't exist in the books, but in Disney's animated versions, the vine-swinging orangutan was introduced. Unfortunately, orangutans don't actually live in India, so for the live-animation version, he was turned into a Gigantopithecus instead -- a massive ape that once lived in the forests in Southern China, Southeast Asia, and India. They are also the most similar to orangutans, but the youngest known fossil dates about 400,000 years old.

Real or fiction, these animals remain majestic and should be protected. Will you be watching "The Jungle Book" in theaters anytime soon?