A visual art performance on the loss of endangered species was held at the Grand Gateway in Shanghai's Xuhui district on Wednesday.

Chinese artist Wang Xieda painted giant-sized renditions of four endangered species — rhinoceros, turtles, elephants and tigers.

The water paintings disappeared within minutes, illustrating how fast these species can disappear from the planet.

In 2012, 668 rhinos were killed for their horns worldwide, and police tracked down 46.5 tons of smuggled ivory in 2011.

Xu Ling, senior program officer with the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, said China is a major destination for illegal ivory and tiger products, which were mainly used for ornaments and medicine.

"Through this art campaign, we hope to raise the awareness of people that as consumers they can refuse to use the illegal products of the endangered species, which are vital to the environment."

The organization estimated that up to 200 endangered species vanish daily, or about one every eight minutes.