Human Causes Of Extinction And Prevention Of Endangered Species

Did you know that poaching has led to most animal extinctions this century? Poaching is a continuously growing problem that will cause many problems to the environment and people. Poaching can be defined as the illegal hunting of animals on land that is not the hunters own. Poaching does not only happen in unprotected lands such as the wilderness, but it has also happened in protected lands such as zoos. Animals may soon become extinct because of the high rate of killing the poachers are doing. If animals do become extinct, life would be very different. An example of how life would be different without animals, such as tigers, is talked about by Eugene Linden when he said, “the wild tigers of old will be gone forever, their glory surviving

Since earth was created, there has been a natural phenomenon of species across the globe appearing and disappearing. However, in the past century, many species of animals have been disappearing at an alarming rate. Mainly, this rapidly occurring issue is caused by humans. Humans that contribute to the harmful actions that cause side effects such a pollution, deforestation, habitat loss and poaching. The natural rate of extinction pales in comparison to the extinction rate caused by all of these. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the current rate of extinction is 11,000 times greater than the natural extinction rate. Several different efforts have been made in order to stop or slow down the extinction of earth’s species. The Endangered Species Act is possibly the most successful example of these efforts. It’s main purpose is to get a commitment from the American people that they will work hand in hand to help save species that are at risk of becoming extinct and never returning. This act was put in place in 1973 and since then, no other law about the disappearance of wildlife has been quite as accomplished. Many different species that are protected under this law are either fully recovered or on their way to becoming safer. Laws like these are helping many different creatures left and right, however, at the alarming rate that they are disappearing, something else needs to be done. What people don’t seem to realize is that we depend on many of the animals that we are

Humans have caused another extinction, one that could possibly take us down in the process, species are exponentially going extinct because of habitat loss, species exportation, and invasive species bullying native species. On the other hand, scientists are trying to safe guard native species, keep animals in captivity whether it be for the animals well-being or for research, and widespread invasion. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting “What Everglades Pythons and Other Invasive Species are Trying to Tell Us,” by Julia Whitty and “The Sixth Extinction,” by Jeff Corwin.

The scale and pace of change is dramatic; for example, the extinction of species is occurring at around 100-fold pre-human rates4. The population sizes of vertebrate species have, on average, declined by half over the last 45 years5. More than 2.3 million km2 of primary forest has been felled since 20006. About

Many species vital to ensuring that today’s environment will thrive are becoming extinct. If a species is slowly dwindling, and in imminent danger of becoming nonexistent, this species is considered to be endangered. “One in four mammals, one in eight birds, one third of all amphibians and 70% of the world’s assessed plants on the… IUCN Red List are in jeopardy” (IUCN, 2016). According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, upwards of 16,000 species are threatened with extinction, including both plants and animals (IUCN, 2016). Before becoming endangered, a species will show warning signs, either by starting to lose biological diversity or by losing the habitats for that species to flourish in, or in the worst case, both. The word endangered can sometimes be confused with threatened, extirpated, or extinct. Extirpated refers to the state of a species where its population has died out in a certain area or range, but other populations of said species still exist elsewhere (Olden, Julian D., 2008). When a species is considered threatened, or vulnerable, this refers to the state of the species being susceptible to endangerment and extinction (“Extinction crisis escalates”). So if a species is threatened, the first signs of endangerment come along, which are similar signs to that of a species in danger of becoming threatened, including lack of genetic diversity, or overhunting may be evident. (“Extinction crisis escalates”). When a species is labelled

Long-term survival of a species depends on its ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions (Murphy, 1994). Genetic diversity within a species, which has taken 3.5 billion years to evolve, makes adaptations to these changing environments possible. Unfortunately, the rate of extinction of genetically diverse organisms is rapidly increasing, thus reducing this needed biodiversity, largely due to the human impacts of development and expansion. What was an average of one extinction per year before is now one extinction per hour and extinct species numbers are expected to reach approximately one million by the year 2000 (WWW site, Bio 65). As a result governmental and societal action must

A report from Recovering America’s Wildlife Crisis states, “More than 150 species have already gone extinct and about 40% of freshwater fish species are imperiled.” Animals are being killed off by the minute. Now the wildlife species are going to abolished from Earth.

Summarize: The result of one species extinction could potentially be fatal to the environment. In the animal kingdom, there is a food chain. Keystone animals, are the key ingredient to the food chain. When that keystone animals goes extinct, it sets off a chain reaction on the other animal’s food source. This causes one species to flourish and another to dwindle. The environment needs a healthy checks and balance system to keep each animal population under control (Stuart, 1990 ). Humans can cause the keystone animal to become extinct and therefore, responsible for rise and decline of other species, ultimately, throwing the food chain off balance.

In a summary, Kolbert explains the extinctions of a variety of different major animal species that became extinct. She also explains that if trends in the environment continue that the biggest extinction in history will occur soon. If global warming, deforestation, and glaciers continue to melt she says that more and more species will continue to become extinct. She explains how humans need to be more conservative and careful with what they’re doing to prevent extinction.

Elizabeth Kolbert, a journalist, took her curiosity of science and traveled all around the world to see just how the lives of different varieties of species deal with predators, habitat changes, climate changes, etc. Just some of the places Kolbert visited were the United States, Panama, France, the island of Ischia, One Tree Island, and many, many more. Extinction, the disappearance of a particular species, is a crucial topic in this particular book. Many species over the whole entire world, are quickly declining in numbers. Humans have a vital responsibility for some of these species going extinct, and we need to advertise what we are doing to animals world wide so we aren’t a source of the majority of extinctions.

There is little question around the world many more animals are being driven to extinction

E. O. Wilson, a famous American biologist, describes the main causes of extinction with a simple acronym: HIPPO or habitat, invasive species, pollution, population, and over-harvesting. Each of these causes traces back to humans. Habitat loss is when organisms lose their “homes” mostly due to human urbanization. Human cities have grown exponentially and it does seem to be slowing down. Due to this organisms have lost their natural habitats and are forced to leave and find new ones. Invasive species are organism that are placed in locations where they do not naturally occur. Humans have helped the growth of this problem due to the desire of extotic pets. Invasive species become an enormous problem because the location they are introduced to do not have the proper needs to help control the

Poaching is a worldwide problem because it is affecting the whole food chain, including humans. A year after a logging road went into forest areas in Sarawak, Malaysia, in 2001, not a single large mammal remained (Begley). If one animal goes extinct, then a snowball effect will happen because the animal that depended on the extinct animal for food will have a harder time getting food and eventually that species will die off also, leaving us humans with very little food choices in our future.

It’s clear that a great extinction is coming from the evidence of the destruction of other species around us. The choices made by the human race have too often negatively affected the surrounding species. Tracy Wilson, the site director for HowStuffWorks.com, in an article for Animal Planet, states that

Today more and more wildlife is becoming extinct or in danger of extinction for various reasons. There are different types of wildlife exploitation, with varying effects on the welfare of the animals involved< worldanimal.net, n.d>. However, we should notice that wildlife is killed and exploited by us. In other words, Human beings are destroying the planet.