Endangered Species: What is Killing them? Essay

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

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

An endangered species is a plant or an animal at risk of becoming extinct. Scientists have estimated that up to one-third of species in the U.S. are at a high risk of extinction. In addition to donating millions of acres of land, this is essential to the recovery and survival of the endangered; the Act has shown a ninety percent recovery rate for species in the U.S. The main causes of endangerment include loss of habitat, excessive hunting, and pollution.

any endangered species are located near places with extreme poverty. In this century, over half of the world's wildlife may become extinct. Not long ago, all of the Earth's ecosystem was able to support vast numbers of creatures. Much of the earth's wildlife is now in danger of disappearing because there are no places for them to go. 25% of all mammals are at threat of extinction, as well as two thirds of all birds. The sixth extinction will not come from outer space, but will happen because of humans. China has over come the United States in food consumption. This could prove to be a very big problem is there's over 1 billion people that live in China. The farmers in China have increased the livestock had from 100 million, to over 400 million. This has devastated the environment very much.

Extinction: Most species become extinct because they can’t cope with the environmental change, and also because of introduced species that turned into competitors for

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

By the definition of the Endangered Species Act, a species covered by the legislation is either classified “Endangered” if threatened with

Provide at least one example each of a threatened, endangered, and extinct species, and explain why these

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.

The Endangered Species Act was enacted by Congress in 1973. According to Reference 1, this act requires the federal government to protect endangered species, threatening species, and their critical habits. Animals are protected from being harmed, sold, or traded and plants are protected if they are on federal property. The conservation success of this act is very important because it saves wildlife and plants from going extinct. Many people do not realize that the loss of a species can be disastrous for our ecosystem. Reference 1 lists six success stories of endangered species under the act. The success stories are of the bald eagle, florida panther, gray wolf, grizzly bear, peregrine falcon, and the red-cockaded woodpecker. The Endangered

Many animals are endangered and why is because too many are dying. They are either dying to many times at once or little are hunted at once but hunted often or they have died from the people killing their environment. One animal that is endangered is the tree kangaroo, this species has somewhat died from hunters and the environment. Many of these creatures die everyday even though they are such fantastic animals. It is sad seeing everyday these animals dying and one of them is the amazing Tree Kangaroo.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was enacted in 1973 to show that species have “ecological, educational, historical, recreational, and scientific value”. This congressional enactment wanted to protect endangered species from the effects of major economic development which typically put them to the wayside. However, the good intentions of the ESA were, it caused a plethora of controversy that still makes it a heated topic today. The main reason of the controversy trickles down from the economic aspects of the act that tend to be overlooked which causes it to be hard to enact in certain circumstances. To make the ESA more effective for both humans and the endangered species the economic implications of protecting these species must be addressed. The three major factors that influence this are economic circumstances of an area, scarcity, and incentives.

“Extinction means having no living representatives, having died out” (Dictionary.Com). We’re currently experiencing the worst spate of species die-offs since the loss of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago” (Center for Biological Diversity). Among all the species, there are still animals that have a hope of living the next generation. Despite being threatened they are not endangered. The orca whale, commonly known as the killer whale is a prime example. To date approximately 50,000 orca populations thrive though out the world. Previously the world wide estimate was double that, at 100,000 (Kirby). It has been found in resent studies that the orca population is decreasing due to many hardships they face such as toxins, captivity, and depletion of food.

Since the beginning of life itself, some species have lived and prospered while other species have gone extinct never to be seen again by mankind. Because of this, some would claim that extinction is natural and not significantly problematic to the world that we live in. Others, however, understand that due to climate change, habitat loss, and poaching, more and more species are becoming endangered which leads to a chain reaction that can be devastating to ecosystems. Species such as the Chinook salmon, gorillas, tropical sharks, and polar bears are all directly affected by climate change, species such as northern spotted owls, Sumatran tigers, and lemurs are greatly harmed due to habitat loss, and species such as the sea turtle, Javan rhinoceros, African elephant, and the Red-Fronted Macaw are all affected by poaching driving them all closer and closer to becoming extinct.

Endangered species help to gauge the health of ecosystems and can help individuals become more conscious of their environments and conservation issues around the globe. In recent years, various species and subspecies of rhinoceros have become threatened, endangered, and even extinct. One such subspecies, which was not only endangered, but has been declared extinct inhabitat as of June 26, 2013, is Africa's Western black rhino (Lavina, 2013).