'Praise The Humble Dung Beetle'

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.

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

“Like the rest of us, scientists gravitate toward the huggable” (Begley 257) says, Sharon Begley as she refers to animals in her article “Praise the Humble Dung Beetle.” Begley, an accomplished and award-winning science journalist, informs people on the threat of the plants and animals that are going extinct. In this article published in Newsweek, she persuades her audience that this threat of extinction is harming the environment and humankind and that it can be detrimental in many ways. In “Praise the Humble Dung Beetle,” Begley’s use of rhetorical appeals, her organization and syntax, as well as her tone, help inform her audience about the importance of insects in our ecosystem.

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.

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.

Five mass extinctions have occurred throughout the history of planet Earth. It is predicted by Author Elizabeth Kolbert, that a sixth extinction may be underway. The Sixth Extinction is a book in the viewpoint of Kolbert and narrates her travels around the globe while she studies numerous wildlife species. Kolbert claims that ¨Those of us alive today not only are witnessing one of the rarest events in life's history, we are also causing it,” (Kolbert, Page 8). Throughout her work, Kolbert claims that numerous species are decreasing in population due to harmful human activities, which could lead to a global disaster.

According to The Endangered Species Act of 1973, the term “endangered species” means a species which is in danger of extinction. The term “threatened species” is any species which is likely to become endangered. A species may be endangered, threatened, common, or abundant in different regions at the same time. For example, the Bald Eagle was common in Alaska but endangered in the lower 40 states of the United States. The primary reason for why species become endangered or threatened is because of the loss of habitat. Unfortunately, habitat loss appears to be evitable until humans minimize their consumption of natural resources. Unlike humans, who are capable of modifying their surroundings to cope with harsh or changing environmental conditions,

Bill Freedmen, author of “Endangered Species—Human Causes Of Extinction and Endangerment” notes, “scientists approximate that present extinction rates are 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the average natural extinction rate.” These distressing numbers should be acted upon to save the endangered species and avoid the catastrophic change to this planet if these species were to become extinct. In order to produce change, people need to recognize that habitat loss, climate change, and poaching are all factors in why our animal species are going extinct.

99.9 percent of all species are extinct, though this is over 3.5 billion years at low rates, since the evolution of Homo Sapiens, specifically the last 20,000 years, the extinction rates have increased by 1000 ( back ground rate and http://www.endangeredspeciesinternational.org/overview.html). Habitat destruction, overexploitation, pollution and the introduction of invasive species are major anthropogenic causes of biodiversity loss within species, ultimately resulting in the decline of species (Sharma et al, 2013).

From the 17th century to 20th century, over 300 years, countries gradually becoming modern and human civilization developed rapidly. We changed the earth little by little, we paid more attention on how to improve the technique we had, at the same time we forgot to protect our environment which resulted many species of animals are in danger of becoming extinct. From a research it shows there are 16,928 listed endangered and 905 are already extinct.

Endangered species contain of plants and animals, it is a type of organism that is threatened by extinction because their home was destroyed or loss of their genetic variation. (National Geographic 3). A species can be classified as vulnerable if its population has declined 30-50%. The first ever huge call for broad supposed to save animals was in 1961 by Morges Manifesto (Mclaughlin 5) Endangered species can become endangered from being hunted, loss of food, loss of home, and their genetic variation decreasing at a fast rate. Sometimes animal or even plant species could die off very quickly, or it can take a long time. Jut like the polar bear, it began being extinct years ago, and as of today they are still dying off because their homes are melting.

Tigers are primarily killed to supply underground black markets with its organs, pelts, and bones. These items are highly regarded in eastern medicine (although these treatments have been disproven and have no real medical value). Innocent endangered animals are being killed for false hopes and cures within the eastern culture. Poaching has traditionally been defined as the illegal hunting, killing or capturing of wild animals. The difference between poaching and hunting is one, is that poaching is hunting without the approval of whomever controls or owns the land. Even though some people believe poaching creates lots of business and brings in major income for certain smaller, poorer countries, it endangers our species because it reduces the population of rare or endangered animals, destroys precious ecosystems within the wild, and poaching is extremely harmful to humans.

This report will be discussing and talking about endangered species and the impacts they have on ecosystems. Endangered species is a species of animal or plants at risk of extinction because of human activity, changes in climate, ruining of ecosystems, etc. This report will be split into different sections discussing different examples of endangered species and the impacts that they have on different ecosystems.