essay about extinction of animals

Essay on Extinct Animals

Students are often asked to write an essay on Extinct Animals in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

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100 Words Essay on Extinct Animals

What are extinct animals.

Extinct animals are species that don’t exist anymore. They vanished forever due to various reasons like habitat loss, hunting, or climate change.

Examples of Extinct Animals

Famous extinct animals include the Dodo, a bird from Mauritius, and the Tasmanian Tiger, a carnivorous marsupial from Australia.

Why Animals Become Extinct

Animals become extinct mainly due to human activities. Deforestation, pollution, and overhunting are major causes.

Importance of Preventing Extinction

Preventing extinction is crucial for biodiversity. Each species plays a role in the ecosystem, and their loss can disrupt the balance.

250 Words Essay on Extinct Animals

Introduction.

Extinct animals refer to species that no longer exist on Earth. Their disappearance, often a result of human activities or natural phenomena, leaves a significant impact on the biodiversity and balance of our ecosystem.

The Causes of Extinction

The primary causes of animal extinction include habitat loss, climate change, overexploitation, and invasive species. The relentless expansion of human civilization often leads to habitat destruction, leaving animals without homes or food sources. Climate change disrupts the delicate balance of ecosystems, making survival difficult for many species. Overhunting and overfishing have also led to the extinction of numerous species. Lastly, invasive species, introduced either intentionally or accidentally, can outcompete native species for resources, leading to their extinction.

Impact on Biodiversity

The extinction of animals greatly affects biodiversity. Each species plays a unique role within its ecosystem, and its loss can disrupt the balance, leading to cascading effects on other species. For instance, the extinction of a predator can lead to overpopulation of its prey, which may then overconsume vegetation and disrupt the ecosystem.

Conservation Efforts

Conservation efforts are crucial to prevent further extinctions. These include habitat protection, regulation of hunting and fishing, and breeding programs for endangered species. Additionally, raising public awareness about the importance of biodiversity and the consequences of extinction can drive societal changes necessary for conservation.

In conclusion, the extinction of animals is a pressing issue that requires immediate attention. Through understanding its causes and impacts, and implementing effective conservation strategies, we can hope to preserve the remaining biodiversity for future generations.

500 Words Essay on Extinct Animals

The natural world is a vast, interconnected web of life, with each species playing a unique role in the balance of the ecosystem. However, in recent centuries, human activities have greatly accelerated the rate of animal extinction, leading to a loss of biodiversity. This essay will delve into the topic of extinct animals, exploring the causes and consequences of extinction, and the importance of conservation efforts.

The primary causes of animal extinction are habitat destruction, overexploitation, climate change, and invasive species. Human activities such as deforestation, urbanisation, and industrialisation have led to the loss and fragmentation of habitats, making it difficult for many species to survive. Overexploitation, driven by hunting, fishing, and wildlife trade, has also led to the rapid decline of numerous species. Moreover, climate change is altering habitats at an unprecedented rate, forcing many species into extinction. Lastly, invasive species introduced by humans can outcompete native species for resources, leading to their extinction.

The Consequences of Extinction

The extinction of animals has far-reaching implications. Firstly, it disrupts the balance of ecosystems. Each species plays a unique role in its ecosystem, and the loss of a single species can trigger a cascade of changes that affect other species. Secondly, extinction can lead to the loss of genetic diversity, which is crucial for the resilience of ecosystems in the face of environmental changes. Thirdly, the extinction of animals can have economic implications, affecting industries such as tourism and agriculture that rely on biodiversity.

Extinct Animals: A Case Study

The dodo bird, native to Mauritius, serves as a poignant example of human-induced extinction. Unaccustomed to predators, these birds were easy prey for humans and invasive species introduced by sailors in the 17th century. Their extinction within less than a century of their discovery highlights the devastating impact of human activities on biodiversity.

The Importance of Conservation

Given the dire consequences of extinction, conservation efforts are crucial. These include the establishment of protected areas, regulations on hunting and wildlife trade, and efforts to mitigate climate change. Furthermore, conservation science, which uses tools such as population modelling and genetic analysis, can help identify at-risk species and develop strategies to protect them.

In conclusion, the extinction of animals is a pressing issue that has been largely driven by human activities. The loss of species has profound implications for ecosystems and human societies. Therefore, it is imperative that we intensify our conservation efforts to protect biodiversity. The fate of many species lies in our hands, and it is our responsibility to ensure that they do not go the way of the dodo.

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November 1, 2023

20 min read

Can We Save Every Species from Extinction?

The Endangered Species Act requires that every U.S. plant and animal be saved from extinction, but after 50 years, we have to do much more to prevent a biodiversity crisis

By Robert Kunzig

Snail Darter Percina tanasi. Listed as Endangered: 1975. Status: Delisted in 2022.

© Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark

A Bald Eagle disappeared into the trees on the far bank of the Tennessee River just as the two researchers at the bow of our modest motorboat began hauling in the trawl net. Eagles have rebounded so well that it's unusual not to see one here these days, Warren Stiles of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told me as the net got closer. On an almost cloudless spring morning in the 50th year of the Endangered Species Act, only a third of a mile downstream from the Tennessee Valley Authority's big Nickajack Dam, we were searching for one of the ESA's more notorious beneficiaries: the Snail Darter. A few months earlier Stiles and the FWS had decided that, like the Bald Eagle, the little fish no longer belonged on the ESA's endangered species list. We were hoping to catch the first nonendangered specimen.

Dave Matthews, a TVA biologist, helped Stiles empty the trawl. Bits of wood and rock spilled onto the deck, along with a Common Logperch maybe six inches long. So did an even smaller fish; a hair over two inches, it had alternating vertical bands of dark and light brown, each flecked with the other color, a pattern that would have made it hard to see against the gravelly river bottom. It was a Snail Darter in its second year, Matthews said, not yet full-grown.

Everybody loves a Bald Eagle. There is much less consensus about the Snail Darter. Yet it epitomizes the main controversy still swirling around the ESA, signed into law on December 28, 1973, by President Richard Nixon: Can we save all the obscure species of this world, and should we even try, if they get in the way of human imperatives? The TVA didn't think so in the 1970s, when the plight of the Snail Darter—an early entry on the endangered species list—temporarily stopped the agency from completing a huge dam. When the U.S. attorney general argued the TVA's case before the Supreme Court with the aim of sidestepping the law, he waved a jar that held a dead, preserved Snail Darter in front of the nine judges in black robes, seeking to convey its insignificance.

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Now I was looking at a living specimen. It darted around the bottom of a white bucket, bonking its nose against the side and delicately fluttering the translucent fins that swept back toward its tail.

“It's kind of cute,” I said.

Matthews laughed and slapped me on the shoulder. “I like this guy!” he said. “Most people are like, ‘Really? That's it?’ ” He took a picture of the fish and clipped a sliver off its tail fin for DNA analysis but left it otherwise unharmed. Then he had me pour it back into the river. The next trawl, a few miles downstream, brought up seven more specimens.

In the late 1970s the Snail Darter seemed confined to a single stretch of a single tributary of the Tennessee River, the Little Tennessee, and to be doomed by the TVA's ill-considered Tellico Dam, which was being built on the tributary. The first step on its twisting path to recovery came in 1978, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, surprisingly, that the ESA gave the darter priority even over an almost finished dam. “It was when the government stood up and said, ‘Every species matters, and we meant it when we said we're going to protect every species under the Endangered Species Act,’” says Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus. Listed as Endangered: 1967. Status: Delisted in 2007. Credit: © Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark

Today the Snail Darter can be found along 400 miles of the river's main stem and multiple tributaries. ESA enforcement has saved dozens of other species from extinction. Bald Eagles, American Alligators and Peregrine Falcons are just a few of the roughly 60 species that had recovered enough to be “delisted” by late 2023.

And yet the U.S., like the planet as a whole, faces a growing biodiversity crisis. Less than 6 percent of the animals and plants ever placed on the list have been delisted; many of the rest have made scant progress toward recovery. What's more, the list is far from complete: roughly a third of all vertebrates and vascular plants in the U.S. are vulnerable to extinction, says Bruce Stein, chief scientist at the National Wildlife Federation. Populations are falling even for species that aren't yet in danger. “There are a third fewer birds flying around now than in the 1970s,” Stein says. We're much less likely to see a White-throated Sparrow or a Red-winged Blackbird, for example, even though neither species is yet endangered.

The U.S. is far emptier of wildlife sights and sounds than it was 50 years ago, primarily because habitat—forests, grasslands, rivers—has been relentlessly appropriated for human purposes. The ESA was never designed to stop that trend, any more than it is equipped to deal with the next massive threat to wildlife: climate change. Nevertheless, its many proponents say, it is a powerful, foresightful law that we could implement more wisely and effectively, perhaps especially to foster stewardship among private landowners. And modest new measures, such as the Recovering America's Wildlife Act—a bill with bipartisan support—could further protect flora and fauna.

That is, if special interests don't flout the law. After the 1978 Supreme Court decision, Congress passed a special exemption to the ESA allowing the TVA to complete the Tellico Dam. The Snail Darter managed to survive because the TVA transplanted some of the fish from the Little Tennessee, because remnant populations turned up elsewhere in the Tennessee Valley, and because local rivers and streams slowly became less polluted following the 1972 Clean Water Act, which helped fish rebound.

Under pressure from people enforcing the ESA, the TVA also changed the way it managed its dams throughout the valley. It started aerating the depths of its reservoirs, in some places by injecting oxygen. It began releasing water from the dams more regularly to maintain a minimum flow that sweeps silt off the river bottom, exposing the clean gravel that Snail Darters need to lay their eggs and feed on snails. The river system “is acting more like a real river,” Matthews says. Basically, the TVA started considering the needs of wildlife, which is really what the ESA requires. “The Endangered Species Act works,” Matthews says. “With just a little bit of help, [wildlife] can recover.”

The trouble is that many animals and plants aren't getting that help—because government resources are too limited, because private landowners are alienated by the ESA instead of engaged with it, and because as a nation the U.S. has never fully committed to the ESA's essence. Instead, for half a century, the law has been one more thing that polarizes people's thinking.

I t may seem impossible today to imagine the political consensus that prevailed on environmental matters in 1973. The U.S. Senate approved the ESA unanimously, and the House passed it by a vote of 390 to 12. “Some people have referred to it as almost a statement of religion coming out of the Congress,” says Gary Frazer, who as assistant director for ecological services at the FWS has been overseeing the act's implementation for nearly 25 years.

Gopher Tortoise Gopherus polyphemus . Listed as Threatened: 1987. Status: Still threatened. Credit: ©Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark

But loss of faith began five years later with the Snail Darter case. Congresspeople who had been thinking of eagles, bears and Whooping Cranes when they passed the ESA, and had not fully appreciated the reach of the sweeping language they had approved, were disabused by the Supreme Court. It found that the legislation had created, “wisely or not ... an absolute duty to preserve all endangered species,” Chief Justice Warren E. Burger said after the Snail Darter case concluded. Even a recently discovered tiny fish had to be saved, “whatever the cost,” he wrote in the decision.

Was that wise? For both environmentalists such as Curry and many nonenvironmentalists, the answer has always been absolutely. The ESA “is the basic Bill of Rights for species other than ourselves,” says National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore, who is building a “photo ark” of every animal visible to the naked eye as a record against extinction. (He has taken studio portraits of 15,000 species so far.) But to critics, the Snail Darter decision always defied common sense. They thought it was “crazy,” says Michael Bean, a leading ESA expert, now retired from the Environmental Defense Fund. “That dichotomy of view has remained with us for the past 45 years.”

According to veteran Washington, D.C., environmental attorney Lowell E. Baier, author of a new history called The Codex of the Endangered Species Act, both the act itself and its early implementation reflected a top-down, federal “command-and-control mentality” that still breeds resentment. FWS field agents in the early days often saw themselves as combat biologists enforcing the act's prohibitions. After the Northern Spotted Owl's listing got tangled up in a bitter 1990s conflict over logging of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest, the FWS became more flexible in working out arrangements. “But the dark mythology of the first 20 years continues in the minds of much of America,” Baier says.

Credit: June Minju Kim ( map ); Source: David Matthews, Tennessee Valley Authority ( reference )

The law can impose real burdens on landowners. Before doing anything that might “harass” or “harm” an endangered species, including modifying its habitat, they need to get a permit from the FWS and present a “habitat conservation plan.” Prosecutions aren't common, because evidence can be elusive, but what Bean calls “the cloud of uncertainty” surrounding what landowners can and cannot do can be distressing.

Requirements the ESA places on federal agencies such as the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management—or on the TVA—can have large economic impacts. Section 7 of the act prohibits agencies from taking, permitting or funding any action that is likely to “jeopardize the continued existence” of a listed species. If jeopardy seems possible, the agency must consult with the FWS first (or the National Marine Fisheries Service for marine species) and seek alternative plans.

“When people talk about how the ESA stops projects, they've been talking about section 7,” says conservation biologist Jacob Malcom. The Northern Spotted Owl is a strong example: an economic analysis suggests the logging restrictions eliminated thousands of timber-industry jobs, fueling conservative arguments that the ESA harms humans and economic growth.

In recent decades, however, that view has been based “on anecdote, not evidence,” Malcom claims. At Defenders of Wildlife, where he worked until 2022 (he's now at the U.S. Department of the Interior), he and his colleagues analyzed 88,290 consultations between the FWS and other agencies from 2008 to 2015. “Zero projects were stopped,” Malcom says. His group also found that federal agencies were only rarely taking the active measures to recover a species that section 7 requires—like what the TVA did for the Snail Darter. For many listed species, the FWS does not even have recovery plans.

Endangered species also might not recover because “most species are not receiving protection until they have reached dangerously low population sizes,” according to a 2022 study by Erich K. Eberhard of Columbia University and his colleagues. Most listings occur only after the FWS has been petitioned or sued by an environmental group—often the Center for Biological Diversity, which claims credit for 742 listings. Years may go by between petition and listing, during which time the species' population dwindles. Noah Greenwald, the center's endangered species director, thinks the FWS avoids listings to avoid controversy—that it has internalized opposition to the ESA.

He and other experts also say that work regarding endangered species is drastically underfunded. As more species are listed, the funding per species declines. “Congress hasn't come to grips with the biodiversity crisis,” says Baier, who lobbies lawmakers regularly. “When you talk to them about biodiversity, their eyes glaze over.” Just this year federal lawmakers enacted a special provision exempting the Mountain Valley Pipeline from the ESA and other challenges, much as Congress had exempted the Tellico Dam. Environmentalists say the gas pipeline, running from West Virginia to Virginia, threatens the Candy Darter, a colorful small fish. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provided a rare bit of good news: it granted the FWS $62.5 million to hire more biologists to prepare recovery plans.

The ESA is often likened to an emergency room for species: overcrowded and understaffed, it has somehow managed to keep patients alive, but it doesn't do much more. The law contains no mandate to restore ecosystems to health even though it recognizes such work as essential for thriving wildlife. “Its goal is to make things better, but its tools are designed to keep things from getting worse,” Bean says. Its ability to do even that will be severely tested in coming decades by threats it was never designed to confront.

T he ESA requires a species to be listed as “threatened” if it might be in danger of extinction in the “foreseeable future.” The foreseeable future will be warmer. Rising average temperatures are a problem, but higher heat extremes are a bigger threat, according to a 2020 study.

Scientists have named climate change as the main cause of only a few extinctions worldwide. But experts expect that number to surge. Climate change has been “a factor in almost every species we've listed in at least the past 15 years,” Frazer says. Yet scientists struggle to forecast whether individual species can “persist in place or shift in space”—as Stein and his co-authors put it in a recent paper—or will be unable to adapt at all and will go extinct. On June 30 the FWS issued a new rule that will make it easier to move species outside their historical range—a practice it once forbade except in extreme circumstances.

Credit: June Minju Kim ( graphic ); Brown Bird Design ( illustrations ); Sources: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Environmental Conservation Online System; U.S. Federal Endangered and Threatened Species by Calendar Year https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/report/species-listings-by-year-totals ( annual data through 2022 ); Listed Species Summary (Boxscore) https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/report/boxscore ( cumulative data up to September 18, 2023, and annual data for coral ); Delisted Species https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/report/species-delisted ( delisted data through 2022 )

Eventually, though, “climate change is going to swamp the ESA,” says J. B. Ruhl, a law professor at Vanderbilt University, who has been writing about the problem for decades. “As more and more species are threatened, I don't know what the agency does with that.” To offer a practical answer, in a 2008 paper he urged the FWS to aggressively identify the species most at risk and not waste resources on ones that seem sure to expire.

Yet when I asked Frazer which urgent issues were commanding his attention right now, his first thought wasn't climate; it was renewable energy. “Renewable energy is going to leave a big footprint on the planet and on our country,” he says, some of it threatening plants and animals if not implemented well. “The Inflation Reduction Act is going to lead to an explosion of more wind and solar across the landscape.

Long before President Joe Biden signed that landmark law, conflicts were proliferating: Desert Tortoise versus solar farms in the Mojave Desert, Golden Eagles versus wind farms in Wyoming, Tiehm's Buckwheat (a little desert flower) versus lithium mining in Nevada. The mine case is a close parallel to that of Snail Darters versus the Tellico Dam. The flower, listed as endangered just last year, grows on only a few acres of mountainside in western Nevada, right where a mining company wants to extract lithium. The Center for Biological Diversity has led the fight to save it. Elsewhere in Nevada people have used the ESA to stop, for the moment, a proposed geothermal plant that might threaten the two-inch Dixie Valley Toad, discovered in 2017 and also declared endangered last year.

Does an absolute duty to preserve all endangered species make sense in such places? In a recent essay entitled “A Time for Triage,” Columbia law professor Michael Gerrard argues that “the environmental community has trade-off denial. We don't recognize that it's too late to preserve everything we consider precious.” In his view, given the urgency of building the infrastructure to fight climate change, we need to be willing to let a species go after we've done our best to save it. Environmental lawyers adept at challenging fossil-fuel projects, using the ESA and other statutes, should consider holding their fire against renewable installations. “Just because you have bullets doesn't mean you shoot them in every direction,” Gerrard says. “You pick your targets.” In the long run, he and others argue, climate change poses a bigger threat to wildlife than wind turbines and solar farms do.

For now habitat loss remains the overwhelming threat. What's truly needed to preserve the U.S.'s wondrous biodiversity, both Stein and Ruhl say, is a national network of conserved ecosystems. That won't be built with our present politics. But two more practical initiatives might help.

The first is the Recovering America's Wildlife Act, which narrowly missed passage in 2022 and has been reintroduced this year. It builds on the success of the 1937 Pittman-Robertson Act, which funds state wildlife agencies through a federal excise tax on guns and ammunition. That law was adopted to address a decline in game species that had hunters alarmed. The state refuges and other programs it funded are why deer, ducks and Wild Turkeys are no longer scarce.

The recovery act would provide $1.3 billion a year to states and nearly $100 million to Native American tribes to conserve nongame species. It has bipartisan support, in part, Stein says, because it would help arrest the decline of a species before the ESA's “regulatory hammer” falls. Although it would be a large boost to state wildlife budgets, the funding would be a rounding error in federal spending. But last year Congress couldn't agree on how to pay for the measure. Passage “would be a really big deal for nature,” Curry says.

Oyster Mussel. Epioblasma capsaeformis.  Listed as Endangered: 1997. Status: Still endangered. Credit: © Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark

The second initiative that could promote species conservation is already underway: bringing landowners into the fold. Most wildlife habitat east of the Rocky Mountains is on private land. That's also where habitat loss is happening fastest. Some experts say conservation isn't likely to succeed unless the FWS works more collaboratively with landowners, adding carrots to the ESA's regulatory stick. Bean has long promoted the idea, including when he worked at the Interior Department from 2009 to early 2017. The approach started, he says, with the Red-cockaded Woodpecker.

When the ESA was passed, there were fewer than 10,000 Red-cockaded Woodpeckers left of the millions that had once lived in the Southeast. Humans had cut down the old pine trees, chiefly Longleaf Pine, that the birds excavate cavities in for roosting and nesting. An appropriate tree has to be large, at least 60 to 80 years old, and there aren't many like that left. The longleaf forest, which once carpeted up to 90 million acres from Virginia to Texas, has been reduced to less than three million acres of fragments.

In the 1980s the ESA wasn't helping because it provided little incentive to preserve forest on private land. In fact, Bean says, it did the opposite: landowners would sometimes clear-cut potential woodpecker habitat just to avoid the law's constraints. The woodpecker population continued to drop until the 1990s. That's when Bean and his Environmental Defense Fund colleagues persuaded the FWS to adopt “safe-harbor agreements” as a simple solution. An agreement promised landowners that if they let pines grow older or took other woodpecker-friendly measures, they wouldn't be punished; they remained free to decide later to cut the forest back to the baseline condition it had been in when the agreement was signed.

That modest carrot was inducement enough to quiet the chainsaws in some places. “The downward trends have been reversed,” Bean says. “In places like South Carolina, where they have literally hundreds of thousands of acres of privately owned forest enrolled, Red-cockaded Woodpecker numbers have shot up dramatically.”

The woodpecker is still endangered. It still needs help. Because there aren't enough old pines, land managers are inserting lined, artificial cavities into younger trees and sometimes moving birds into them to expand the population. They are also using prescribed fires or power tools to keep the longleaf understory open and grassy, the way fires set by lightning or Indigenous people once kept it and the way the woodpeckers like it. Most of this work is taking place, and most Red-cockaded Woodpeckers are still living, on state or federal land such as military bases. But a lot more longleaf must be restored to get the birds delisted, which means collaborating with private landowners, who own 80 percent of the habitat.

Leo Miranda-Castro, who retired last December as director of the FWS's southeast region, says the collaborative approach took hold at regional headquarters in Atlanta in 2010. The Center for Biological Diversity had dropped a “mega petition” demanding that the FWS consider 404 new species for listing. The volume would have been “overwhelming,” Miranda-Castro says. “That's when we decided, ‘Hey, we cannot do this in the traditional way.’ The fear of listing so many species was a catalyst” to look for cases where conservation work might make a listing unnecessary.

An agreement affecting the Gopher Tortoise shows what is possible. Like the woodpeckers, it is adapted to open-canopied longleaf forests, where it basks in the sun, feeds on herbaceous plants and digs deep burrows in the sandy soil. The tortoise is a keystone species: more than 300 other animals, including snakes, foxes and skunks, shelter in its burrows. But its numbers have been declining for decades.

Urbanization is the main threat to the tortoises, but timberland can be managed in a way that leaves room for them. Eager to keep the species off the list, timber companies, which own 20 million acres in its range, agreed to figure out how to do that—above all by returning fire to the landscape and keeping the canopy open. One timber company, Resource Management Service, said it would restore Longleaf Pine on about 3,700 acres in the Florida panhandle, perhaps expanding to 200,000 acres eventually. It even offered to bring other endangered species onto its land, which delighted Miranda-Castro: “I had never heard about that happening before.” Last fall the FWS announced that the tortoise didn't need to be listed in most of its range.

Miranda-Castro now directs Conservation Without Conflict, an organization that seeks to foster conversation and negotiation in settings where the ESA has more often generated litigation. “For the first 50 years the stick has been used the most,” Miranda-Castro says. “For the next 50 years we're going to be using the carrots way more.” On his own farm outside Fort Moore, Ga., he grows Longleaf Pine—and Gopher Tortoises are benefiting.

Whooping Crane. Grus americana.  Listed as Endangered: 1967. Status: Still endangered. Credit: © Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark

The Center for Biological Diversity doubts that carrots alone will save the reptile. It points out that the FWS's own models show small subpopulations vanishing over the next few decades and the total population falling by nearly a third. In August 2023 it filed suit against the FWS, demanding the Gopher Tortoise be listed.

The FWS itself resorted to the stick this year when it listed the Lesser Prairie-Chicken, a bird whose grassland home in the Southern Plains has long been encroached on by agriculture and the energy industry. The Senate promptly voted to overturn that listing, but President Biden promised to veto that measure if it passes the House.

B ehind the debates over strategy lurks the vexing question: Can we save all species? The answer is no. Extinctions will keep happening. In 2021 the FWS proposed to delist 23 more species—not because they had recovered but because they hadn't been seen in decades and were presumed gone. There is a difference, though, between acknowledging the reality of extinction and deliberately deciding to let a species go. Some people are willing to do the latter; others are not. Bean thinks a person's view has a lot to do with how much they've been exposed to wildlife, especially as a child.

Zygmunt Plater, a professor emeritus at Boston College Law School, was the attorney in the 1978 Snail Darter case, fighting for hundreds of farmers whose land would be submerged by the Tellico Dam. At one point in the proceedings Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., asked him, “What purpose is served, if any, by these little darters? Are they used for food?” Plater thinks creatures such as the darter alert us to the threat our actions pose to them and to ourselves. They prompt us to consider alternatives.

The ESA aims to save species, but for that to happen, ecosystems have to be preserved. Protecting the Northern Spotted Owl has saved at least a small fraction of old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest. Concern about the Red-cockaded Woodpecker and the Gopher Tortoise is aiding the preservation of longleaf forests in the Southeast. The Snail Darter wasn't enough to stop the Tellico Dam, which drowned historic Cherokee sites and 300 farms, mostly for real estate development. But after the controversy, the presence of a couple of endangered mussels did help dissuade the TVA from completing yet another dam, on the Duck River in central Tennessee. That river is now recognized as one of the most biodiverse in North America.

The ESA forced states to take stock of the wildlife they harbored, says Jim Williams, who as a young biologist with the FWS was responsible for listing both the Snail Darter and mussels in the Duck River. Williams grew up in Alabama, where I live. “We didn't know what the hell we had,” he says. “People started looking around and found all sorts of new species.” Many were mussels and little fish. In a 2002 survey, Stein found that Alabama ranked fifth among U.S. states in species diversity. It also ranks second-highest for extinctions; of the 23 extinct species the FWS recently proposed for delisting, eight were mussels, and seven of those were found in Alabama.

One morning this past spring, at a cabin on the banks of Shoal Creek in northern Alabama, I attended a kind of jamboree of local freshwater biologists. At the center of the action, in the shade of a second-floor deck, sat Sartore. He had come to board more species onto his photo ark, and the biologists—most of them from the TVA—were only too glad to help, fanning out to collect critters to be decanted into Sartore's narrow, flood-lit aquarium. He sat hunched before it, a black cloth draped over his head and camera, snapping away like a fashion photographer, occasionally directing whoever was available to prod whatever animal was in the tank into a more artful pose.

As I watched, he photographed a striated darter that didn't yet have a name, a Yellow Bass, an Orangefin Shiner and a giant crayfish discovered in 2011 in the very creek we were at. Sartore's goal is to help people who never meet such creatures feel the weight of extinction—and to have a worthy remembrance of the animals if they do vanish from Earth.

With TVA biologist Todd Amacker, I walked down to the creek and sat on the bank. Amacker is a mussel specialist, following in Williams's footsteps. As his colleagues waded in the shoals with nets, he gave me a quick primer on mussel reproduction. Their peculiar antics made me care even more about their survival.

There are hundreds of freshwater mussel species, Amacker explained, and almost every one tricks a particular species of fish into raising its larvae. The Wavy-rayed Lampmussel, for example, extrudes part of its flesh in the shape of a minnow to lure black bass—and then squirts larvae into the bass's open mouth so they can latch on to its gills and fatten on its blood. Another mussel dangles its larvae at the end of a yard-long fishing line of mucus. The Duck River Darter Snapper—a member of a genus that has already lost most of its species to extinction—lures and then clamps its shell shut on the head of a hapless fish, inoculating it with larvae. “You can't make this up,” Amacker said. Each relationship has evolved over the ages in a particular place.

The small band of biologists who are trying to cultivate the endangered mussels in labs must figure out which fish a particular mussel needs. It's the type of tedious trial-and-error work conservation biologists call “heroic,” the kind that helped to save California Condors and Whooping Cranes. Except these mussels are eyeless, brainless, little brown creatures that few people have ever heard of.

For most mussels, conditions are better now than half a century ago, Amacker said. But some are so rare it's hard to imagine they can be saved. I asked Amacker whether it was worth the effort or whether we just need to accept that we must let some species go. The catch in his voice almost made me regret the question.

“I'm not going to tell you it's not worth the effort,” he said. “It's more that there's no hope for them.” He paused, then collected himself. “Who are we to be the ones responsible for letting a species die?” he went on. “They've been around so long. That's not my answer as a biologist; that's my answer as a human. Who are we to make it happen?”

Robert Kunzig is a freelance writer in Birmingham, Ala., and a former senior editor at National Geographic, Discover and Scientific American .

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Conservation

In defense of biodiversity: why protecting species from extinction matters.

By Carl Safina • February 12, 2018

A number of biologists have recently made the argument that extinction is part of evolution and that saving species need not be a conservation priority. But this revisionist thinking shows a lack of understanding of evolution and an ignorance of the natural world. 

A few years ago, I helped lead a ship-based expedition along south Alaska during which several scientists and noted artists documented and made art from the voluminous plastic trash that washes ashore even there. At Katmai National Park, we packed off several tons of trash from as distant as South Asia. But what made Katmai most memorable was: huge brown bears. Mothers and cubs were out on the flats digging clams. Others were snoozing on dunes. Others were patrolling.

During a rest, several of us were sitting on an enormous drift-log, watching one mother who’d been clamming with three cubs. As the tide flooded the flat, we watched in disbelief as she brought her cubs up to where we were sitting — and stepped up on the log we were on. There was no aggression, no tension; she was relaxed. We gave her some room as she paused on the log, and then she took her cubs past us into a sedge meadow. Because she was so calm, I felt no fear. I felt the gift.

In this protected refuge, bears could afford a generous view of humans. Whoever protected this land certainly had my gratitude.

In the early 20th century, a botanist named Robert F. Griggs discovered Katmai’s volcanic “Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.” In love with the area, he spearheaded efforts to preserve the region’s wonders and wildlife. In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson established Katmai National Monument (now Katmai National Park and Preserve ), protecting 1,700 square miles, thus ensuring a home for bear cubs born a century later, and making possible my indelible experience that day. As a legacy for Griggs’ proclivity to share his love of living things, George Washington University later established the Robert F. Griggs Chair in Biology.

That chair is now occupied by a young professor whose recent writing probably has Griggs spinning in his grave. He is R. Alexander Pyron . A few months ago,  The Washington Post published a “ Perspective” piece by Pyron that is an extreme example of a growing minority opinion in the conservation community, one that might be summarized as, “Humans are profoundly altering the planet, so let’s just make peace with the degradation of the natural world.” 

No biologist is entitled to butcher the scientific fundamentals on which they hang their opinions.

Pyron’s essay – with lines such as, “The only reason we should conserve biodiversity is for ourselves, to create a stable future for human beings” and “[T]he impulse to conserve for conservation’s sake has taken on an unthinking, unsupported, unnecessary urgency” – left the impression that it was written in a conservative think tank, perhaps by one of the anti-regulatory zealots now filling posts throughout the Trump administration. Pyron’s sentiments weren’t merely oddly out of keeping with the legacy of the man whose name graces his job title. Much of what Pyron wrote is scientifically inaccurate. And where he stepped out of his field into ethics, what he wrote was conceptually confused.

Pyron has since posted, on his website and Facebook page, 1,100 words of frantic backpedaling that land somewhere between apology and retraction, including mea culpas that he “sensationalized” parts of his own argument and “cavalierly glossed over several complex issues.” But Pyron’s original essay and his muddled apology do not change the fact that the beliefs he expressed reflect a disturbing trend that has taken hold among segments of the conservation community. And his article comes at a time when conservation is being assailed from other quarters, with a half-century of federal protections of land being rolled back, the Endangered Species Act now more endangered than ever, and the relationship between extinction and evolution being subjected to confused, book-length mistreatment.

Pyron’s original opinion piece, so clear and unequivocal in its assertions, is a good place to unpack and disentangle accelerating misconceptions about the “desirability” of extinction that are starting to pop up like hallucinogenic mushrooms.

In recent years, some biologists and writers have been distancing themselves from conservation’s bedrock idea that in an increasingly human-dominated world we must find ways to protect and perpetuate natural beauty, wild places, and the living endowment of the planet. In their stead, we are offered visions of human-dominated landscapes in which the stresses of destruction and fragmentation spur evolution. 

White rhinoceros ( Ceratotherium simum ). Source: Herman Pijpers/ Flickr

Conservation International ditched its exuberant tropical forest graphic for  a new corporate logo  whose circle and line were designed to suggest a human head and outstretched arms. A few years ago, Peter Kareiva, then chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy,  said , “conservationists will have to jettison their idealized notions of nature, parks, and wilderness,” for  “a more optimistic, human-friendly vision.” Human annihilation of the passenger pigeon, he wrote, caused “no catastrophic or even measurable effects,” characterizing the total extinction of the hemisphere’s most abundant bird — whose population went from billions to zero inside a century (certainly a “measurable effect” in itself) — as an example of nature’s “resilience.”

British ecologist Chris Thomas’s recent book, Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature is Thriving in an Age of Extinction, argues that the destruction of nature creates opportunities for evolution of new lifeforms that counterbalance any losses we create, an idea that is certainly optimistic considering the burgeoning lists of endangered species. Are we really ready to consider that disappearing rhinos are somehow counterbalanced by a new subspecies of daisy in a railroad track? Maybe it would be simpler if Thomas and his comrades just said, “We don’t care about nature.’’

Enter Pyron, who — at least in his initial essay — basically said he doesn’t. He’s entitled to his apathy, but no biologist is entitled to butcher the scientific fundamentals on which they hang their opinions.

Pyron began with a resonant story about his nocturnal rediscovery of a South American frog that had been thought recently extinct. He and colleagues collected several that, he reassured us, “are now breeding safely in captivity.” As we breathed a sigh of relief, Pyron added, “But they will go extinct one day, and the world will be none the poorer for it.” 

The conviction that today’s slides toward mass extinction are not inevitable spurred the founding of the conservation movement.

I happen to be writing this in the Peruvian Amazon, having just returned from a night walk to a light-trap where I helped a biologist collect moths. No one yet knows how many species live here. Moths are important pollinators. Knowing them helps detangle a little bit of how this rainforest works. So it’s a good night to mention that the number of species in an area carries the technical term “species richness.” More is richer, and fewer is, indeed, poorer. Pyron’s view lies outside scientific consensus and societal values. 

Pyron wasn’t concerned about his frogs going extinct, because, “Eventually, they will be replaced by a dozen or a hundred new species that evolve later.” But the timescale would be millennia at best — meaningless in human terms — and perhaps never; hundreds of amphibians worldwide are suffering declines and extinctions, raising the possibility that major lineages and whole groups of species will vanish. Pyron seemed to have no concerns about that possibility, writing, “Mass extinctions periodically wipe out up to 95 percent of all species in one fell swoop; these come every 50 million to 100 million years.”

But that’s misleading. “Periodically” implies regularity. There’s no regularity to mass extinctions. Not in their timing, nor in their causes. The mass extinctions are not related. Three causes of mass extinctions — prolonged worldwide atmosphere-altering volcanic eruptions; a dinosaur-snuffing asteroid hit; and the spreading agriculture, settlement, and sheer human appetite driving extinctions today — are unrelated.

Rio Pescado stubfoot toad ( Atelopus balios ). Source: De Investigación y Conservación de Anfibios/ Flickr

The conviction that today’s slides toward mass extinction are not inevitable, and could be lessened or avoided, spurred the founding of the conservation movement and created the discipline of conservation biology.

But Pyron seems unmoved. “Extinction is the engine of evolution, the mechanism by which natural selection prunes the poorly adapted and allows the hardiest to flourish,” he declared. “Species constantly go extinct, and every species that is alive today will one day follow suit. There is no such thing as an ‘endangered species,’ except for all species.”

Let us unpack. Extinction is not evolution’s driver; survival is. The engine of evolution is survival amidst competition. It’s a little like what drives innovation in business. To see this, let’s simply compare the species diversity of the Northern Hemisphere, where periodic ice sheets largely wiped the slate clean, with those of the tropics, where the evolutionary time clock continued running throughout. A couple of acres in eastern temperate North America might have a dozen tree species or fewer. In the Amazon a similar area can have 300 tree species. All of North American has 1,400 species of trees; Brazil has 8,800. All of North America has just over 900 birds; Colombia has 1,900 species. All of North America has 722 butterfly species. Where I am right now, along the Tambopata River in Peru, biologists have tallied around 1,200 butterfly species.

Competition among living species drives proliferation into diversified specialties. Specialists increasingly exploit narrowing niches. We can think of this as a marketplace of life, where little competition necessitates little specialization, thus little proliferation. An area with many types of trees, for instance, directly causes the evolution of many types of highly specialized pollinating insects, hummingbirds, and pollinating bats, who visit only the “right” trees. Many flowering plants are pollinated by just one specialized species.

Pyron muddles several kinds of extinctions, then serves up further misunderstanding of how evolution works. So let’s clarify. Mass extinctions are global; they involve the whole planet. There have been five mass extinctions and we’ve created a sixth . Past mass extinctions happened when the entire planet became more hostile. Regional wipeouts, as occurred during the ice ages, are not considered mass extinctions, even though many species can go extinct. Even without these major upheavals there are always a few species blinking out due to environmental changes or new competitors. And there are pseudo-extinctions where old forms no longer exist, but only because their descendants have changed through time. 

New species do not suddenly “arise,” nor are they really new. They evolve from existing species, as population gene pools change.

Crucially for understanding the relationship between extinction and evolution is this: New species do not suddenly “arise,” nor are they really new. New species evolve from existing species, as population gene pools change. Many “extinct” species never really died out; they just changed into what lives now. Not all the dinosaurs went extinct; theropod dinosaurs survived. They no longer exist because they evolved into what we call birds. Australopithecines no longer exist, but they did not all go extinct. Their children morphed into the genus Homo, and the tool- and fire-making Homo erectus may well have survived to become us. If they indeed are our direct ancestor — as some species was — they are gone now, but no more “extinct” than our own childhood. All species come from ancestors, in lineages that have survived.

Pyron’s contention that the “hardiest” flourish is a common misconception. A sloth needs to be slow; a faster sloth is going to wind up as dinner in a harpy eagle nest. A white bear is not “hardier” than a brown one; the same white fur that provides camouflage in a snowy place will scare away prey in green meadow. Bears with genes for white fur flourished in the Arctic, while brown bears did well amidst tundra and forests. Polar bears evolved from brown bears of the tundra; they got so specialized that they separated, then specialized further. Becoming a species is a process, not an event. “New” species are simply specialized descendants of old species.

True extinctions beget nothing. Humans have recently sped the extinction rate by about a thousand times compared to the fossil record. The fact that the extinction of dinosaurs was followed, over tens of millions of years, by a proliferation of mammals, is irrelevant to present-day decisions about rhinos, elephant populations, or monarch butterflies. Pyron’s statement, “There is no such thing as an ‘endangered species,’ except for all species,” is like saying there are no endangered children except for all children. It’s like answering “Black lives matter” with “All lives matter.” It’s a way of intentionally missing the point. 

Chestnut-sided warbler ( Setophaga pensylvanica ). Source: Francesco Veronesi/ Wikimedia

Here’s the point: All life today represents non-extinctions; each species, every living individual, is part of a lineage that has not gone extinct in a billion years.

Pyron also expressed the opinion that “the only reason we should conserve biodiversity is for ourselves …” I don’t know of another biologist who shares this opinion. Pyron’s statement makes little practical sense, because reducing the diversity and abundance of the living world will rob human generations of choices, as values change. Save the passenger pigeon? Too late for that. Whales? A few people acted in time to keep most of them. Elephants? Our descendants will either revile or revere us for what we do while we have the planet’s reins in our hands for a few minutes. We are each newly arrived and temporary tourists on this planet, yet we find ourselves custodians of the world for all people yet unborn. A little humility, and forbearance, might comport.

Thus Pyron’s most jarring assertion: “Extinction does not carry moral significance, even when we have caused it.” That statement is a stranger to thousands of years of philosophy on moral agency and reveals an ignorance of human moral thinking. Moral agency issues from an ability to consider consequences. Humans are the species most capable of such consideration. Thus many philosophers consider humans the only creatures capable of acting as moral agents. An asteroid strike, despite its consequences, has no moral significance. Protecting bears by declaring Katmai National Monument, or un-protecting Bears Ears National Monument, are acts of moral agency. Ending genetic lineages millions of years old, either actively or by the willful neglect that Pyron advocates, certainly qualifies as morally significant.

Do we really wish a world with only what we “rely on for food and shelter?” Do animals have no value if we don’t eat them?

How can we even decide which species we “directly depend’’ upon? We don’t directly depend on peacocks or housecats, leopards or leopard frogs, humpback whales or hummingbirds or chestnut-sided warblers or millions of others. Do we really wish a world with only what we “rely on for food and shelter,” as Pyron seemed to advocate? Do animals have no value if we don’t eat them? I happen not to view my dogs as food, for instance. Things we “rely on” make life possible, sure, but the things we don’t need make life worthwhile.

When Pyron wrote, “Conservation is needed for ourselves and only ourselves… If this means fewer dazzling species, fewer unspoiled forests, less untamed wilderness, so be it,” he expressed a dereliction of the love, fascination, and perspective that motivates the practice of biology.

Here is a real biologist, Alfred Russell Wallace, co-discoverer of evolution by natural selection:

I thought of the long ages of the past during which the successive generations of these things of beauty had run their course … with no intelligent eye to gaze upon their loveliness, to all appearances such a wanton waste of beauty… . This consideration must surely tell us that all living things were not made for man… . Their happiness and enjoyments, their loves and hates, their struggles for existence, their vigorous life and early death, would seem to be immediately related to their own well-being and perpetuation alone. —The Malay Archipelago, 1869

At the opposite pole of Wallace’s human insight and wonder, Pyron asked us to become complicit in extinction. “The goals of species conservation have to be aligned with the acceptance that large numbers of animals will go extinct,” he asserted. “Thirty to 40 percent of species may be  threatened  with extinction in the near future, and their loss may be inevitable. But both the planet and humanity can probably survive or even thrive in a world with fewer species … The species that we rely on for food and shelter are a tiny proportion of total biodiversity, and most humans live in — and rely on — areas of only moderate biodiversity, not the Amazon or the Congo Basin.”

African elephant ( Loxodonta africana ). Source: Flowcomm/ Flickr

Right now, in the Amazon as I type, listening to nocturnal birds and bugs and frogs in this towering emerald cathedral of life, thinking such as Pyron’s strikes me as failing to grasp both the living world and the human spirit. 

The massive destruction that Pyron seems to so cavalierly accept isn’t necessary. When I was a kid, there were no ospreys, no bald eagles, no peregrine falcons left around New York City and Long Island where I lived. DDT and other hard pesticides were erasing them from the world. A small handful of passionate people sued to get those pesticides banned, others began breeding captive falcons for later release, and one biologist brought osprey eggs to nests of toxically infertile parents to keep faltering populations on life support. These projects succeeded. All three of these species have recovered spectacularly and now again nest near my Long Island home. Extinction wasn’t a cost of progress; it was an unnecessary cost of carelessness. Humans could work around the needs of these birds, and these creatures could exist around development. But it took some thinking, some hard work, and some tinkering.

It’s not that anyone thinks humans have not greatly changed the world, or will stop changing it. Rather, as the great wildlife ecologist Aldo Leopold wrote in his 1949 classic A Sand County Almanac , “To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.”

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Extinction of Animals Essay

This  extinction of animals essay question appeared recently in the IELTS test.

It is about how animals become extinct and whether humans should take steps to prevent this from happening.

It is a natural process that animal species become extinct, as the dinosaurs did in the past. There is no reason for people to prevent this from happening.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Choosing a Side

With agree / disagree type essays you can discuss both sides of the issue but you can come down firmly on one side and focus on only this in your response.

This can be an easier way to answer such questions and is certainly recommended if you are just needing the lower band scores, such as 7 and especially 6.

This is an example of an essay where the writer disagrees with the opinion and has given three reasons for this, set out in three body paragraphs.

For the higher band scores there is a risk the examiner thinks for a fully addressed answer , both sides of the issue should have been considered. So if you need a band 8 or 9, look at both sides of the issue as in this model answer.

Take a look at the model answer for this animal extinction essay and the comments below.

Extinction of Animals Essay Sample

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own experience or knowledge.

Write at least 250 words.

Model Answer

It is commonly known that many species have gone extinct throughout history, including the dinosaurs. Some argue that preventing extinction is not necessary, as it is a natural process. However, I believe that humans have a moral obligation to protect endangered species and prevent their extinction.

Firstly, human activities such as deforestation, overfishing, and pollution have caused a rapid decline in animal populations, leading many species to be at risk of extinction. As a result, humans have a responsibility to conserve the environment and prevent further harm to wildlife. It is unfair for humans to cause the extinction of a species due to their actions, particularly when they have the ability to prevent it.

Another reason is that many species play a crucial role in maintaining the balance of the ecosystem. For example, bees are essential pollinators that are responsible for pollinating 80% of flowering plants, and thus if bees were to become extinct, it would have a devastating impact on our food supply and ecosystem. Similarly, the loss of predators can cause a ripple effect, leading to overpopulation of other species and causing imbalances in the food chain.

Lastly, preventing extinction is not only a matter of responsibility but also a matter of morality. Species have intrinsic value, and it is not our place to determine which species should exist and which should not. Humans must respect the inherent value of all life forms and do what they can to protect them.

In conclusion, while extinction may be a natural process, it is not a justification for humans to sit idly by and watch as countless species go extinct. By taking action to conserve the environment, humans can ensure that future generations can enjoy the same diversity of life that we have today.

(294 Words)

This extinction of animals essay would achieve a high IELTS band score.

It's organised well so would score highly for coherence and cohesion . It has a clear introduction that introduces the topics and then gives the writers opinion (the thesis statement).

Each body paragraph clearly sets out and explains a key idea, then the conclusion summarises the writers view and gives some final thoughts. The linking between sentences is also very good.

It has a clear opinion and that opinion is reflected in the response. The ideas are fully supported and explained. The question is fully addressed and the essay does not go off-topic. It would therefore score highly for task response . 

The essay also had a good range of high-level and accurate lexis and grammar , so it would also score well for those criteria.

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Endangered Species

An endangered species is a type of organism that is threatened by extinction. Species become endangered for two main reasons: loss of habitat and loss of genetic variation.

Biology, Ecology, Geography, Conservation

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An endangered species is a type of organism that is threatened by extinction . Species become endangered for two main reasons: loss of habitat and loss of genetic variation . Loss of Habitat A loss of habitat can happen naturally. Nonavian dinosaurs , for instance, lost their habitat about 65 million years ago. The hot, dry climate of the Cretaceous period changed very quickly, most likely because of an asteroid striking Earth. The impact of the asteroid forced debris into the atmosphere , reducing the amount of heat and light that reached Earth’s surface. The dinosaurs were unable to adapt to this new, cooler habitat. Nonavian dinosaurs became endangered, then extinct . Human activity can also contribute to a loss of habitat. Development for housing, industry , and agriculture reduces the habitat of native organisms. This can happen in a number of different ways. Development can eliminate habitat and native species directly. In the Amazon rainforest of South America, developers have cleared hundreds of thousands of acres. To “clear” a piece of land is to remove all trees and vegetation from it. The Amazon rainforest is cleared for cattle ranches , logging , and ur ban use. Development can also endanger species indirectly. Some species, such as fig trees of the rainforest, may provide habitat for other species. As trees are destroyed, species that depend on that tree habitat may also become endangered. Tree crowns provide habitat in the canopy , or top layer, of a rainforest . Plants such as vines, fungi such as mushrooms, and insects such as butterflies live in the rainforest canopy. So do hundreds of species of tropical birds and mammals such as monkeys. As trees are cut down, this habitat is lost. Species have less room to live and reproduce . Loss of habitat may happen as development takes place in a species range . Many animals have a range of hundreds of square kilometers. The mountain lion ( Puma concolor ) of North America, for instance, has a range of up to 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles). To successfully live and reproduce, a single mountain lion patrols this much territory. Urban areas , such as Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, grew rapidly during the 20th century. As these areas expanded into the wilderness, the mountain lion’s habitat became smaller. That means the habitat can support fewer mountain lions. Because enormous parts of the Sierra Nevada, Rocky, and Cascade mountain ranges remain undeveloped, however, mountain lions are not endangered. Loss of habitat can also lead to increased encounters between wild species and people. As development brings people deeper into a species range, they may have more exposure to wild species. Poisonous plants and fungi may grow closer to homes and schools. Wild animals are also spotted more frequently . These animals are simply patrolling their range, but interaction with people can be deadly. Polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ), mountain lions, and alligators are all predators brought into close contact with people as they lose their habitat to homes, farms , and businesses. As people kill these wild animals, through pesticides , accidents such as collisions with cars, or hunting, native species may become endangered.

Loss of Genetic Variation Genetic variation is the diversity found within a species. It’s why human beings may have blond, red, brown, or black hair. Genetic variation allows species to adapt to changes in the environment. Usually, the greater the population of a species, the greater its genetic variation. Inbreeding is reproduction with close family members. Groups of species that have a tendency to inbreed usually have little genetic variation, because no new genetic information is introduced to the group. Disease is much more common, and much more deadly, among inbred groups. Inbred species do not have the genetic variation to develop resistance to the disease. For this reason, fewer offspring of inbred groups survive to maturity. Loss of genetic variation can occur naturally. Cheetahs ( Acinonyx jubatus ) are a threatened species native to Africa and Asia. These big cats have very little genetic variation. Biologists say that during the last Ice Age , cheetahs went through a long period of inbreeding. As a result, there are very few genetic differences between cheetahs. They cannot adapt to changes in the environment as quickly as other animals, and fewer cheetahs survive to maturity. Cheetahs are also much more difficult to breed in captivity than other big cats, such as lions ( Panthera leo ). Human activity can also lead to a loss of genetic variation. Overhunting and overfishing have reduced the populations of many animals. Reduced population means there are fewer breeding pairs . A breeding pair is made up of two mature members of the species that are not closely related and can produce healthy offspring. With fewer breeding pairs, genetic variation shrinks. Monoculture , the agricultural method of growing a single crop , can also reduce genetic variation. Modern agribusiness relies on monocultures. Almost all potatoes cultivated , sold, and consumed, for instance, are from a single species, the Russet Burbank ( Solanum tuberosum ). Potatoes, native to the Andes Mountains of South America, have dozens of natural varieties. The genetic variation of wild potatoes allows them to adapt to climate change and disease. For Russet Burbanks, however, farmers must use fertilizers and pesticides to ensure healthy crops because the plant has almost no genetic variation. Plant breeders often go back to wild varieties to collect genes that will help cultivated plants resist pests and drought, and adapt to climate change. However, climate change is also threatening wild varieties. That means domesticated plants may lose an important source of traits that help them overcome new threats. The Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) keeps a “Red List of Threatened Species.” The Red List de fines the severity and specific causes of a species’ threat of extinction. The Red List has seven levels of conservation: least concern , near threatened , vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered , extinct in the wild , and extinct. Each category represents a different threat level. Species that are not threatened by extinction are placed within the first two categories—least concern and near-threatened. Those that are most threatened are placed within the next three categories, known as the threatened categories —vulnerable, endangered, and critically endangered. Those species that are extinct in some form are placed within the last two categories—extinct in the wild and extinct. Classifying a species as endangered has to do with its range and habitat, as well as its actual population. For this reason, a species can be of least concern in one area and endangered in another. The gray whale ( Eschrichtius robustus ), for instance, has a healthy population in the eastern Pacific Ocean, along the coast of North and South America. The population in the western Pacific, however, is critically endangered.

Least Concern Least concern is the lowest level of conservation . A species of least concern is one that has a widespread and abundant population. Human beings are a species of least concern, along with most domestic animals , such as dogs ( Canis familiaris ) and cats ( Felis catus ). Many wild animals, such as pigeons and houseflies ( Musca domestica ), are also classified as least concern. Near Threatened A near threatened species is one that is likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future. Many species of violets , native to tropical jungles in South America and Africa, are near threatened, for instance. They have healthy populations, but their rainforest habitat is disappearing at a fast pace. People are cutting down huge areas of rainforest for development and timber . Many violet species are likely to become threatened. Vulnerable Species The definitions of the three threatened categories (vulnerable, endangered, and critically endangered) are based on five criteria: population reduction rate , geographic range, population size, population restrictions , and probability of extinction . Threatened categories have different thresholds for these criteria. As the population and range of the species decreases, the species becomes more threatened. 1) Population reduction rate A species is classified as vulnerable if its population has declined between 30 and 50 percent. This decline is measured over 10 years or three generations of the species, whichever is longer. A generation is the period of time between the birth of an animal and the time it is able to reproduce. Mice are able to reproduce when they are about one month old. Mouse populations are mostly tracked over 10-year periods. An elephant's generation lasts about 15 years. So, elephant populations are measured over 45-year periods. A species is vulnerable if its population has declined at least 50 percent and the cause of the decline is known. Habitat loss is the leading known cause of population decline. A species is also classified as vulnerable if its population has declined at least 30 percent and the cause of the decline is not known. A new, unknown virus , for example, could kill hundreds or even thousands of individuals before being identified. 2) Geographic range A species is vulnerable if its “ extent of occurrence ” is estimated to be less than 20,000 square kilometers (7,722 square miles). An extent of occurrence is the smallest area that could contain all sites of a species’ population. If all members of a species could survive in a single area, the size of that area is the species’ extent of occurrence. A species is also classified as vulnerable if its “ area of occupancy ” is estimated to be less than 2,000 square kilometers (772 square miles). An area of occupancy is where a specific population of that species resides. This area is often a breeding or nesting site in a species range. 3) Population size Species with fewer than 10,000 mature individuals are vulnerable. The species is also vulnerable if that population declines by at least 10 percent within 10 years or three generations, whichever is longer. 4) Population restrictions Population restriction is a combination of population and area of occupancy. A species is vulnerable if it is restricted to less than 1,000 mature individuals or an area of occupancy of less than 20 square kilometers (8 square miles). 5) Probability of extinction in the wild is at least 10 percent within 100 years. Biologists, anthropologists, meteorologists , and other scientists have developed complex ways to determine a species’ probability of extinction. These formulas calculate the chances a species can survive, without human protection, in the wild. Vulnerable Species: Ethiopian Banana Frog The Ethiopian banana frog ( Afrixalus enseticola ) is a small frog native to high- altitude areas of southern Ethiopia. It is a vulnerable species because its area of occupancy is less than 2,000 square kilometers (772 square miles). The extent and quality of its forest habitat are in decline. Threats to this habitat include forest clearance, mostly for housing and agriculture. Vulnerable Species: Snaggletooth Shark The snaggletooth shark ( Hemipristis elongatus ) is found in the tropical, coastal waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Its area of occupancy is enormous, from Southeast Africa to the Philippines, and from China to Australia. However, the snaggletooth shark is a vulnerable species because of a severe population reduction rate. Its population has fallen more than 10 percent over 10 years. The number of these sharks is declining due to fisheries, especially in the Java Sea and Gulf of Thailand. The snaggletooth shark’s flesh, fins, and liver are considered high-quality foods. They are sold in commercial fish markets, as well as restaurants. Vulnerable Species: Galapagos Kelp Galapagos kelp ( Eisenia galapagensis ) is a type of seaweed only found near the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Galapagos kelp is classified as vulnerable because its population has declined more than 10 percent over 10 years. Climate change is the leading cause of decline among Galapagos kelp. El Niño, the natural weather pattern that brings unusually warm water to the Galapagos, is the leading agent of climate change in this area. Galapagos kelp is a cold-water species and does not adapt quickly to changes in water temperature.

Endangered Species 1) Population reduction rate A species is classified as endangered when its population has declined between 50 and 70 percent. This decline is measured over 10 years or three generations of the species, whichever is longer. A species is classified as endangered when its population has declined at least 70 percent and the cause of the decline is known. A species is also classified as endangered when its population has declined at least 50 percent and the cause of the decline is not known. 2) Geographic range An endangered species’ extent of occurrence is less than 5,000 square kilometers (1,930 square miles). An endangered species’ area of occupancy is less than 500 square kilometers (193 square miles). 3) Population size A species is classified as endangered when there are fewer than 2,500 mature individuals. When a species population declines by at least 20 percent within five years or two generations, it is also classified as endangered. 4) Population restrictions A species is classified as endangered when its population is restricted to less than 250 mature individuals. When a species’ population is this low, its area of occupancy is not considered. 5) Probability of extinction in the wild is at least 20 percent within 20 years or five generations, whichever is longer.

Endangered Species: Scimitar -horned Oryx The scimitar-horned oryx ( Oryx dammah ) is a species of antelope with long horns. Its range extends across northern Africa. Previously, the scimitar-horned oryx was listed as extinct in the wild because the last confirmed sighting of one was in 1988. However, the first group of scimitar-horned oryx was released back into the wild in Chad, in August 2016, and the population is growing. Overhunting and habitat loss, including competition with domestic livestock , are the main reasons for the decline of the oryx’s wild population. Captive herds are now kept in protected areas of Tunisia, Senegal, and Morocco. Scimitar-horned oryxes are also found in many zoos . Critically Endangered Species 1) Population reduction rate A critically endangered species’ population has declined between 80 and 90 percent. This decline is measured over 10 years or three generations of the species, whichever is longer. A species is classified as critically endangered when its population has declined at least 90 percent and the cause of the decline is known. A species is also classified as endangered when its population has declined at least 80 percent and the cause of the decline is not known. 2) Geographic range A critically endangered species’ extent of occurrence is less than 100 square kilometers (39 square miles). A critically endangered species’ area of occupancy is estimated to be less than 10 square kilometers (4 square miles). 3) Population size A species is classified as critically endangered when there are fewer than 250 mature individuals. A species is also classified as critically endangered when the number of mature individuals declines by at least 25 percent within three years or one generation, whichever is longer. 4) Population restrictions A species is classified as critically endangered when its population is restricted to less than 50 mature individuals. When a species’ population is this low, its area of occupancy is not considered. 5) Probability of extinction in the wild is at least 50 percent within 10 years or three generations, whichever is longer. Critically Endangered Species: Bolivian Chinchilla Rat The Bolivian chinchilla rat ( Abrocoma boliviensis ) is a rodent found in a small section of the Santa Cruz region of Bolivia. It is critically endangered because its extent of occurrence is less than 100 square kilometers (39 square miles). The major threat to this species is loss of its cloud forest habitat. People are clearing forests to create cattle pastures .

Critically Endangered Species: Transcaucasian Racerunner The Transcaucasian racerunner ( Eremias pleskei ) is a lizard found on the Armenian Plateau , located in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkey. The Transcaucasian racerunner is a critically endangered species because of a huge population decline, estimated at more than 80 percent during the past 10 years. Threats to this species include the salination , or increased saltiness, of soil . Fertilizers used for agricultural development seep into the soil, increasing its saltiness. Racerunners live in and among the rocks and soil, and cannot adapt to the increased salt in their food and shelter. The racerunner is also losing habitat as people create trash dumps on their area of occupancy. Critically Endangered Species: White Ferula Mushroom The white ferula mushroom ( Pleurotus nebrodensis ) is a critically endangered species of fungus. The mushroom is critically endangered because its extent of occurrence is less than 100 square kilometers (39 square miles). It is only found in the northern part of the Italian island of Sicily, in the Mediterranean Sea. The leading threats to white ferula mushrooms are loss of habitat and overharvesting. White ferula mushrooms are a gourmet food item. Farmers and amateur mushroom hunters harvest the fungus for food and profit. The mushrooms can be sold for up to $100 per kilogram (2.2 pounds). Extinct in the Wild A species is extinct in the wild when it only survives in cultivation (plants), in captivity (animals), or as a population well outside its established range. A species may be listed as extinct in the wild only after years of surveys have failed to record an individual in its native or expected habitat.

Extinct in the Wild: Monut Kaala Cyanea The Mount Kaala cyanea ( Cyanea superba ) is a large, flowering tree native to the island of Oahu, in the U.S. state of Hawai‘i. The Mount Kaala cyanea has large, broad leaves and fleshy fruit. The tree is extinct in the wild largely because of invasive species. Non-native plants crowded the cyanea out of its habitat, and non-native animals such as pigs, rats, and slugs ate its fruit more quickly than it could reproduce. Mount Kaala cyanea trees survive in tropical nurseries and botanical gardens . Many botanists and conservationists look forward to establishing a new population in the wild. Extinct A species is extinct when there is no reasonable doubt that the last remaining individual of that species has died. Extinct: Cuban Macaw The Cuban macaw ( Ara tricolor ) was a tropical parrot native to Cuba and a small Cuban island, Isla de la Juventud. Hunting and collecting the birds for pets led to the bird’s extinction. The last specimen of the Cuban macaw was collected in 1864. Extinct: Ridley’s Stick Insect Ridley’s stick insect ( Pseudobactricia ridleyi ) was native to the tropical jungle of the island of Singapore. This insect, whose long, segmented body resembled a tree limb, is only known through a single specimen, collected more than 100 years ago. During the 20th century, Singapore experienced rapid development. Almost the entire jungle was cleared, depriving the insect of its habitat.

Endangered Species and People When a species is classified as endangered, governments and international organizations can work to protect it. Laws may limit hunting and destruction of the species’ habitat. Individuals and organizations that break these laws may face huge fines. Because of such actions, many species have recovered from their endangered status. The brown pelican ( Pelecanus occidentalis ) was taken off the endangered species list in 2009, for instance. This seabird is native to the coasts of North America and South America, as well as the islands of the Caribbean Sea. It is the state bird of the U.S. state of Louisiana. In 1970, the number of brown pelicans in the wild was estimated at 10,000. The bird was classified as vulnerable. During the 1970s and 1980s, governments and conservation groups worked to help the brown pelican recover. Young chicks were reared in hatching sites, then released into the wild. Human access to nesting sites was severely restricted. The pesticide DDT , which damaged the eggs of the brown pelican, was banned. During the 1980s, the number of brown pelicans soared. In 1988, the IUCN “delisted” the brown pelican. The bird, whose population is now in the hundreds of thousands, is now in the category of least concern.

Convention on Biological Diversity The Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty to sustain and protect the diversity of life on Earth. This includes conservation, sustainability, and sharing the benefits of genetic research and resources. The Convention on Biological Diversity has adopted the IUCN Red List of endangered species in order to monitor and research species' population and habitats. Three nations have not ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity: Andorra, the Holy See (Vatican), and the United States.

Lonesome George Lonesome George was the only living member of the Pinta Island tortoise ( Chelonoidis abingdoni ) known to exist. The Pinta Island tortoise was only found on Pinta, one of the Galapagos Islands. The Charles Darwin Research Station, a scientific facility in the Galapagos, offered a $10,000 reward to any zoo or individual for locating a single Pinta Island tortoise female. On June 25, 2012, Lonesome George died, leaving one more extinct species in the world.

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9 of the most shocking facts about global extinction - and how to stop it

Across the world, wildlife is under severe threat. Image:  REUTERS/Baz Ratner

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Stay up to date:, future of the environment.

• Wildlife population sizes dropped by 68% between 1970 and 2018.
• Species are becoming extinct quicker nowadays than ever before.
• Biodiversity is vital to the health and livelihoods of the planet's eight billion people.

Earth’s fate and the devastation of the natural world were recently put under the microscope with the release of Sir David Attenborough’s Netflix documentary A Life On Our Planet .

It marks a departure from his usual nature documentary format and instead grieves for the damage wreaked by climate change and other forms of human interference.

Have you read?

David attenborough leads call for world to invest $500 billion a year to protect nature, david attenborough: 'the garden of eden is no more'. read his davos speech in full, sir david attenborough has just joined instagram – and already broken a world record.

It’s an emotional watch, as the naturalist recounts the environmental changes he has seen first-hand throughout his career, such as the devastation of the Borneo rainforest and its native orangutan population.

Here are nine reasons we too should be concerned about the future of the planet and the millions of species which call it home.

1. More than one million species are now at risk of extinction

Over a million species of animal and plant life are now threatened with dying out – more than ever before in human history, according to the International Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

2. Wildlife population sizes dropped by two thirds since 1970

There has been an average 68% drop in global population sizes of amphibians, birds, fish mammals and reptiles between 1970 and 2016, according to the WWF’s Living Planet Report 2020 .

3. Tropical sub-regions of Americas showing biggest declines

The WWF study added that there was a 94% decline of wildlife populations in tropical sub-regions of the Americas over the 50 years from 1970 – the largest fall observed anywhere on Earth.

4. Species dying off more frequently than ever before

Species are dying off 1,000 times more frequently today than during the 60 million years before the arrival of humans, according to a 2014 study by Brown University in the US. The report reinforces the “urgency to conserve what is left”, said lead author Jurriaan de Vos.

5. Freshwater species declining faster than anything else

Populations of freshwater wildlife species are declining disportionately faster than others, dropping by an average of 84% between 1970 and 2018, WWF’s Living Planet Report 2020 showed. The figure also marks a rise of 1% on the 83% reported two years ago.

6. Swathes of tropical forest lost to agriculture

Some 100 million hectares of tropical forest were lost between 1980 and 2000, according to the IPBES. This was largely down to cattle ranching in Latin America and plantations in South-East Asia, researchers added.

7. Nearly 40% of plants at risk of extinction

Four in 10 (39.4%) plants are at risk of dying out, according to the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi report. An additional challenge is identifying them before extinction, with 1,942 new species of plants identified last year alone.

8. Industrial agriculture driving decline of insects

Dramatic rates of decline could lead to over 40% of the world’s insect species disappearing within decades – with habitat loss due to industrial agriculture the main driver behind the decrease, according to a study published in Science Direct.

9. Bird species also seeing populations threat

Some 3.5% of domesticated birds have become extinct since 2016, the IPBES reported. In addition, nearly a quarter (23%) of threatened birds have already been affected by climate change, The global assessment report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services added.

Our ocean covers 70% of the world’s surface and accounts for 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. We can't have a healthy future without a healthy ocean - but it's more vulnerable than ever because of climate change and pollution.

Tackling the grave threats to our ocean means working with leaders across sectors, from business to government to academia.

The World Economic Forum convenes the Friends of Ocean Action , a coalition of global leaders from a wide range of sectors who are working together to protect the seas. From a programme to scale blue carbon benefits through coordinated action with governments to unlock finance, strengthen and empower local communities, to a global partnership to catalyze science-based actions towards healthy and sustainable blue food value chains, the Forum’s Ocean Action Agenda is pushing for new solutions and aiming to support 1000 Ocean Startups by 2030 that are creating a wave of innovation to address global challenges.

The Forum's Ocean Action Agenda also works closely with our industry partners, such as offshore wind developers and ports, to support them in their transitions towards a nature positive and net zero future. Climate change is an inextricable part of the threat to our ocean, with rising temperatures and acidification disrupting fragile ecosystems. The Forum runs a number of initiatives to support the shift to a low-carbon economy , including hosting the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, who have cut emissions in their companies by 9%.

Is your organization interested in working with the World Economic Forum? Find out more here .

Why is biodiversity important?

Both the 2019 IPBES and 2020 WWF reports stress that the loss of habitats and species pose as much of a threat to life on Earth as climate change.

For biodiversity is not only vital for a flourishing natural world. Its deterioration also threatens the livelihoods, economies, food security and health of the world's eight billion people – a fact brought into sharp focus by the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

But all is not lost. While Attenborough brands the damage as human kind’s “greatest mistake”, his final message is more optimistic: “If we act now, we can yet put it right.”

What can we do to save the planet?

Experts agree that one of the best ways of saving the planet is through transformation of the global food system, with agriculture accounting for nearly 60% of global biodiversity loss and about a quarter of CO2 emissions worldwide .

Consumers can make a difference by choosing to eat less meat and making more sustainable food choices, as farming animals uses a lot of land and water.

Meanwhile farmers can be supported to reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides, diversify crops and phase out ploughing to lessen the environmental impact.

Conservation is also vital to reverse the loss of biodiversity, with the IPBES highlighting the importance of involving the local community – to benefit nature and people alike.

The devastation of biodiversity and climate change are two sides of the coin, so measures to reduce carbon emissions and pollution – such as travelling less, using greener forms of energy and making more eco-friendly consumer choices – are also key.

For as Attenborough says: “If we take care of nature, nature will take care of us.” As the world continues to suffer the fallout of COVID-19, perhaps never before has such as sentiment been more important.

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The Importance of Saving a Species From Extinction Essay

Extinction is the total disappearance of a species from the earth’s surface. It leads to a lack of surviving members of some species to reproduce in order create a new generation of the extinct species. Different plants and animals due to various reasons, which are either natural or man-made. These reasons are habitat degradation, over exploitation of available resources, agricultural monocultures, poaching and commercial hunting, human-wildlife or human-induced climate change and destruction of land to build factories and residential areas. Protecting a rare species of animals or plants is therefore a responsibility of all human beings to ensure the betterment of our planet (Cunningham, & Saigo, 2005).

Animal or plant species’ protection from extinction is beneficial because all species are important for balance in the nature world. Moreover, some animals and plants are key in the field of medicine since they provide raw materials used to produce different drugs. These species may include the African clawed frog that secretes antibiotics, the dogfish shark which has cancer fighting molecules. In addition, chemicals found in certain plants assist in treatment of Hodgkin’s disease and other types of cancers. Also, some extracts from specific and rare marine animals has a unique ability to act as anti-cancer agents. (Cunningham, & Saigo, 2005).

Extinction of some species has varied effects because the balance of nature will be broken. For example, a breach in a food chain may cause a drastical increase of some species in over a short period since there will be no consumers in the ecosystem. This growth leads to increased competition for food and space causing starvation ad leading to a disbalance. The predators will also experience lack of feood, and as a result, they will starve to death, which may cause the possibility of their extinction.

The elimination of one organism from an ecosystem, therefore, serves as a domino effect causing the disappearance of other numerous organisms. The introduction of new cloning technology will further accelerate the process of extinction since the easier it is to clone an organism, the lesser efforts are directed towards the protection of the whole species (Ehrlich, 1983).

Extinction is irreversible as a species that becomes extinct is lost forever, and thus, the expensive efforts required to protect animals facing extinction are justified. Protection of different rare and endangered species is achievable. As a solution to this global issue, an investment of 0.1% of global GDP in environment protection will ensure the pay off a large chunk of the ecological debt (Ehrlich, 1983).

Biodiversity refers to genes, species and ecosystems. The toughness of an area’s immune system is dependent on the area’s riches in terms of biodiversity. Hence, biodiversity is vital in preserving food security and allows ecosystems to adapt to different natural disturbances like earthquakes, fires and floods. Thus, a loss of biodiversity will also have a tremendous impact on medicine and healthcare, among all the rest spheres of life (Miller, 2013).

Extinction of certain species will also hinder scientific research, which aims at finding new way of treating different diseases and production of new drugs and vaccines. Such medicines are usually hard to develop as they cannot (or are hard to) be produced artificially, thus their manufacture is expensive in nature as their source is not easy to get. Genetic diversity helps in the prevention of diseases and enables adaptation of different species to changes in their environment.

Apart from medicine, the some plants and animals are able to provide raw materials for the manufacture of clothing, cosmetics, and household goods. Hence, it is important to protect the rare species from extinction due to various reasons mentioned above.

Cunningham, M. A., & Saigo, B. W. (2005). Environmental Science: A global concern . Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Ehrlich, A. H. (1983). Extinction: The causes and consequences of the Disappearance Of species . New York: Ballantine Books.

Miller, D., A. (2013). Biodiversity . Detroit: Green haven Press.

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IvyPanda. (2022, April 8). The Importance of Saving a Species From Extinction. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-importance-of-saving-a-species-from-extinction/

"The Importance of Saving a Species From Extinction." IvyPanda , 8 Apr. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/the-importance-of-saving-a-species-from-extinction/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'The Importance of Saving a Species From Extinction'. 8 April.

IvyPanda . 2022. "The Importance of Saving a Species From Extinction." April 8, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-importance-of-saving-a-species-from-extinction/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Importance of Saving a Species From Extinction." April 8, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-importance-of-saving-a-species-from-extinction/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Importance of Saving a Species From Extinction." April 8, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-importance-of-saving-a-species-from-extinction/.

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Extinct Animals…

Meet some very special species whose existence came to a tragic end….

Earth is home to lots of wonderful wildlife, but sadly, some species that once called our planet home today no longer exist. These are known as extinct animals.

And we’re not just talking about roar-some prehistoric dinosaurs ! There are ‘ recently extinct ’ animals, too – animals that have died out since the 1500s . Join us as we travel back in time to discover the sad stories of eight of these incredible creatures…

Eight extinct animals

Dodo Mauritius 1680s*

All that remains today of the dodo are a few bones and partial skeletons – so it’s no wonder we have the expression ‘ dead as a dodo ’! But these chubby , flightless birds were once alive and well in the forests of Mauritius . Their tragic tale began in the 16th century , when Dutch sailors arrived on the island and hunted this brilliant bird. The main cause of the dodo’s extinction, however, was the animals the sailors brought with them, such as cats , pigs and rats – they guzzled on dodo eggs and out-competed the birds for food, wiping them out by the 1680s.

(* The year of extinction)

Great Auk Rocky islands off the North Atlantic coast (1844)

The black-and-white great auk was once found around the North Atlantic , waddling around on craggy coasts – including in the UK – or swimming in the waves using its short wings. But during the early 19th century , the great auk was killed in huge numbers for its feathers , meat and oils , and because people believed it had supernatural powers . Unafraid of humans, the flightless , defenceless birds were very easy to catch. Sailors would simply round them up and walk them onto ships , before bashing them on the head. Not an auk -some ending.

Thylacine Tasmania, mainland Australia and New Guinea (1936)

Also known as the Tasmanian tiger , the thylacine was once the world’s largest meat-eating marsupial . It looked a bit like a wolf , but had yellow-brown fur, stripes on its back and a thick, long tail. Its scientific name Thylacinus cynocephalus is Greek for ‘dog-headed pouched one.’ Although populations suffered disease and habitat loss , it’s believed humans were to blame for the thylacine’s ultimate extinction. Since the fierce predators liked to feast on sheep and other livestock, European settlers were quick to kill them – in fact, the Tasmanian government even paid people to do so! The last known thylacine died in 1936, in Hobart Zoo, Australia .

Steller’s Sea Cow Bering Sea, north Pacific Ocean (1768)

German naturalist Georg W. Steller first studied and described this amazing animal in 1741, in the north Pacific Ocean. Related to today’s manatees and dugongs , Steller’s sea cows were huge marine mammals that grew up to 10m long – that’s twice the length of a large family car! Living in peaceful herds, they grazed on sea grass , kelp and algae . Sadly, sailors and seal hunters soon realised the animal’s fatty meat provided a hefty food supply for their voyages and they began to hunt them, big time. The result? The Steller’s sea cow became extinct just 27 years after being discovered .

Did you know we have a FREE downloadable Extinct Animals Primary Resource ? Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike!

Aurochs Europe and Asia (1627)

Turn the clocks back several centuries, and you’ll find huge, horned aurochs roaming the forests of Europe and parts of Asia – perfect hunting fodder for early humans. Today, all that remains of these colossal cattle are a few skeletons in museums, along with some prehistoric cave paintings of the big beasts in Lascaux Cave , France , which may date back 20,000 years! It’s highly likely that aurochs are the ancestors of today’s cows, but they were much, much bigger, growing up to 1.85m in height (way taller than the average man!). The last of the aurochs lived in Poland , where the bulky breed died out in 1627.

Gastric Brooding Frog Australia (1980s)

Tadpoles swim in ponds, right? Not the incredible gastric brooding frog’s . The females would ‘ eat ‘ their own frogspawn , brooding the tadpoles in their stomachs for 6-7 weeks, having ‘turned off’ their digestive juices and stopped eating food. They then ‘ gave birth ‘ to a brood of baby frogs by projectile vomiting them out of their mouths. Wow! Sadly, the Australian amphibians were wiped out within a decade of being discovered in 1973 . But we have exciting news… by taking cells from gastric brooding frogs frozen in labs years ago, and inserting them into the eggs of today’s living frogs, scientists hope to bring this super species back to life . Sick !

Tecopa Pupfish California, USA (1981)

These fab little fish once swam in the waters of two hot springs in California ’s Death Valley , USA . Tiny but tough, the Tecopa pupfish had adapted to withstand the 43°C waters. But in 1965 , the springs where they lived were merged together to build a bathhouse , and the water became too hot and salty for the fish to survive. As a result, in 1970 , the poor pupfish was added to the Endangered Species List – unfortunately, it was too late. By 1981 , it was declared Extinct – another awful outcome of human development.

Baiji River Dolphin China (2004)

In ancient Chinese folklore, the almost blind Baiji River dolphin was said to be the reincarnation of a princess who was drowned after refusing to marry a man she did not love. Sadly, the real-life story of the Baiji is just as tragic. Up until the 1950s, thousands of the small, pale grey aquatic animals splashed about in the murky waters of China ’s Yangtze River . But, due to overfishing , collisions with ships and pollution , it’s believed these mammals are now Extinct. While they’re still listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List (see right), there have been no confirmed sightings of this spectacular swimmer since 2004.

The IUCN Red List…

We often hear about animals and plants being ‘ Endangered ’ or ‘ Vulnerable ’, but what does this actually mean? To help work out which species need most help, the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ), created the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 1964 – a system for classifying species according to the risk of extinction they face.

So, how does the Red List work? After scientists have thoroughly evaluated a certain animal, plant or fungus, they place it in one of several categories on the Red List…

Least Concern ( LC ) Widespread and not in imminent danger of being threatened. Phew!

Near Threatened (NT) A species that could in the near future be placed in a ‘threatened’ category (below).

Vulnerable (VU) Facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.

Endangered (EN) A species that’s facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

Critically Endangered (CR) Facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.

Extinct In The Wild (EW) No longer found in the wild. Populations are only found in zoos, botanical gardens or breeding programmes.

Extinct (EX) No individuals exist in the wild, in captivity or cultivation.

Different factors are taken into account before selecting the correct category, including current population size , rate of decline and geographic range.  Scientists around the world regularly reassess the different species to see if there are any changes to the status of the species on the list. In this way, we can help preserve and protect our world’s incredible nature. Fingers crossed!

What do you think of our list of extinct animals? Leave a comment below and let us know!

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This helped me on a essay that I have to do in class.

Sigh, poor animals, I would want to see a Thylacine. They look so cute!:(

Poor extinct animals! It's all us human's fualt! :(

it's nice and interesting to read so unfortunate for those poor creatures

lets take action

I LIKE MOSASAURUS

WE SHOULD TAKE ACTION FOR ANIMALS

The human race is mean

i love this app

these animals have gone extinct i dont what any more to

[…] Extinct Animals… […]

rest in peace extinct animals :(

thanks for the facts

thanks for the info

this is so sad :(

its so sad for these extinct animals

cool things

No!! We have to save all wild life TOGETHER!!

R.I.P animals

Let's save these animals before poachers wiped out the animals in earth

i love to learn about animals that are extinct!

Lets save the animals

Oh wow. I think us humans need to work harder to save the planet

I am sure that this helps you

i love to learn about extinct animal because i have never seem them before

so cool lol

funny and cool

this is very interesting

Help save endangered animals.

Sad news but hope for frogs

We need to help our planet. Support mother nature and respect its beauty and strength. We, humans, are here thanks to MOTHER NATURE.

It is really sad how people did this to animals. I just hope we can save animals that are endangered and that they not become extinct.

I really love this website! I always have fun on this page and it provides sooo much information. I love the person or people that invented this sooo much!

AMAZING ANIMALS

dont let any more die

sadly we don't have a chance to take a glance at them in our day to day life

i love animals and i don't want them to go extinct

CUSTOMIZE YOUR AVATAR

More like general animals.

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Home — Essay Samples — Environment — Conservation — Argumentative On Endangered Animals

Argumentative on Endangered Animals

• Categories: Biodiversity Conservation

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Words: 636 |

Published: Mar 19, 2024

Words: 636 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Ecological importance of endangered animals, ethical imperative for conservation, economic significance of conservation, counterarguments and response.

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The Impact of the Triassic-Jurassic Extinction on Earth’s Biodiversity

This essay about the Triassic-Jurassic extinction details a cataclysmic event 201 million years ago that profoundly impacted life on Earth. It explores the geological upheaval caused by the breakup of Pangea and massive volcanic eruptions, leading to severe environmental changes and widespread species extinctions. Despite the devastation, the essay highlights the resilience of life, focusing on the rise of dinosaurs and the diversification of marine life, underscoring the event’s significant role in shaping Earth’s evolutionary history.

How it works

The reverberations of the Triassic-Jurassic extinction, echoing through the corridors of Earth’s history, tell tales of cataclysmic upheaval and extraordinary resilience. Approximately 201 million years ago, amidst a world in flux, this monumental event transpired, leaving an indelible imprint on the tapestry of life.

In the epochs leading up to the extinction, Earth underwent significant geological turmoil characterized by the gradual disintegration of Pangea, the ancient supercontinent. As the landmasses drifted apart, fissures in the Earth’s crust unleashed torrents of molten lava, covering vast areas in what is now known as the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP).

These volcanic eruptions released not only molten rock but also a flood of greenhouse gases, wrapping the planet in a veil of atmospheric chaos.

The aftermath of this environmental upheaval was both immediate and severe. Ecosystems were thrown into disarray as temperatures skyrocketed and oceanic acidity surged. Amidst this chaos, numerous species found themselves on the verge of extinction, their once-thriving habitats rendered uninhabitable.

When the dust settled, the toll of the Triassic-Jurassic extinction became tragically clear. Countless organisms, from towering giants to tiny microorganisms, had succumbed to the relentless forces of nature. The fossil record bears witness to the extinction of iconic creatures—the sleek ichthyosaurs, the formidable armored placodonts, and the enigmatic ammonites—all lost to history.

Yet, amidst the devastation, pockets of life endured. These resilient survivors, tempered by the crucible of extinction, seized the chance to carve out new niches in a drastically altered world. From the ashes of destruction emerged a new era, marked by the rise of evolutionary pioneers set to redefine the course of life on Earth.

Foremost among these pioneers were the dinosaurs, whose rise to dominance marked a new chapter in terrestrial ecosystems. From the diminutive ancestors lurking in the shadows to the majestic giants that roamed the primordial landscapes, dinosaurs took control of the land, shaping its destiny for millions of years to come.

Meanwhile, in the oceans, marine life embarked on its own evolutionary journey. Amidst the wreckage of ancient seaways, resilient survivors thrived, diversifying to fill the ecological void left by their fallen predecessors. From the humble beginnings of early marine mammals to the dazzling diversity of modern cephalopods, the oceans teemed with life, each species a testament to nature’s resilience.

Yet, the legacy of the Triassic-Jurassic extinction extends beyond mere biological upheaval. It is embedded in the very fabric of the planet, etched into the geological strata as a testament to Earth’s tumultuous past. The scars left by volcanic eruptions and shifting continents serve as a poignant reminder of the dynamic forces that shape our world.

In the grand narrative of Earth’s history, the Triassic-Jurassic extinction stands as a defining moment—a crucible of destruction and renewal that shaped the trajectory of life on our planet. Its echoes remain, a testament to life’s resilience in the face of adversity and the enduring power of evolution to forge new paths amidst the chaos of change.

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Accelerating extinction rate triggers domino effect of biodiversity loss

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While nearly one million species are currently at risk of extinction, the United Nations University (UNU) in Bonn is drawing attention to “co-extinctions”: the chain reaction occurring when the complete disappearance of one species affects another.  

The issue is in the spotlight ahead of the  International Day for Biological Diversity , observed annually on 22 May, and covered in the most recent edition of UNU’s Interconnected Disaster Risks report.

Among the animals at risk is the gopher tortoise, one of the oldest living species on the planet. This tragic story of biodiversity loss is unfolding at the heart of the coastal plains of the southern United States. 

Ecosystem ‘architect’ 

Their reduced number is not just problematic for the survival of the tortoise as a species, however, as these charismatic creatures also play a vital role in preserving the delicate balance of their coastal realm.  

Gopher tortoises are not merely occupants of their habitat; they are architects, sculpting ecosystems and providing sanctuaries for over 350 other species. With their front legs functioning like shovels, they dig burrows that range in size from 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 metres) long and from 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.5 metres) deep.  

From small insects to larger amphibians, each organism plays a vital role in the ecosystem's intricate web of life these burrows provide. For some, the burrows of the gopher tortoise are a safe haven for breeding and nurturing offspring, while for others, they offer respite from predators and the elements.

Should the gopher tortoise vanish, it is likely a domino effect would be felt throughout the ecosystem.  

Among the most vulnerable is the critically endangered dusky gopher frog, a species already teetering on the brink of extinction. Reliant on the tortoise's burrows for shelter and survival, the disappearance of the tortoise would most likely put the frog’s survival at risk too. 

The role of humans 

In shedding more light on co-extinctions, UNU said that intense human activities, such as land-use change, overexploitation, climate change, pollution and the introduction of invasive species, is causing an extinction acceleration that is at least tens to hundreds of times faster than the natural process of extinctions.  

In the last 100 years, over 400 vertebrate species were lost, for example. The report therefore includes accelerated extinctions among its six interconnected ‘risk tipping points’.  

Such points are reached when the systems that humanity relies on cannot buffer risks and stop functioning like expected – mainly as a result of human actions.  

Extinction breeds extinction 

Ecosystems are built on intricate networks of connections between different species, as the gopher tortoise-dusky gopher frog example indicates.  

The domino effect could lead to more species going extinct and eventually even to the collapse of entire ecosystems.  

With nearly one million plant and animal species currently under threat, the ripple effect of the extinction of a single species can affect countless others, disrupting vital ecological functions. 

The endangered sea otter provides another example of intricate dependencies within ecosystems. Calling the Pacific kelp forests their home, they were once plentiful, but are now locally endangered due to being relentlessly hunted for their fur in the past.  

In a finely tuned ecological dance, sea otters prey on sea urchins, halting the unrestrained growth of sea urchin populations. Without the presence of otters, these spiky grazers run rampant, transforming lush kelp forests into desolate ‘urchin barrens’.  

But the demise of sea otters would have impacts that extend far beyond the disappearance of kelp alone, UNU said. Over1,000 species– including sharks, turtles, seals, whales, birds, and a multitude of fish– rely on these underwater havens for their very existence.  

Creating the future we want  

Addressing the biodiversity crisis demands a multifaceted approach that recognizes the interconnectedness of risks and solutions.  

The theme of the International Day for Biological Diversity  calls for everyone to support implementation of  the Biodiversity Plan , adopted in 2022, which sets goals and concrete measures to stop and reverse the loss of nature by 2050. 

One of the goals includes reducing the extinction rate of all species tenfold by mid-century and increasing the abundance of native wild species to healthy and resilient levels, said Zita Sebesvari, Deputy Director of UNU’s Institute for Environment and Human Security and lead author of the  Interconnected Disaster Risks report.  

“While adaptation strategies, such as restoring and protecting green corridors between animal habitats offer some respite, tackling underlying drivers of extinction remains crucial, because this goal cannot be reached as long as we risk accelerating extinctions,” she explained. 

In the long term, avoiding extinctions and co-extinctions will be the only realistic solution to halt biodiversity loss, which requires a shift of mindsets.  

“Conservation efforts must extend beyond individual species to encompass entire ecosystems”, Ms. Sebesvari said.  

“Urgent and decisive action is needed to preserve the resilience of ecosystems and ensure the survival of our planet’s diverse web of life. Embracing nature as an integral part of our culture is essential to secure a sustainable future, recognizing that our fate is inevitably intertwined with the fate of the natural world.” 

• biodiversity

The Tasmanian tiger—known as a thylacine—is one of many exinct species at the center of the de-extinction debate.

Species Revival: Should We Bring Back Extinct Animals?

Scientists are debating whether to bring back vanished species.

On May 6, 1930, a Tasmanian farmer named Wilfred Batty grabbed a rifle and shot a thylacine—commonly known as a Tasmanian tiger—that was causing a commotion in his henhouse. The bullet hit the animal in the shoulder. Twenty minutes later, it was dead. A photograph taken soon afterward shows Batty kneeling beside the stiffened carcass, wearing a big floppy hat and a young man's proud grin.

You can't begrudge him some satisfaction in killing a threat to his livestock. What Batty did not know—could not know—is that he'd just made the last documented kill of a wild thylacine, anywhere, ever. In six years, the wonderfully odd striped-back creature —the largest marsupial carnivore known—would be extinct in captivity as well.

The thylacine is one of 795 extinct species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List , which since 1963 has been tracking the planet's biodiversity. The animals and plants on the list are organized into categories of increasing degrees of urgency, from "near threatened" through "critically endangered," until you reach the last "extinct" group, whereupon the urgency abruptly plummets to zero. An endangered species is like a very sick person: It needs help, desperately. An extinct species is like a dead person: beyond help, beyond hope. ( Endangered animal portraits: See pictures-and bleak numbers. )

Or at least it has been, until now. For the first time, our own species—the one that has done so much to condemn those other 795 to oblivion—may be poised to bring at least some of them back. ( Interactive map: Get a close look at 20 endangered species in the U.S. )

The Question of De-extinction

The gathering awareness that we have arrived at this threshold prompted a group of scientists and conservationists to meet at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., last year to discuss the viability of the science and the maturity of the ethical argument surrounding what has come to be known as de-extinction. Next week an expanded group will reconvene at National Geographic headquarters in a public TEDx conference .

For Hungry Minds

People were fantasizing about reviving extinct forms of life long before Hollywood embedded the idea into our collective consciousness with Jurassic Park . Can we really do it? And if we can, why should we?

The first question would seem to have a straightforward, if hardly simple, answer.   Scientific developments—principally advances in cloning technologies and new methods of not only reading DNA, but writing it—make it much easier to concoct a genetic approximation of an extinct species, so long as DNA can be retrieved from a preserved specimen. (Sorry, Jurassic Park fans, the dinosaurs lived too long ago for their DNA to survive until the present.)

Video: Recipe for Resurrection

When Is a Mammoth a Mammoth?

Where things get fuzzy from this "Can we do it?" perspective is in trying to pin down what it really means to revive a species. Is a genetically engineered passenger pigeon —the prime target of one high-tech de-extinction project —the same species as the bird that flocked by the billions in North America 150 years ago? Or is it a proxy passenger pigeon, alike in every respect, but not the real McCoy?

When does a mammoth born from an elephant qualify as the species Mammuthus primigenius ? When an individual survives for more than a few minutes of life? When it grows up and is introduced to another of its kind, and they make a baby mammoth, the old-fashioned way? Or can that budding captive herd truly be considered de-extinct only when it is reintroduced to its native habitat? And just what "native habitat" are we talking about here, since mammoths haven't been around to define it for 10,000 years? ( Pictures: The baby mammoth that unlocked clues to its species. )

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If we can decide when a species has been revived—for argument's sake, let's say it's when we can produce a healthy individual with more or less the same genome as the original species—we still have the weightier question of whether we should be doing this in the first place.

On the Revival of Species

Most arguments in favor of species revival fall into two basic camps: we should do it because we can do it. Why impede the progress of science, when the benefits that may accrue up the road are unknown? And we should do it because we have an obligation to do it, to right some of the enormous wrong we have done by driving these co-tenants of the Earth off the planet in the first place.

On the other side of the debate, some conservationists argue that we should not be bringing back extinct animals when 1) We don't yet have any clear notion of how to reintroduce them into natural ecosystems; and 2) There are plenty of living species that are critically endangered. Why waste resources trying to resurrect the dead when we can use them to save the sick?

De-extinction advocates have counterarguments for both those positions, as well as ripostes to the squishier criticism of species revival as a hubris-soaked attempt at "playing God." (National Geographic Daily News will publish a point-counterpoint on de-extinction from Stewart Brand, its most vocal advocate, and Duke University conservationist Stuart Pimm , a prominent critic, next week.)

Video: Should We Resurrect Extinct Species?

Do we really need a reason to revive a vanished species? In my own experience, whether fans of de-extinction begin their justification from a scientific rationale or a moral one, they usually end by saying something like "besides, it's just such a really cool idea." It's hard to put your finger on exactly why de-extinction is so inherently exciting a concept, irrespective of any tangible benefit it may—or may not—have.   Perhaps the excitement derives from the chance it affords to travel back in time and glimpse marvelous creatures from a world that no longer exists. Or maybe it's the thrill of cheating death, of reversing the ultimate irreversible.

Whatever the foundation for the excitement, I am willing to bet that when a young researcher poses for a photo for the first time standing beside a revived thylacine, he or she will be wearing an ear-to-ear grin that will put Wilfred Batty's to shame.

Where do you stand in the debate over species revival? Share your opinion in the comments.

Editor's note: National Geographic will host scientists and conservationists at the TEDxDeExtinction   conference on March 15 at its Washington headquarters, spearheaded by Stewart Brand and Ryan Phelan of the group Revive and Restore . The event will be streamed live on NationalGeographic.com . National Geographic will be reporting on the conference and related debate in coming weeks, including in a cover story in our April issue.

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How the Tree Lobster Escaped Extinction

The Lord Howe Island stick insect vanished from its home, but an effort at zoos in San Diego and Melbourne highlights the possibilities and challenges of conserving invertebrate animals.

Lord Howe Island stick insects, nicknamed tree lobsters because some grow to eight inches, in a cluster at the McKinney Family Invertebrate Propagation Center at the San Diego Zoo. Credit... John Francis Peters for The New York Times

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By Darren Incorvaia

Darren Incorvaia visited Lord Howe Island stick insects at the San Diego Zoo while reporting this article.

• Published May 28, 2024 Updated May 29, 2024

The feisty Lord Howe Island stick insect crawling on the gloved hand of Kyle Kassel, a keeper at the San Diego Zoo, had no idea that he shouldn’t exist. The intrepid insect, nicknamed a tree lobster because some grow to eight inches, seemed determined to prevent me from snapping a good picture as he raced about Mr. Kassel’s hands like a dog with the zoomies.

This rambunctious stick bug has also been called “the world’s rarest invertebrate” after it was driven nearly to extinction. But here he was in the zoo’s McKinney Family Invertebrate Propagation Center, undeniable evidence that an international effort, led by the Melbourne Zoo in Australia, may manage to bring the Lord Howe Islander back from the brink.

Insects receive far less conservation attention than their charismatic vertebrate cousins, like tigers and pandas. But they and other invertebrates are the spineless backbones of ecosystems, playing critical roles as pollinators, predators, prey and decomposers.

Conservation breeding, including efforts to raise insects like the Lord Howes in captivity at big zoos like San Diego and Melbourne, could allow humanity to save declining populations and restore the vital functions these animals fulfill.

But doing so requires that the animals have a livable habitat to return to — and that the humans living there want them back in the first place.

The Lord Howe Island stick insect is not as flashy as other members of the insect order Phasmatodea. Sporting a mostly brown color palette, these insects take the “stick” part of their name seriously. But what this phasmid lacks in gaudy wings or vibrant colors it makes up for with a simple, down-to-earth charm.

The island it was named after sits about 370 miles east of mainland Australia and was discovered in 1788 by a British naval officer, Henry Lidgbird Ball. Human settlement followed in 1834. In 1918, a trading ship accidentally released stowaway rats, and things quickly went downhill for the island’s native life. By as early as 1921, the rats wiped out the island’s stick insects.

Hope that the bugs were still alive began to swirl in 1964, after a rock climber discovered a recently dead one on Ball’s Pyramid, a volcanic spit of land that juts aggressively out of the ocean about 14 miles southeast of Lord Howe Island.

“It’s quite a stark landscape,” said Kate Pearce, life sciences manager for invertebrates at the Melbourne Zoo. “There’s not a lot of soil on it.”

Subsequent efforts to find living stick insects on Ball’s Pyramid were unsuccessful until 2001, when a search party hiked up the pyramid at night and found two females in a small tea tree. The entire living population of tree lobsters, about 24 individuals at the time, was there clinging to life on the edge of the pyramid.

Australian researchers immediately planned a rescue mission. In 2003, the Lord Howe Island Board, in partnership with the government of New South Wales, sent scientists to collect pairs of stick insects from Ball’s Pyramid and ship them to experts who could breed them.

“They chose Melbourne Zoo because of our experience with invertebrates,” said Ms. Pearce, who has overseen the zoo’s stick insect program since 2011. The Melbourne team learned to care for their duo, named Adam and Eve, through high-stakes trial and error.

Ms. Pearce’s predecessor, Patrick Honan, stayed overnight with Adam and Eve to monitor their well-being. Eve was reluctant to lay eggs; eventually, Ms. Pearce said, “she did become quite unwell.”

Mr. Honan mixed a “magical elixir” of sugar, calcium and ground-up tea-tree leaves, and then carefully dripped the concoction into Eve’s mouth. After the keepers placed a sand tray into her enclosure, she happily laid eggs in it. Most stick insects drop eggs onto the ground while hanging from a branch; Lord Howe Island stick insects do this too, but for some reason, Eve preferred sand.

These early struggles paid off, as the Melbourne Zoo now maintains a population of around 500 Lord Howe Island stick insects. In 2017 it brought another female from Ball’s Pyramid (named Vanessa after the rock climber who found her) to diversify the captive gene pool.

The San Diego Zoo has had its own struggles. Melbourne sent it a batch of eggs in 2012, but around 20 percent hatched, and none of those hatchlings survived.

For the second attempt, in 2016, Paige Howorth, an invertebrate curator, went to pick up the eggs herself. “I was expecting Qantas to roll out the red carpet for me,” she joked. But that population of stick insects ultimately petered out too.

The third try, a shipment of 600 eggs in 2022, was the charm, leading to the zoo’s current count of at least 400 individuals.

At their home in San Diego, the Lord Howe Island stick insects live cushier lives than on Ball’s Pyramid. Their room’s climate mimics their native island, complete with a fan providing a constant gentle breeze. A team of 13 keepers, led by Ms. Howorth, tends to the far-flung phasmids, along with separately housed tarantulas, mantises, beetles, crickets and horseshoe crabs. The team’s mascot is a coconut crab named Kenny , who during my recent visit was busy molting under the soil of his enclosure.

The first major invertebrate conservation breeding program started in 1986. A coalition of zoos collaborated with the International Union for Conservation of Nature to save a group of more than 100 tree snail species.

Partulids , like many snails, help keep their environment clean by eating fungi and dead plants. The group is spread across Polynesia, with just about every island home to unique species that look and behave differently.

“They’ve been the subject of evolutionary research for over 100 years,” said Paul Pearce-Kelly, invertebrate curator at the Zoological Society of London and a leader of the partulid program. “The snail equivalent of Darwin’s finches.”

Their fame meant people were paying attention when their numbers started to decline because of an invasive predator called the rosy wolfsnail.

Efforts to release the gastropods back into their native habitat started in earnest in 2015, and have continued ever since; in April 2023, for example, the team released more than 5,000 snails on the French Polynesian islands of Tahiti and Mo’orea. More than 25,000 captive-bred partulid snails have been let loose across the Pacific islands into areas not yet invaded by the wolfsnail, with the hopes that they’ll survive long enough to breed and produce self-sustaining populations.

Rearing invertebrates is much cheaper than raising pandas or tigers, but it’s not a walk in the park. Despite decades of effort, some partulid snails still will not tolerate being raised in captivity. And keeping hundreds of animals means hundreds of hungry mouths to feed; the Melbourne Zoo grows “several thousand plants just for Lord Howe Island stick insects,” Ms. Pearce said.

Mr. Kassel, the San Diego Zoo keeper, called the phasmids “ravenous.” Large zoos in warm climates like Melbourne or San Diego can meet this demand for foliage, but many others cannot.

The captive environment itself can also present problems. Starting a population from a few individuals leads to inbreeding, which can lead to shorter life spans or difficulty reproducing. Disease can also spread rapidly in close quarters; from 2013 to 2015, Melbourne contended with two bacterial outbreaks that swept through the stick insects.

And when they are kept in confinement long enough, the fast-paced reproduction of many invertebrates enables them to literally evolve before our eyes. A 2021 study found that the Melbourne stick insects have evolved smaller eyes and fewer smell receptors over time, which the study’s authors warn could hurt their ability to survive in the wild.

Reintroducing invertebrates to the wild poses its own difficulties.

Cristina Venables lives on Lord Howe Island and leads the local government’s environment and world heritage team. In addition to caring for a captive colony of stick insects, she is preparing the island — and the islanders — for the potential return of the tree lobster to its landscape.

In 2019, the authorities executed a plan to rid the island of its invasive rats. They seem to have been successful: No live rats have been seen there since August 2021. But even though the animal responsible for the stick insect’s decline has been eradicated, “I won’t say that we are going to reintroduce the phasmids,” Ms. Venables said. “We need to consult and bring the community along with us.”

Though many of the island’s 445 inhabitants are fiercely proud of their home and its native wildlife, others are concerned about what life with the insects might be like.

“There’s nobody alive who has ever lived with phasmids anymore on the island,” Ms. Venables said. So stories about them noisily crawling on roofs or stripping trees of their leaves “can take on a life of their own.”

Ms. Venables’s focus is on educating the locals about the stick insects and the environmental benefits they provide, such as being a food source for native birds and leaving waste that helps fertilize the soil.

Although the captive population she manages is not on display, Ms. Venables plans to invite the community to visit their potential new neighbors and even help out with caring for them “so they can see what the phasmids are about.”

So what are the Lord Howe Island bugs about? I got a hint at the San Diego Zoo’s Spineless Marvels exhibit, where some of the stick insects are on display. There, I saw one of the rarest invertebrates on Earth proudly standing front and center, quiet and still, with a piece of poop stuck to his head.

An earlier version of this article misstated the year that a San Diego Zoo official picked up stick insect eggs in Melbourne. It was in 2016, not 2015.

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25 Animals Teetering on the Edge of Extinction

Posted: May 29, 2024 | Last updated: May 29, 2024

Amidst significant environmental changes and increasing human encroachment, many animal species are teetering on the brink of extinction. The urgency to preserve the planet’s biodiversity has never been greater, as each species contributes uniquely to the ecological balance that supports life on Earth. This series delves into the challenges faced by 25 critically endangered animals, spanning diverse habitats from vast oceans and dense rainforests to expansive savannahs and secluded islands. By highlighting their struggles and the ongoing conservation efforts, these stories aim to raise awareness and call for immediate action to prevent these species from disappearing from our world.

Yangtze Finless Porpoise

The Yangtze Finless Porpoise, solely found in China’s Yangtze River, is on the brink of extinction due to severe environmental degradation of its natural habitat. Factors such as industrial pollution, overfishing, and heavy river traffic have significantly reduced their numbers. These intelligent and playful creatures are now battling to survive in increasingly adverse conditions. Conservation efforts are focused on enhancing water quality, creating protected areas, and increasing public awareness to ensure the survival of the Yangtze Finless Porpoise.

Asian Elephant

Historically found throughout Southeast Asia, the Asian Elephant is now threatened primarily by habitat loss and fragmentation. As elephants are confined to smaller areas, conflicts with humans have escalated, resulting in crop damage and even fatalities. Additionally, poaching for ivory and other body parts continues to reduce their numbers. Conservation measures to protect the Asian Elephant include preserving their habitats, implementing strategies to mitigate human-elephant conflicts, and enforcing anti-poaching laws to secure their survival.

Philippine Eagle

The Philippine Eagle, renowned as one of the largest and most powerful birds of prey, faces a critical threat of extinction, with fewer than 400 pairs left in the wild. The population has significantly declined due to deforestation, hunting, and habitat destruction in the Philippines. This majestic bird, also called the monkey-eating eagle, needs extensive territories of untouched forest to thrive and reproduce. Conservation initiatives are centered on protecting forests, implementing breeding programs, and conducting educational campaigns to raise awareness about the eagle’s dire situation.

Sumatran Orangutan

The Sumatran Orangutan, native to the tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, is critically endangered due to rapid deforestation and habitat fragmentation. Illegal logging, palm oil plantations, and human encroachment have dramatically reduced their habitat, leaving less than 14,000 individuals in the wild. These intelligent primates are also at risk from poaching and the illegal pet trade. Conservation efforts include habitat restoration, anti-poaching patrols, and legal action against habitat destruction to protect these iconic apes.

Sumatran Rhino

The Sumatran Rhino, the smallest member of the rhinoceros family, faces critical endangerment due to poaching and habitat destruction. This species inhabits isolated regions of dense mountain forests in Indonesia and Malaysia, with fewer than 80 individuals estimated to survive. Although international trade bans are in place, the demand for their horn in traditional medicine markets continues to pose a significant threat. Conservation efforts focus on breeding programs and the establishment of protected areas within their natural habitat to facilitate their survival.

Hawksbill Turtle

The Hawksbill Turtle, widely recognized for its striking and distinctive shell, is critically endangered mainly due to the illegal wildlife trade. These turtles are hunted for their shells, which are highly sought after in the market for creating jewelry and ornaments. In addition to this, they are adversely affected by the loss of their nesting and feeding habitats resulting from coastal development and climate change. Conservation efforts include measures such as protecting nesting beaches, regulating trade practices, and raising awareness about the challenges these turtles face.

Western Lowland Gorilla

The Western Lowland Gorilla, native to the dense rainforests of Central Africa, faces severe threats from habitat destruction, poaching, and diseases such as Ebola. These challenges have led to a rapid decline in their population, resulting in their classification as critically endangered. Conservation efforts focus on protecting their habitats, enforcing anti-poaching laws, and monitoring health to prevent disease outbreaks. Involving local communities in these conservation efforts is essential for the long-term survival of the gorillas.

Ploughshare Tortoise

The Ploughshare Tortoise, originating from Madagascar, faces critical endangerment due to illegal pet trade and habitat destruction. Renowned for its unique high-domed shell, this tortoise has become highly coveted by collectors, significantly reducing its population to perilous levels. Conservation initiatives are dedicated to safeguarding their natural habitat, implementing breeding programs in captivity, and enforcing stringent international trade laws. Promoting global awareness about their endangered status is crucial to diminishing demand and preventing their extinction.

California Condor

In the 1980s, the California Condor was on the brink of extinction, with only 22 individuals remaining in the wild. Intensive conservation efforts, including captive breeding and release programs, have helped to gradually increase their numbers. Despite these efforts, the species continues to face significant threats such as lead poisoning, ingestion of microtrash, and habitat destruction. Ongoing conservation initiatives focus on mitigating these threats to secure the survival of the California Condor in its natural habitat.

With fewer than 20 individuals remaining, the Vaquita—the world’s smallest marine mammal—is critically endangered and found only in Mexico’s Gulf of California. Illegal gillnet fishing, particularly for the totoaba fish, is the primary threat to their survival, as vaquitas get caught and drown in these nets. Conservation efforts are focused on removing gillnets, enforcing stricter fishing regulations, and developing alternative fishing methods to prevent bycatch. The urgent need for coordinated international conservation efforts to prevent the extinction of the vaquita is highlighted by their dire situation.

Sumatran Elephant

The Sumatran Elephant, a subspecies of the Asian Elephant, is critically endangered due to habitat loss and fragmentation, primarily driven by agricultural expansion and palm oil plantations in Indonesia. The resulting proximity to human settlements has increased human-elephant conflicts, which often result in fatalities for both humans and elephants. Additionally, poaching for ivory and body parts contributes significantly to their decline. Conservation efforts focus on establishing wildlife corridors, reducing human-elephant conflicts, and enhancing law enforcement to tackle poaching issues.

Malayan Tiger

The Malayan Tiger, native to the Malay Peninsula, is critically endangered with an estimated population of only 250 to 340 individuals remaining. This majestic cat is threatened by habitat loss from deforestation and fragmentation, poaching for its body parts, and conflicts with humans. Conservation efforts are concentrated on anti-poaching patrols, projects to enhance habitat connectivity, and community-based strategies to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts. The survival of the Malayan Tiger is vital for preserving the ecological balance and biodiversity within Malaysia’s forests.

Cross River Gorilla

The Cross River Gorilla, known as the world’s rarest great ape, inhabits the rainforests on the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. With an estimated population of only 200-300 individuals, these gorillas live in small, isolated groups that are particularly susceptible to hunting and habitat destruction. Their living space is greatly reduced due to deforestation for timber and the conversion of land for agricultural purposes. Ongoing conservation efforts aim to protect their habitats, raise conservation awareness among local communities, and enforce anti-poaching regulations.

The Gharial, a distinctive crocodile indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, faces a critical threat of extinction, with fewer than 200 breeding adults left. Major threats include habitat destruction due to river damming and sand mining, as well as the reduction of their primary food source, fish stocks. Conservation strategies are being implemented, focusing on habitat restoration, safeguarding nesting sites, and engaging local communities to mitigate fishing pressures. The gharial’s survival hinges on preserving its riverine habitat and the surrounding biodiversity.

Chinese Pangolin

Once commonly found across China, Taiwan, and parts of Southeast Asia, the Chinese Pangolin is now critically endangered mainly due to overexploitation. These creatures are hunted for their scales, which are highly valued in traditional medicine, and their meat is considered a delicacy. Due to their secretive and nocturnal habits, estimating their population is difficult, but it is evident that their numbers are declining rapidly. Immediate conservation efforts are necessary to fight poaching and illegal trade, as well as to protect their habitats to ensure their continued existence.

Javan Rhino

The Javan Rhino is among the rarest rhino species globally, with its population restricted to Ujung Kulon National Park in Indonesia. With a mere 72 individuals remaining, they are under continuous threat from poaching and habitat destruction. Their existence is additionally at risk due to the potential for disease outbreaks and volcanic activities that could devastate their small population. Conservation efforts are concentrated on protecting their habitat and expanding their living areas to secure their survival.

Saving the Tooth-billed Pigeon: A Battle Against Extinction

The Tooth-billed Pigeon, often called the ‘little dodo,’ is facing a critical risk of extinction, primarily due to habitat destruction in Samoa. This bird, closely related to the now-extinct dodo, is suffering the consequences of deforestation for agricultural expansion and cyclones that devastate its forest environment. Conservation efforts aimed at rescuing the Tooth-billed Pigeon include habitat preservation, reforestation initiatives, and predator management. The survival of this species is vital for maintaining the ecological balance and biodiversity within Samoan forests.

Siberian Crane

The Siberian Crane, a magnificent white bird, undertakes one of the longest migration journeys among bird species, spanning from Siberia to China and Iran. Their existence is threatened by the deterioration of habitats along their migration route, particularly the loss of essential wetland areas needed for rest and nourishment. With their global numbers declining, they are among the most critically endangered crane species. Conservation efforts are directed at preserving their migratory and breeding habitats, as well as fostering international collaboration to protect their migration paths.

The Kakapo is a nocturnal, flightless parrot native to New Zealand that faces a critically low population due to predation by introduced species like cats and rats. Conservation efforts, including intensive management and predator-free island sanctuaries, have marginally increased their numbers. Known for its distinct deep booming calls during the breeding season, this unique bird remains under constant threat. Ongoing conservation measures are vital for the kakapo’s survival, focusing on protecting and growing their small population.

The Axolotl, an extraordinary salamander indigenous to the lake complex of Xochimilco near Mexico City, is renowned for its extraordinary limb regeneration capabilities. Due to urbanization and pollution, its population has plummeted, rendering it critically endangered. Conservation efforts encompass habitat restoration, pollution mitigation, and captive breeding initiatives aimed at reintroducing axolotls into their natural habitat. Ensuring their survival is vital for both biodiversity and scientific research, given their unparalleled regenerative properties.

Amur Leopard

The Amur Leopard inhabits the temperate forests of the Russian Far East and China and is critically endangered with fewer than 100 individuals remaining in the wild. This solitary, nocturnal predator confronts significant threats, including habitat loss, depletion of prey, and poaching for its striking spotted fur. Essential for their survival are conservation programs that encompass habitat restoration and anti-poaching initiatives. The creation of a protected area known as the Land of the Leopard National Park in Russia brings hope for the future of these exceptionally rare leopards.

Sumatran Tiger

The Sumatran Tiger is the smallest of the tiger subspecies and is found exclusively on Indonesia’s Sumatra island. Fewer than 400 individuals are believed to remain in the wild. Major threats to their survival include habitat destruction from logging, agricultural expansion, and palm oil plantations, as well as poaching for their fur and body parts. Conservation efforts such as anti-poaching patrols, habitat protection, and reducing human-tiger conflicts are in place. The future of the Sumatran Tiger hinges on strong enforcement of wildlife protection laws and sustainable land management practices.

The Saola, often referred to as the Asian Unicorn, is one of the world’s most elusive large mammals. It was discovered in 1992 in the Annamite Range of Vietnam and Laos. This rarely seen creature is under threat from hunting and habitat destruction due to logging and infrastructure development. With no exact population count available, it is believed that the saola is critically endangered, with possibly only a few dozen individuals remaining. Conservation efforts are focused on habitat protection and anti-poaching patrols to ensure the survival of this mysterious species.

Forest Owlet

The Forest Owlet, rediscovered in 1997 after being presumed extinct, is critically endangered, with its population limited to central India. Key threats to its survival include habitat loss due to logging and agriculture, as well as hunting. This small, stocky raptor is notable for its bold, streaked plumage and aggressive hunting techniques. Conservation efforts focus on protecting its habitat, conducting research, and engaging local communities to secure the Forest Owlet’s future.

Northern White Rhino

The Northern White Rhino is on the edge of extinction, with just two females left in the world, both monitored round the clock in Kenya. As the final members of their subspecies, they are deemed functionally extinct, as natural reproduction is no longer an option. Researchers are investigating innovative measures, such as sophisticated reproductive methods using saved genetic material, to rescue this subspecies. The situation of the Northern White Rhino serves as a stark reminder of the impacts of poaching and habitat destruction.

As we explore the narratives of these 25 critically endangered species, it becomes clear that the future of the planet’s biodiversity is precariously poised. The extinction of even a single species disrupts our ecosystem’s integrity, highlighting the intrinsic connection of all life forms and the necessity for unified conservation efforts. These survival stories underscore our duty to the natural world—a prompt for humanity to adopt sustainable practices, champion conservation projects, and cultivate a profound respect for the diverse life forms sharing our planet. Immediate action is imperative to guarantee that future generations inherit a biodiverse world, where every species has a fighting chance at survival.

For the Latest Travel News, Headlines & Videos, head to Bon Voyaged

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