Endangered Animals
18
Published 2018-05-21
Animals we know and love are becoming endangered, and there is a variety of reasons why. One reason animals can become endangered is because of habitat destruction. Animals habitats being destroyed can be a crucial reason that they face the threat of being put on the endangered species list, “Eighty percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes” (nationalgeographic). The destruction of a species’ habitat, such as deforestation, plays a big part of the fate of the animal because animals take a significantly longer time to adapt to a new environment than humans. Homes of animals being destroyed is not the only reason that animals become endangered. Poachers (people who illegally hunt animals) are another influence on the species they should not be huntings place on our planet, “...population fell from about 1.2 million to about 625,000, largely because of poachers…” (http://school.eb.xana.orc.scoolaid.net/). While hunting these innocent animals is illegal, being the cause of their endangerment or extinction is worse. Sadly, poachers are not the only way animals can face joining the endangered species list. Finally, the food chain is a common way for animals to face endangerment and/or extinction. This is because if all of a certain species’ food vanishes, it will end up starving, “Coextinction is a common phenomenon in which a species goes extinct because of the disappearance of another species” (http://find.galegroup.com/menu/start?userGroupName=nysl_li_howittms∏=MSIC). When an animal loses its prey, it causes a “snowball effect,” meaning once one species becomes extinct, its predator faces the same problem. This chain like reaction keeps occurring and wiping out animals. As you can tell, there are many ways an animal can become endangered and/or extinct… the question is, can we prevent it?