WHAT CAN BE DONE

 Animals are going extinct—but it’s not too late

Around the world, animals are facing extinction. For some, there may be time for us to change their fate.

Research shows that animal agriculture is a major threat to many species facing extinction, from habitat loss to deforestation and more. Climate change, putting countless animals and ecosystems at risk, is also driven in part by animal agriculture, which causes an estimated 14.5 to 51 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN reports that around 44 percent of livestock emissions are in the form of methane gas, and 27 percent in the form of carbon dioxide. So, with animal agriculture taking such a heavy toll in the climate crisis, is taking steps to reduce its carbon footprint enough?

Many experts and environmental advocates say that dietary change is also needed, and individuals who are able to can take action by reducing or eliminating our consumption of meat. This is especially needed in the U.S., where meat consumption is growing at an alarming rate and around 99 percent of farmed animals are raised on industrial factory farms.  

One step you can take today is to calculate your carbon footprint using this tool from the Nature Conservancy, then work to reduce it. 

Dr. Jane Goodall has said, “With language, we can ask, as can no other living being, those questions about who we are, and why we are here. And this highly developed intellect means, surely, that we have a responsibility toward the other life forms of our planet whose continued existence is threatened by the thoughtless behavior of our own human species.” 

Just as we have the power to threaten other species, we have the power—and the responsibility—to save them.

Here are some other ways which we can help:

•  Be sure that fish and other food you buy don’t come from overharvested areas.
• Before you buy wood, make sure it comes from a “sustainable forest,” a forest where trees are replanted.
• Don’t let your pets hunt wild animals.
• Don’t use many plastic bags when they’re not necessary.
• Help reduce traffic and exhaust: Support bike-friendly cities and roads. Use public transportation when you can.
•  Don’t buy wood or wood products from threatened native forests like Pacific maple, California redwood, mahogany, ebony, or teak.
• Don’t release pets—including aquarium fish, turtles, and birds—into the wild.
• Always make sure you throw away your garbage in a trash can and avoid releasing balloons into the air.
• Save energy: Use energy efficient light bulbs and appliances. Turn off power when it’s not in use.
• Buy recycled or salvaged wood whenever possible.
• Don’t travel with wild plants and animals.
• Buy Eco-friendly products
• Follow the 3 Rule - Reuse, Reduce, Recycle
• Don't buy souvenirs made from endangered (or any wildlife) species 
• Eat less meat
• Spread Awareness : Get involved 

We have the power to stop animal extinction, and we must act now. Everyone can make a change, small may it be, to protect not only the animals, but the whole environment (including ourselves).

“The sixth mass extinction we are going through could be the most serious environmental threat to the survival of our civilization since it is irreversible”

By killing them, we are actually killing ourselves.

ENDENGERED ANIMALS - Part 2

 There are numerous species currently in danger of extinction. Most of them are caused directly or indirectly by man: climate change, destruction of their habitat, illegal hunting, etc.

Here are some of the species in risk of extinction: 

1. Amur Leopard 

2. Black Rhino - Javan Rhino - Sumatran Rhino

3. Bornean Orangutan - Sumatran Orangutan

4. Cross River Gorilla - Eastern & Western Lowland Gorilla 

5. Hawksbill Turtle - Leatherback Sea Turtle - Red Crowned Roofed Turtle

6. Sumatran Elephant 

7. Sunda Tiger - Malayan Tiger 

8. Saola 

9. North Atlantic Right Whale 

10. Tooth-billed Pigeon

11. Gharial ( fish eating crocodile from India) 

12. Kakapo ( ground-dwelling parrots from New Zealand )

13. Vaquita 

14. Vancouver Island Marmot

15. Giant Panda 

16. Yangtze Finless Porpoise 

17. Scimitar Oryx 

18. Southern Rockhopper Penguin 

19. Salt Creek Tiger Beetle

20. Western Chimpanzee

ENDENGERED ANIMALS - Part 1

 There are numerous species currently in danger of extinction. Most of them are caused directly or indirectly by man: climate change, destruction of their habitat, illegal hunting, etc.

The Holocene Extinction, or the Sixth Extinction, has already cost the world thousands of beloved species due to human activity. Although this event has been ongoing for the past 10,000 years or so—since the last Ice Age, to be exact—the mass extinction has been accelerating at a dizzying pace. 

Most of the threats facing endangered animals are caused by humans. In 2020, researchers sounded the alarm for more than 500 species of vertebrates “on the brink of extinction” within the next 20 years. This extinction crisis is being driven first and foremost by human activity.

Poaching, wildlife trafficking, and hunting all put animals at risk, but there is an even more daunting threat to endangered species that is being ignored: animal agriculture. Deforestation, habitat loss, overfishing, global warming, and other issues linked to animal farming are putting wild species in danger of collapse.

As industrial animal farming continues to encroach on the natural world, more and more species are being put in harm’s way. 

Here are some of the incredible creatures we've driven to extinction in the last century and a half, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates.

1. West African Black Rhinoceros 

The last West African Black Rhino was seen in Cameroon in 2006. It was declared officially extinct in 2011. 

2. Baiji White Dolphin

3. Pyrenian Ibex 

One of four subspecies of the Spanish Ibex or Iberian Goat that was found in the Iberian Peninsula. The last Pyrenean Ibex was killed by a falling tree in northern Spain in 2000. 

4. Passenger Pigeon 

By the 19th century pigeon meat was commercialized as a cheap food for the poor, which resulted in hunting on a massive scale. The Passenger Pigeon died out in the wild by around 1900, with the last known individual dying in captivity in 1914.

5. Tasmanian Tiger 

Native to Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea, the Tasmanian Tiger was a large carnivorous marsupial.  The last wild Tasmanian Tiger was killed between 1910 and 1920, with the last captive one dying in Hobart Zoo, Tasmania in 1936. 

6. Stellers Sea Cow

Within 27 years of discovery by Europeans, Steller’s Sea Cow was hunted to extinction. 

7. Great Auk 

A large and flightless bird found in the North Atlantic and as far south as Northern Spain. The last of these birds was killed by three men who caught it on St Kilda, Scotland in 1844. When a large storm surged, they believed that the auk was a witch and was causing the storm, so they killed it.

8. Dodo 

 The bird was hunted to extinction by sailors and their domesticated animals, and invasive species. The last widely accepted sighting of a Dodo was in 1662.

9. Woolly Mammoth 

The Woolly Mammoth eventually disappeared 10,000 years ago through a combination of hunting by humans and the disappearance of its habitat through climate change. The last of the isolated woolly mammoth populations is believed to have vanished from Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean around 1700BC.

10. Sabre-Toothed Cat

11. Bramble Cay Melomys

These little guys were officially declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2015. Native to Bramble Cay, a small island near the northern side of the Great Barrier Reef, it's reported that the rodents haven't been spotted since way back in 2009. 

12. Spix Macaw 

The Spix Macaw went extinct in the wild due to habitat destruction, illegal trapping and trade.

13. Quagga

The Quagga was native to South Africa and went extinct in the late 19th century. For a long time, the quagga was thought to be its own species before it was discovered that it was closely related to the Plains Zebra and was, in fact, a subspecies of the zebra.

Humans hunted the quagga to extinction.

14. The Golden Toad 

The small toad was last seen in 1989 in a Costa Rican rainforest before being declared extinct in 1994. 

15. Zanzibar Leopard

The leopard went extinct thanks to the belief that these animals were kept by witches; for this reason, locals aggressively hunted them.

16. Po'ouli (Native Hawai Bird ) 

17. Madeiran Large White 

The stunning Madeiran Large White butterfly was found in the valleys of the Laurisilva forests on Portugal's Madeira Islands. 

18. Tecopa Pupfish 

The Tecopa pupfish, a native of the hot springs of the Mojave Desert, has the distinction of being the first animal declared extinct under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The pupfish's decline was precipitated when its natural habitat was encroached upon by developers.

19. Falkland Islands Wolf 

The Falkland Islands wolf went extinct in the late 1800s and was also known as the Antarctic wolf and the Falkland Islands fox.

20. Javan Tiger 

21. Round Island Burrowing Boa

the introduction of non-native species of rabbits and goats to the island destroyed vegetation and upset the boa's habitat, leading to its eventual extinction.

22. Pinta Island Tortoise 

23. Dutch Alcon Blue Butterfly 

In our next chapter we shall take a look at the species in risk of extinction. 

HUMAN INDUCED CAUSES OF EXTINCTION

Current rates of human-induced extinctions are estimated to be about 1,000 times greater than past natural (background) rates of extinction, leading some scientists to call modern times the sixth mass extinction.

 This high extinction rate is largely due to the exponential growth in human numbers: growing from about 1 billion in 1850, the world’s population reached 2 billion in 1930 and more than 7.8 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach about 10 billion by 2050. As a result of increasing human populations, habitat loss is the greatest factor in current levels of extinction. 

Here we take a look at some of the human-induced causes of extinction: 

1. Over harvesting 

Humans use thousands of the world’s species in their daily lives for food, shelter, and medicine. But these natural resources are limited. People can take only so many fish from the sea or cut down so many acres of forests without permanently damaging ecosystems and threatening species. For many species, this “overharvesting” may mean total extinction.

2. Habitat Loss 

When people cut down forests, build cities, or make roads, they destroy habitats–the places where plants, animals, and other organisms live.

3. Pollution 

Acid rain destroys forests. Oil spills kill coastal plants and animals. Poisons wash into waterways. Plastic trash entangles wildlife. It’s easy to see how pollution is a big problem for biodiversity.

Thank you Ted Decker from our Facebook Family for your input: 

"The mere fact that today we are surrounded by all animals, prove they have survived climate change for 4 million years. I don't think we have to worry. The problem is that man's garbage is contributing to the escalation of the process, not causing it." 

REFERENCE: 

John L. Gittleman

Dean of the graduate faculty at the University of Georgia's Odum School of Ecology. Editor of Carnivore Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution; co-editor of Carnivore Conservation.

REASONS / CAUSES OF EXTINCTION

 In this chapter we shall brush through some of the causes or reasons of extinction. In our next chapter however, we shall look at the human induced causes in depth. 

1. Habitat Loss 

The most common cause of endangerment is habitat loss. Plants and animals need space to live and energy provided by food, just as humans do. As human population and consumption increase, wildlife habitat is converted to houses and highways. Forests are cut down for building materials, fuel, and paper.

Even if habitat is not completely destroyed, it can be fragmented or degraded so much that it can no longer support the species it once did.

Many species, particularly large mammals, need large areas of habitat to survive and reproduce. Patches of forest or grassland surrounded by farms or cities, or divided by roads, will not support these species. 

2. Changes in the Atmosphere 

We know little about how changes in our atmosphere, such as global warming or ozone depletion, is affecting other life forms. However it is becoming more apparent every day that climate change is, and will have a significant impact on the planets species.

3. Diseases 

Disease and insect infestations, which are natural and nonthreatening phenomena in many ecosystems, can deal a death blow to populations weakened or depleted by other pressures.

4. Climatic Heating and Cooling

Climate Change is caused by a number of things. The effect that climate has on extinction is very big. The biodiverse Earth can't keep up with the rapid changes in temperature and climate. The species are not used to severe weather conditions and long seasons, or a changing chemical make-up of their surroundings. As more species die, it is only making it more difficult for the survivors to find food. The warmer climates we are used to present-day are perfect for diseases and epidemics to thrive.

5. Changes in the Sea levels of Currents 

The changes in sea levels and currents is a result, in part, of the melting freshwater. The denser, saltier water sinks and forms the currents that marine life depends on. Ocean floor spreading and rising also affects sea level. A small rise in the ocean floor can displace a lot of water onto land that is all ready occupied. The gases from the volcanic activity can also be absorbed by the water, thus changing the chemical composition, making it unsuitable for some life.

6. Asteroids/ Cosmic Radiation 

Asteroids hit the earth with extreme force. The reverberations can be felt around the world. The impact site is completely destroyed.

Cosmic Radiation is radiation being emitted from outer space and the Sun. It is hypothesized that being exposed to too much cosmic radiation can mutate genes, which can potentially weaken a species' genepool in the future. Since the radiation comes from space and the Sun, it is extremely difficult to avoid the radiation. Supernova remnants is one source of cosmic radiation.

7. Acid Rain 

Acid rain forms when sulfur dioxide and/or nitrogen oxides are put out into the atmosphere. The chemicals get absorbed by water droplets in the clouds, and eventually fall to the earth as acid precipitation. Acid rain increases the acidity of the soil which affects plant life. It can also disturb rivers and lakes to a possibly lethal level.

RANKS OF EXTINCTION

 Since we have now defined what extinction is, in this chapter we shall look briefly into the ranks of extinction. 

Rates of extinction vary widely. 

During the last 100,000 years of the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago), some 40 percent of the existing genera of large mammals in Africa and more than 70 percent in North America, South America, and Australia went extinct. 

Ecologists estimate that the present-day extinction rate is 1,000 to 10,000 times the background extinction rate (between one and five species per year) because of deforestation, habitat loss, overhunting, pollution, climate change, and other human activities—the sum total of which will likely result in the loss of between 30 and 50 percent of extant species by the middle of the 21st century.

Although extinction is an ongoing feature of Earth’s flora and fauna (the vast majority of species ever to have lived are extinct), the fossil record reveals five unusually large extinctions, each involving the demise of vast numbers of species. These conspicuous declines in diversity are referred to as mass extinctions; they are distinguished from the majority of extinctions, which occur continually and are referred to as background extinction. 

Ranked in descending order of severity, they are: 

1. Permian extinction (about 265.1 million to about 251.9 million years ago), the most dramatic die-off, eliminating about half of all families, some 95 percent of marine species (nearly wiping out brachiopods and corals), and about 70 percent of land species (including plants, insects, and vertebrates).
2. Ordovician-Silurian extinction (about 443.8 million years ago), which included about 25 percent of marine families and 85 percent of marine species, with brachiopods, conodonts, bryozoans, and trilobites suffering greatly.
3. Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T), or Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg), extinction (about 66.0 million years ago), involving about 80 percent of all animal species, including the dinosaurs and many species of plants. Although many scientists contend that this event was caused by one or more large comets or asteroids striking Earth, others maintain that it was caused by climatic changes associated with the substantial volcanic activity of the time.
4. End-Triassic extinction (about 201.3 million years ago), possibly caused by rapid climate change or by an asteroid striking Earth. This mass extinction event caused about 20 percent of marine families and some 76 percent of all extant species to die out, possibly within a span of about 10,000 years, thus opening up numerous ecological niches into which the dinosaurs evolved.
5. Devonian extinctions (407.6 million to about 358.9 million years ago), which included 15–20 percent of marine families and 70–80 percent of all animal species. Roughly 86 percent of marine brachiopod species perished, along with many corals, conodonts, and trilobites.

https://www.the-sol-foundation.org/

REFERENCES:

John L. Gittleman

Dean of the graduate faculty at the University of Georgia's Odum School of Ecology. Editor of Carnivore Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution; co-editor of Carnivore Conservation.