Endangerment is a broad issue, one that specically revolves around animals and plants. An endangered species is a species of animals and/or plants that is at risk of being extinct. More than 99 percent of total species exceeding over ?ve billion species that have been discovered on Earth are estimated to be extinct (Gaston, Kevin J, and William E Kunin).
The major questions are why is this happening and how to solve them. This essay will talk about the causes of animal endangerment and some solutions that can prevent the situation from becoming worse. The most important reason that poses as the greatest threat to the endanger-ment and extinction of species is human involvement. A demonstration of human activ-ities would be poaching.
Poaching usually occurs when an animal posses something of value. An example of poaching would be the killing of South African Rhinos. South Africa has by far the largest population of rhinos in the world and is an incredibly im-portant country for rhino conservation. From 2007-2014 the country experienced an exponential rise in rhino poaching – a growth of over 9,000% (“Poaching Numbers Conservation Save the Rhino International”). Rhinos are hunted down all over the world for their horns.
Rhino’s horn are very valuable because they are helpful for medi-cinal purposes and are considered trophies. South African Rhino Horn are made of keratin – in rhinoceros horn, it is chemically complex and contains large quantities of Luckett 2sulphur-containing amino acids, particularly cysteine, as well as tyrosine, histidine, ly-sine, and arginine, and the salts calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate ( “Poaching Rhino Threats Save the Rhino International”).
Because of this, poachers are supplied with sophisticated equipment and weaponry ( such as tranquilizer guns ) to hunt and kill these rhinos. When the rhino is caught, poachers hack o? their horns and leave them as treats to other predators while the rhinos die a painfully death. Secondly, climate change has e?ected how animals and plants live. Therefore, making the population rate decrease drastically.
Climate change is the change in the distribution of average weather patterns, which can last for an extended period of time, like millions of years. Changes in temperature in the air or even in the ocean can e?ect how animals and plants are living. Every specie lives in an area that is suited to their living routine and standards. For example, polar bears can not live in hot climate be-cause their body and fur is made speci?cally for colder atmospheres to warm them in the winter.
If polar bear’s habitat happens to become warm, they could be at risk of dy-ing. According to Nikhil Advani, member of WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), “Hot-ter days, longer periods of drought, and more intense storms are becoming the new normal, and species around the world are already feeling the e?ects.” However, Advani believes that this situation is very important and should be taken seriously, “While we work to ratchet down emissions, it is critical we also improve our understanding of species’ response to climate change and develop strategies to help them adapt.” (“Half of Plant and Animal Species at Risk from Climate Change in World’s Most Important Natural Places.”)
Even though, there has been evidence of causes of the endangerment of species, others oppose to these factors and believe that humans and climate changes had nothing to do with the increase of animal extinction. Researchers believe that this is the act of natural occurrences. Many researchers prove this with the theory of the extinction of dinosaurs. The common belief of the extinction of dinosaurs was because of the arrival of a meteorite (The Alvarez Hypothesis) that killed everything in an instinct. The dust that researchers found was called the iridium layer which had similar charac-teristics as the asteroids.
No crater was found by the Alvarez team but since they only found iridium dust, the team blamed the asteroid for the extinction of dinosaurs ( What Killed The Dinosaurs?” The Great Mystery: Current Arguments) . However, according to paleontologist, the most supported cause of the extinction of dinosaurs are because of plate tectonics, which disturbed the surface of the land and marine life in the ocean ( What Killed The Dinosaurs?” The Great Mystery: Current Arguments).
This evidence proves the endangerment of species began before humans ever existed on Earth; this is just nature running its course like nature has done millennials ago. In the face of these issues, scientists and researchers came up with unique and creative ideas, from making use of new technologies to advising researchers on how best to present their results.
To elaborate, scientist insisted on using trackers to know the location of animals in the protective sanctuaries (parks included) and exclusive meetings to prevent any information from leaking about the whereabouts of other en-dangered animals that are being protected from poachers. Trackers and secluded meetings are excellent idea. However, trackers will only the tell the location of the ani-mal and if a group of poachers come in contact with one of the animals, the tracker will Luckett 4not tell the condition that the animal is in; more importantly, whether the animal is alive or not. Also, excluded meetings aren’t always the best.
There could be volunteers that would like to help, monitor, and protect endangered animals but the volunteers will not to be able to do so if they don’t have the information that they need in order to do their job. There is a solution to this issue that involves both tracking and the use of modern technology: Drones. Drones would be the best option because they come in all sizes and can give researchers optical and thermal feedback. Drones can also locate animals and show what is really happening while letting scientist observe and study the daily routines of endangered animals at a close distance with any disturbance. If researchers turn to use drones, poachers would be easier to ?nd and it wouldn’t put the lives of re-searchers and animal at risk.
In conclusion, many endangered species are continuously being extinct every year because of the involvement of human activities and climate changes. If this issue isn’t solved expeditiously and urgently, the animal population would decrease even more drastically and sooner than the world knows before its time. Hopefully, with in-creasing awareness and support from citizens in every country, endangered species just might have a chance to recover and start afresh once more.
Works Cited
- Gaston, Kevin J, and William E Kunin. The Biology Of Rarity. London, Chapman And Hall, 1997.
- “Poaching Numbers Conservation Save the Rhino International.” Save The Rhino , www.savetherhino.org/rhino-info/poaching-stats/
- “Poaching Rhino Threats Save the Rhino International.” Save The Rhino , www.savetherhino.org/rhino-info/threats/poaching-rhino-horn/
- “Half of Plant and Animal Species at Risk from Climate Change in World’s Most Impor-tant Natural Places.” WWF , World Wildlife Fund, 14 Mar. 2018, www.worldwildlife.org/ press-releases/half-of-plant-and-animal-species-at-risk-from-climate-change-in-world-s-most-important-natural-places
- “What Killed The Dinosaurs?” The Great Mystery: Current Arguments , www.ucm -p.berkeley.edu/diapsids/extinctheory.html
- Daley, Jim. “Needles in Haystacks: From the Di?culty of Tracking Rare Populations to the Danger of Poachers Exploiting Distribution Data, the Complications of Studying Endangered Species Require Creative Solutions from Researchers.” Scientist , vol. 32, no. 7/8, July 2018, p. 51.
