Endangered Animals

There are around 41,000 endangered species, and around 16,000 of them are on the edge of
extinction. There are many reasons for animals to go endangered, such as habitat loss, pollution,
disease, predation, illegal killing, and poaching. Habitat loss happens by a mixture of things
logging, agriculture, the building of roads and cities, and forest fires. Habitat loss affects Chinas
giant panda because of the expanding buildings in China. Pollution is affecting fish in lakes and
streams because of acid rain. Acid rains kill fish in lakes and streams by increasing the acidity of
water (Haluzan 2012). Poaching is killing rhinoceros by people killing them for their horns, to use
as a dagger handle, or to be put in medicine. There are more animals being affected by these
conditions, and these arent the only conditions animals on the endangered list are facing.
Like global warming, some people believe that its killing animals and some believe it doesnt
exist. A lot of people dont realize how many animals are endangered, and people are the biggest
cause of this. People are harming animals and making them endangered because of factories,
cars, trucks, planes, and other things that put chemicals into the air that cause acid rain and
other pollutions. Oil spills, boats, yachts, cargo ships, and things like that are affecting our ocean
life, making some of the fish and animals that live in the water endangered as well. People are
one of the main affects to endangered animals. There are multiple organizations that help
support endangered animals and making people realize how bad we are destroying wildlife.
WWF is a major organization that helps with this issue. They have pages on their website that
show you the threats that are killing animals. WWF also raises money to put towards helping
animals. They raise money a lot of different ways, but their most popular way is symbolically
adopting an animal.
Another organization is Nature Conservancy, which was founded in 1952. They help endangered
animals by actually going out and going to the actual place where the problem is. The Nature
Conservancy is in over 30 different countries and all 50 states of the United States. This
organization helps a lot in contributing to endangered animals; in 2009 they had raised around 5
billion dollars for endangered animals. There are many other organizations that try to help
endangered animals. Some go to great lengths to help. Some organizations have nothing to lose
when helping endangered animals, some organizations have everything to lose because they put
everything they have into helping these animals, trying to keep these animals for the next
generation.
Endangered species have a huge impact on the environment because the environment is made
up of a series of habitats. Each habitat has ditritivores (fungus/bacteria), producers (plants/trees),
herbivores and carnivores (mammals, reptiles and birds). Feeding habitats also develop the
environment, for example the hawk eating the snake, the snake eating the rat, the rat eating the

insect, the insect eats a plant. Another example is when the government wanted to drain some of
the Colorado River, if they would have done that then the minnows at the bottom of the Colorado
River would have been killed and gone extinct in that area. So then the small fish wouldnt have
anything to eat and die, then the big fish wouldnt have the small fish to eat so they wouldve
died, and so on.
If an animal was to go extinct then the food habitats would change, that makes the habitat
change, which in return would change the environment. Can you imagine walking in the woods
without hearing birds singing in the trees, or picture what a field would be like without wildflowers
blooming in the grasses? Our plants and wildlife make the world more interesting and beautiful
place (Endangered 2012). This is a question society should know about. What if you couldnt
hear the birds sing anymore? Or hear the crunch of leaves as a deer sprints away? What about if
you couldnt see the whales and dolphins in the ocean? Its amazing how much can change
when one species goes extinct.
Science shows that animals are going endangered because of habitat loss, diseases, poaching,
and pollution. Scientists believe these are the most talked about and the most well-known way
for the death of an animal. Edward O. Wilson makes a good point that extinction of animals is a
serious problem. In the small minority of groups of plants and animals that are well known,
extinction is proceeding at a rapid rate, far above prehumen levels. In many cases the level is
calamitous: the entire group is threatened (Wilson 1996).
The authors Julian L. Simon and Aaron Wildavsky believe that extinction is not a serious
problem. But we should strive for as clear and unbiased an understanding as possible of
species loss in order to make the nest possible judgments about how much time and money to
spend in guarding them, in a world in which this valuable activity must computer with other
valuable activities, including the guarding of human life (Simon 1996). This statement is
completely implausible. Humans can protect themselves from diseases with the advancement in
human medical care. But animals cant do that; they can protect themselves from predators but
not from the big machines that destroy their habitat, the pollution in the air, or the illegal killing
that humans are causing for them. In conclusion, humans should try their best guard these
animals.
Recommendations for the future action are to have more patrols of the wild by police forces
made for protecting animals. This will slow down the illegal killings and pouching. Also, if society
will slow down the advancement of buildings, then habitat destruction will start to decrease. For
example by saving the spotted owl it cost loggers their jobs because logging was prohibited in
that area. But some people believe it is not because of the Spotted Owl that the loggers lost their
jobs. Employment in the timber industry along the North Coast has dropped for decades, long

before the owl became an issue (Cockburn 1996). Those people tried to save the Spotted Owl
by stopping deforestation, but in doing so it cost loggers their jobs. Therefore, society must make
sacrifices in order to save endangered species.

In conclusion, endangered animals are an enormous issue. Society knows a lot of about
endangered animals. Some people are doing everything in their power to help and some people
arent doing anything at all. If society was to stop deforestation, pollution, global warming,
poaching, and illegal hunting then there wouldnt be as many animals that are endangered.
Organizations help hugely in the fight to help the endangered animals but they cant be the
only people who help. All of society needs to help in this fight so that the next generation can
have these animals.