People go to the zoo for their fun because there are lots of unique animals. But do you think they really realize that they send nearly most of them to extinction today? It is not only animals but also wildlife including birds, fish, insects, and plants.
WWF, which safeguards hundreds of species around the world, focuses special attention on the following species; giant pandas, tigers, whales, rhinos, elephants, turtles and great apes. These species need special measures and extra protection in order to survive. For example, fifty years ago there were more than 100,000 tigers but now there are fewer than 5,000 left because of changing environmental destruction and poaching. When species become endangered, it is an indicator that their vital ecosystems are beginning to collapse. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that losing one planet specie can trigger the up to 30 other insects, plants, and higher animal species. Some experts have calculated that up to half of the presently existing species may become extinct by 2100.
What has changed their numbers? Redundant hunting, land development or taking human pets. The Dodo , which was three feet tall and weighed about 20 kilograms, would have been a typical animal that human beings exterminated in the past. It was a flightlessness bird and inhabited the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. When humans first arrived, it was entirely fearless of them and its flightlessness made it easy pray. They also came over with other animals that had not existed on the island before, including dogs, pigs, cats and rats. These facts destroyed its environment and it vanished from the earth in 1681.
While the number of wildlife has decreased, human population on the other hand has been increasing. When we compare human population and wildlife extinction, the surprising data comes out. Over the past three hundred years, by the middle of 17th century there were about 450 million humans on the earth and 7 animal species become extinct. 20th century there were over 6,000 million people on earth. This century we have lost 68 species of animals. 64 species disappeared between in 1900 and 1960.
However, I read good news last month. In February 2008, Endangered Species Act, which protects plants and animals, announced that the gray wolf population in the Northern Rocky Mountains is thriving and no longer requires the protection. When they started protection programs, there were about 150 wolves but now there are more than 1,500 wolves.
From an environmental point of view this is a good news, but the gray wolf is only one of many endangered species and so many species still need to be protected until revived.
