Endangered Species Cierra Banyas Cas 100 Fall 2013

Main Points  I. What is an endangered species?  How does it compare to an extinct species?  Examples of both types  What are the causes?  What can be done to help?

What is an endangered species?  An endangered species is a species whose numbers are so small that it is at risk of extinction.  Extinction is directly related to a species being endangered if the problem is not fixed. wn?s=endangered%20species

Extinction  The rapid loss of species we are seeing today is estimated by experts to be between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate.  means the rate of species extinctions that would occur if humans were not around  experts calculate that between 0.01% and 0.1% of all species will become extinct each year  2 million different species on our planet: between 200 and 2,000 extinctions occur every year  100 million different species on our planet: between 10,000 and 100,000 extinctions occur every year

Examples: endangered  Amur Leopard:  Russian Far East  around 30 left  Sumatran Orangutan  Borneo and Sumatra  around 7,300 left

Examples: endangered (cont…)  African Wild Dog  Africa  around 3,000-5,500 left  Giant Panda  China  around 1,600 in the wild

Example: extinct  Tasmanian Tiger/Wolf, Thylacine  Australia (Tasmania)  Last one captured in the wild in 1933  Taken to Hobart Zoo where he died in edlist.org/details /21866/0

Causes  Bycatch - the incidental capture of non- target species when fishing  Deforestation  Illegal Wildlife Trade – poaching, selling as pets, etc  Pollution/Climate Change  …and many others

What can you do?  Push local governments to protect threatened animal populations  Encourage others to ask questions and get facts about crimes against wildlife  Raise awareness and push for a change in people’s attitudes for less environmental destruction  Donate to organizations such as WWF

The Story of Baim  Baby orangutan  Found in Borneo  Turned into the WWF  mbedded&v=qcMWcICG-PQ mbedded&v=qcMWcICG-PQ

Recap  Extinction is directly related to a species being endangered.  There are many things that cause a species to become endangered, most are human causes.  Ordinary people can help by raising awareness and donating to organizations.

Any Questions?  me at:

References  ebwn?s=endangered%20species ebwn?s=endangered%20species   and-extinct-thylacine-creatures/offbeat- news (images) and-extinct-thylacine-creatures/offbeat- news 