Endangered Species and How they Impact Ecosystems
Endangered Species
By: Jennifer Petley
There are currently only 30 individual Amur leopards left in the world, the hawksbill turtle has been deemed “critically endangered”, the black-footed ferret who was once thought to be globally extinct has only a population of 1000, the black rhino was said to be “doomed to disappear from the face of the earth” in 1961, and the Saola deer has an estimated population of a few hundred at a maximum, or possibly only a few dozen at a minimum. There are many more animals who are endangered, some who are even worse off than the ones I mentioned. If we continue to abuse our power and ignore the plight of these endangered species, one day even common animals like cows or frogs will be hard to come by. These beautiful creatures are extremely important to our eco-system and food-chain and need desperately to be preserved. If we continue to refuse to acknowledge this and disregard the issue intentionally, our ecosystems will begin to collapse and we will no longer have the variety we currently do of food, medicine, animals and thousands of products will not be available to us because so many companies use materials that contain animal by-products. Also, I will give you more insight on what it means to be endangered as well as give some examples of animals who are. Firstly, we ask the question “How does the loss of animal species impact ecosystems?” There are several factors that play a role in this. All animal and plant life is part of a complex ecosystem that includes our lands and waters. Remove one or more of these parts and you damage the entire environment, sometimes beyond restoration. These ecosystems provide clean water, breathable air, fertile soils, climate control, food, medicine, energy, building materials, transportation, as well as recreational and spiritual uses. An example of an ecosystem that is suffering from a loss of biodiversity is the ocean ecosystem. It is predicted that by 2050, all species of wild
By: Jennifer Petley
There are currently only 30 individual Amur leopards left in the world, the hawksbill turtle has been deemed “critically endangered”, the black-footed ferret who was once thought to be globally extinct has only a population of 1000, the black rhino was said to be “doomed to disappear from the face of the earth” in 1961, and the Saola deer has an estimated population of a few hundred at a maximum, or possibly only a few dozen at a minimum. There are many more animals who are endangered, some who are even worse off than the ones I mentioned. If we continue to abuse our power and ignore the plight of these endangered species, one day even common animals like cows or frogs will be hard to come by. These beautiful creatures are extremely important to our eco-system and food-chain and need desperately to be preserved. If we continue to refuse to acknowledge this and disregard the issue intentionally, our ecosystems will begin to collapse and we will no longer have the variety we currently do of food, medicine, animals and thousands of products will not be available to us because so many companies use materials that contain animal by-products. Also, I will give you more insight on what it means to be endangered as well as give some examples of animals who are. Firstly, we ask the question “How does the loss of animal species impact ecosystems?” There are several factors that play a role in this. All animal and plant life is part of a complex ecosystem that includes our lands and waters. Remove one or more of these parts and you damage the entire environment, sometimes beyond restoration. These ecosystems provide clean water, breathable air, fertile soils, climate control, food, medicine, energy, building materials, transportation, as well as recreational and spiritual uses. An example of an ecosystem that is suffering from a loss of biodiversity is the ocean ecosystem. It is predicted that by 2050, all species of wild