Posted On: 2022-05-20 18:13:49
Extinction is a natural component of life, and animals and plants perish all the time. Approximately 98% of all species that have ever lived on Earth are now extinct.
According to worldwildlife when a species becomes extinct, its role in the ecosystem is generally replaced by new or existing species. The 'normal' extinction rate on Earth is commonly estimated to be between 0.1 and 1 species per 10,000 species every 100 years. This is referred to as the extinction background rate.
A major extinction event occurs when species become extinct far quicker than they can be replenished. This is commonly characterized as the loss of around 75% of the world's species in a short length of geological time - less than 2.8 million years.
'It's difficult to define when a major extinction may have begun and finished,' explains Katie Collins, Curator of Benthic Molluscs at the Museum. Let us just begin with the fundamentals.
A species can be a mammal, a tree, a coral, a fungus, an insect, or any of the planet's various living forms (including humans). We refer to this variety of life as 'biodiversity.'
How many different species are there? The truth is that we don't truly know. Estimates range into the millions, with new species being found on a regular basis.
But we want to investigate the species we do know about and see how healthy they are. This takes us to the term "endangered," which is an important tool for conserving animals and wild environments.
How healthy is Earth's life?
Because each species is unique, it's no wonder that general health and lifespan differ from one another. Some, like the brown bear, are not in immediate danger, whilst others, like the Javan rhino, are fighting for life.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature keeps a global list of animals, plants, and fungi and tells us if a certain species is still alive and whether it is likely to become extinct in the future.
This Red List of Threatened Species serves as a cornerstone for conservation, assisting us in determining which species require immediate assistance and what we can do to safeguard them.
The main reason for this extinction today is us, humans. Contribution to climate change and other factors has led to this situation today.
Read more on climate change, carbonfoot printing and all measures that can be taken to help this situation. If we do nothing to address the situation, one in every six species on the globe will become extinct because of climate change.
The World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) has listed several animals as severely endangered, including three rhino species, six primates, and two large cats. Below are a few of the endangered species, the extinction of which will affect humans badly in the years to come.
Tiger
According to the IUCN, the tiger population has declined from over 1 lakh to an estimated 3,200 since 1920. The major causes of its population reduction are poaching Habitat loss and human-wildlife conflicts. According to the IUCN, India is home to around 60% of the world's tigers.
Tigers, as top predators at the top of the food chain, play an important role in the health and variety of an ecosystem. Tigers keep wild animal populations in control, therefore preserving the balance between prey herbivores and the flora on which they graze; if the tiger became extinct, the entire system would collapse, according to WWF.
Rhinoceros
According to WWF, rhinoceros, the big herbivorous animals that had a population of over 5 lakhs at the beginning of the twentieth century, are currently surviving by only 27,000 individuals worldwide. Three rhino species are highly endangered: black, Javan, and Sumatran.
The 'Greater one-horned rhino' is one of Asia's largest conservation success stories, with the number of these rhinos increasing from 200 at the start of the twentieth century to over 3,700 today.
Rhino horns are in great demand due to their medical benefits; hence poaching is a big danger to their existence. Aside from poaching, habitat degradation is another factor contributing to the extinction of these species.
Indian Vulture
Since 2002, the Indian vulture has been categorised as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List due to population declines. The Indian Vulture population has shrunk from millions to just over 10,000 individuals.
According to the State of India's Birds 2020 study, the Indian Vulture is one of the bird species that has experienced the worst loss in the last 25 years.
Vultures taken with meat from dead cattle have been implicated as the causes of this decrease. Vultures are known as nature’s ‘sanitary workers’ with the decline of these birds' population of scavengers like wild dogs and rats, along with their zoonotic diseases would increase as per swachhindia.ndtv
Sea Turtle
According to WWF, human activities have made sea turtles susceptible to extinction during the last 200 years.
Sea Turtles are threatened by poaching for their eggs, meat, skin, and shells, as well as habitat degradation, plastic pollution in the waters, inadvertent entanglement in fishing nets (also known as bycatch), and rubbish on beaches.
Six of the seven species of sea turtle are classed as threatened, endangered, or severely endangered. Over the last 30 years, a species of sea turtle known as leatherback has experienced a 90% population collapse.
Sea Turtles are a crucial link in marine ecosystems as they aid in preserving the quality of seagrass beds and coral reefs and give a healthy habitat to a variety of marine species. Learn more about marine pollution and how it is affecting lives underwater.
Yangtze Finless Porpoise
As per WWF, the Yangtze River, Asia's longest, was formerly one of only two rivers in the world that supported two distinct kinds of dolphins: the Yangtze finless porpoise and the Baiji dolphin.
However, the Baiji dolphin was declared functionally extinct in 2006. This was the first time in history that an entire dolphin species has been wiped off by human action.
The Yangtze finless porpoise, a close cousin, is noted for its cheeky smile and has the intellect of a gorilla.
Sumatran Elephant
There are around 2,400 to 2,800 Sumatran elephants left in the world. There are less than 2,000 Sumatran Elephants in the wild, mostly in Asia, spread among 25 fragmented habitats.
The surviving elephants are kept in zoos. The population continues to dwindle and is on the verge of extinction.
The Sumatran elephant's status was upgraded from "Endangered" to "Critically Endangered" in 2012 because half of its population has been lost in a single generation, owing mostly to habitat degradation and human-elephant conflict, as per WWF.
Blue whale
As per Britannica, there are less than 25,000 blue whales, the world's biggest creatures. Blue whales, which have multiple subspecies, may be found in all of the world's oceans save the Arctic.
Whaling in the twentieth century is estimated to have decreased the current population by up to 90%. Commercial hunting of the species was eventually prohibited in 1966.
It called for the creation of picture databases of individual individuals, as well as the collecting of genetic and migratory data, to better understand the species, which is still endangered due to ship crashes and entrapment in fishing nets.
Giant Panda
The panda, with its striking black and white coat, is admired across the world and is regarded as a national treasure in China. With only around 2060 pandas living in the wild, the giant panda is considered vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN Red List.
This bear is particularly significant to WWF since it has served as the logo since its inception in 1961.
Pandas are found mostly in temperate forests high in the mountains of southwest China, where they survive nearly completely on bamboo. They must consume between 26 and 84 pounds of bamboo every day, depending on the section of the bamboo they consume.
Filaantro is an online crowdfunding platform. With multiple partners NGOs, Filaantro is working on the programmes, “Life Underwater” and “Life on Land” . These programmes aim to save marine lives, street animal lives and the environment. You can support in saving the numerous species that are endangered. Support now!
Let us protect our nature, starting with our wildlife. We shouldn’t kill animals for human needs and greed.
Author: Lubdha Dhanopia
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