Endangered and extinct species

We are living in an era where an unprecedented number of species have become extinct, also known as the Holocene extinction event. The IUCN (international Union for Conservation of Nature Natural Resources) has calculated the percentage of endangered species as 40 percent of all organisms. The number of these organisms had drastically gone down and is on the verge of becoming extinct.    

 Several species have already become extinct due to habit loss or excessive poaching.

The word `extinct’ for a species implies that every single member of that species is dead. Scientists have predicted that up to 20 percent of all living populations could become extinct by 2028. Biologist EO Wilson had estimated that if current rates of destruction of the biosphere by humans continue, one –half of all the species of living organisms on earth will be extinct in around 100 years.

 The loss of habit of one species can have serious consequence on the life of several other species. One of the tragic examples of this kind of consequence is the damage that rampaging wild elephant have caused to several villages in the north and north-India. Several of these elephants that have killed a number of people and destroyed their fields and homes have been caught and brutally killed for their actions in an act of self-defense by hapless villagers.

 What they do not realize is that the places where these villages are located at present were once part of the long migration corridors facilitating the movement of large elephant herds across the country. These corridors have been encroached upon and destroyed by humans to make way for their fields, homes, and for other so-called `developmental’ activities.

 Elephants in the wild on being deprived of these ancient corridors of migration fear and get confused. Under these circumstances, they enter into village and fields and end up by paying for the loss of their habitat with their lives.

 Global assessments of coral reefs of the world continue to report drastic and rapid rates of decline. This is the most serious threat to the societies that heavily rely upon oceanic natural resources. The oceans are threatened most by acidification due to an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide dissolved in their water. A concern is that the majority of marine species will not be able to evolve in response to or acclimatize themselves to the changes in the chemistry of the ocean.

 Several animals that were once found roaming the wilderness at large can now only be seen as domestic animals. These animals, due to the serve loss of their habitat, will now be unable to fend for themselves in the wild and can only be reared domestically under the constant care of their human masters.