Today, there are thousands, if not hundreds, of thousands of extinct species of animals and plants. Unfortunately, in recent centuries, the process of extinction of species does not stop, but rather is even enhanced thanks to man. What kind of wildlife can we lose in the near future? How to save endangered species of animals? We’ll talk about all this.
Why do animals die out?
From the very moment of its appearance, our planet is constantly changing, and with it the map of continents and oceans, landscapes, as well as the diversity of living beings, are changing. Not once on Earth appeared other species of animals and disappeared, and far from always a man had a hand in this. Among the natural causes of extinction are:
- Global disasters.
- Interspecific competition.
- Climate change and other environmental components.
- Genetic uniformity.
- Disease, parasite attack.
- A sharp increase in the number of predators.
In the entire history of our planet, there have been at least six mass extinctions of animals provoked by the onset of the ice age, increased activity of volcanoes, falls of celestial bodies, changes in atmospheric composition and other possible factors. With the advent of man, there are even more reasons for the death of entire biological species. With the growth of our knowledge and skills, we actively subjugated to ourselves everything that surrounds us. By this we sometimes made irreparable changes to the nature of the Earth. Animals were exterminated in huge quantities both intentionally and completely by accident.
Direct destruction of species took place and is happening for the sake of obtaining meat, skin, bones and various products of their vital functions (silk, shells, pearls, ink, poison, etc.). They also exterminate animals for the protection of agricultural land and other territories. Accidental destruction is observed much more often. It occurs during wars, road and industrial accidents, as a result of pollution of the natural environment, and also when a person changes natural landscapes in the course of his activity (he builds dams, roads, cities, cuts down forests).
The species that disappeared through our fault
As mentioned above, there are many reasons for the extinction of species. However, over the past millennium, the main threat to the animal kingdom was precisely man. Developing new territories, we intervened in the long-established order of things. As a result of our activities, the fauna of not only distant corners of the world (Australia, South America, New Zealand, Mauritius, Tasmania), but also the lands surrounding us has changed significantly. Here are just a few species of animals that have died out due to human fault:
- Tour. A wild bull that is the progenitor of livestock. He lived in Europe, North Africa and Western Asia. The image of the tour was often found in Slavic and European folklore, and the bull himself was a valuable source of meat. Tours became extinct due to hunting and human activities. The last population disappeared in 1627 in the Lviv region of Ukraine.
- Dodo A large flightless bird from the pigeon family. She lived on the Mascarene Islands, the island of Mauritius and Rodriguez. The bird disappeared in the 16th century due to hunting, as well as cats and pigs brought to the islands, which destroyed its nests. The mention of the dodo, or dodo, is found in the book of Lewis Carroll and other works, and her image is a symbol of the Gerald Darrell Wildlife Conservation Fund.
- Steller's cow. A huge animal was discovered in 1741 during the expedition of Vitus Bering. Outwardly, it resembled manatee and lived in the northern seas of the planet. The populations of the sea cow were very numerous, but immediately after the discovery, they began an active hunt because of the tasty cape and the large weight of the animals. After 30-40 years, the species was exterminated.
- Chinese lake dolphin. This species was declared extinct only in 2007. Its representatives lived in the area of the Yangtze River and Lakes Poyanghu and Dongting. These were typical representatives of river dolphins with an elongated, barrel-shaped body up to 2.5 meters long and a long narrow rostrum. Most of all, they resembled the Amazonian initiative, which is listed as a “vulnerable species”.
Endangered
Day by day the list of endangered species of animals is increasing. The current rate of their extinction is several times higher than during the period of global catastrophes that occurred on Earth millions of years ago. The status of “threatened” is usually obtained by those representatives of the fauna, the number of which is extremely small and can lead to the death of their family in the near future. Today, they include about 40% of all representatives of the animal kingdom - from large mammals to tiny invertebrates.
Top 10 endangered species of animals of the world looks like this:
- California porpoise (30 individuals).
- Amur leopard (60 individuals).
- Javanese rhino (68 individuals).
- Kakapo owl parrot (155 individuals).
- River gorilla (300 individuals).
- Malay tiger (340 individuals).
- Northern smooth whale (350 individuals).
- Giant pandas (1864 individuals).
- Galapagos penguin (less than 2000 individuals).
- Sumatran elephant (2800 individuals).
The vulnerable, or on the verge of extinction, also include koalas, jaguars, all kinds of rhinos and elephants, Sumatran orangutans, various whales and dolphins, lemurs, some storks and pelicans, condors, various parrots and even pigeons.
Wakita, or Californian porpoise
Wakita is the smallest of the guinea pigs, which looks very similar to a dolphin. Her elongated stocky body grows to only 1.5 meters in length and weighs about 50 kg. She is painted gray and her eyes are surrounded by black circles. It is interesting that the California sea pig has never been the subject of fishing - no one has hunted her special. Nevertheless, she tops the list of endangered species of animals in the world.
How did that happen? The thing is that she has a very narrow range. Porpoise is an endemic that lives only in the northern part of the Gulf of California. In addition, the animal often accidentally enters fishing nets, which put on another endangered endemic species of the bay - totoab fish.
Amur, or Far Eastern leopard
The Amur subspecies is the most northern representative of its species. Previously, the range of the animal was more extensive and covered the Ussuri region of Russia, northeast of China and almost all of Korea. Today it has greatly narrowed, being located on the border territories between these three states. He leads a solitary lifestyle, lives in mountainous areas, covered mainly by mixed coniferous-deciduous forests.
Like other leopards, the Amur leopard looks very elegant. It grows to 1-1.3 meters in length and weighs only 50 kilograms. The animal has a very long tail, a flexible and muscular body, powerful legs and sharp curved claws. When hunting, a leopard is able to jump several meters ahead and reach speeds of up to 58 kilometers per hour.
There are quite a few reasons for the extinction of the subspecies: the destruction of the natural habitat of animals, the decrease in food supply, closely related crosses, which leads to the appearance of infertile individuals. An important, but far from the first factor is poaching, because a leopard's skin costs from 500 to 1000 dollars. Preservation of the subspecies is carried out by employees of several reserves and reserves. A significant role in this matter is assigned to zoos open in various countries of the world.
Javan rhino
Another endangered animal species is the Javanese rhino. It lives in tropical forests, meadows and floodplains of the rivers of Southeast Asia. Leads a solitary lifestyle, occupying an individual territory of 3 to 20 km 2 . Javanese rhinos are very similar to their Indian "brethren," but they have a smaller head and body size, and only one horn grows on the head (all the others have two) up to 27 centimeters long. The animals themselves reach about 2-4 meters in length and weigh up to 2.3 tons.
Of all the representatives of the genus, Javanese rhinos have the smallest number, which is associated exclusively with the anthropogenic factor. These are very large and dangerous animals, and they have no natural enemies. The reduction in their number is affected by the uncontrolled extermination of animals, as well as the active increase in human settlements in their habitat.
River gorilla
River gorilla is not an independent species, but a subspecies of western gorillas. It lives in the deciduous forests between Cameroon and Nigeria and is considered the most vulnerable of all primates in Africa. Outwardly, it is very similar to the closely related subspecies of the western lowland gorillas, living 250 kilometers from them. Between themselves, they differ in the structure of the teeth and skull, as well as lifestyle features.
River gorillas number only a few hundred individuals. They are distributed in a territory densely populated by people, and suffer from the fact that their natural habitats are being destroyed. The number of animals is reduced due to deforestation and their transformation into agricultural land.
Northern smooth whale
The northern smooth whale is among the largest endangered species of animals. It reaches from 13 to 18 meters in length and can weigh about a hundred tons. Despite its impressive size, the animal was unarmed against humans. Since the sixteenth century they have been hunted for meat, fat and a whalebone. And the fact that a smooth whale lives close to the coasts made it quite easy prey.
This species is common in the Atlantic Ocean. He does not live all the time in one place, but moves depending on the seasons. In summer, the whale rises to the subpolar regions, eating crustaceans and small fish off the coast of New England and Iceland. In winter, he descends to the shores of Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and Southern Europe.
Galapagos Penguin
Most penguins live in the Antarctic and Subantarctic zones of the globe. The Galapagos species is the only one that lives very close to the equator, on the islands of the same name. They settle in colonies right by the water, feed on fish and small crustaceans. These floating birds reach only 50 centimeters in height and weigh about 2.5 kilograms. Their back and head are painted black, the abdomen, like other penguins, is white, and from neck to eyes there is a white stripe characteristic of them only.
Today there are several thousand Galapagos penguins, and this number is constantly decreasing. Unlike many other endangered animal species, the extinction of this is in no way connected with human activity. The cause of the death of the penguins was a destructive, but quite natural phenomenon called El Nino - a cataclysm that occurs off the coast of South America once every several decades. Having appeared in the Galapagos Islands in the 1990s, he influenced climate change and reduced the number of fish - the main food of penguins.
Endangered animal species in Russia
Russia is the largest country in the world. It covers an area of 17 125 191 km 2 , stretching for 10 thousand kilometers from west to east of Eurasia. Its territory is home to more than 120,000 species of animals that inhabit various climatic zones and natural zones, including the Arctic desert, tundra, steppes, taiga, subtropical desert and semi-desert. Due to its great diversity, its nature is valuable not only for the country itself, but also for the entire planet. Unfortunately, environmental problems are also observed here, due to which the list of rare and endangered species of animals is replenished.
In the Red Book of Russia are listed: dolphin tall-headed bottlenose, Przhevalsky's horse, bison, pink pelican, Caucasian mountain goat. Many of them live in the Far East or near its shores: the Amur tiger, goiter antelope, gray whale, Amur steppe polecat, Kamchatka beaver (sea otter), red wolf, Mednovsky arctic fox. The Amur mountains living in the Primorsky Territory, the Steller sea lion seal found in Kamchatka, the Commander and Kuril Islands, disappear. Among the endangered species of animals in Russia are the Far Eastern leopard, the Amur tiger, the Asian cheetah, each of which has only a couple of dozen individuals. The species of white-bellied or monk seal, which inhabited the Black Sea, is considered to have completely disappeared on the territory of the state.
Protection of rare and endangered species of animals
Representatives of the animal world are an important part of the nature of our planet, which are closely related to all its components. The extinction of even one species affects the entire ecosystem and can lead to changes in the climate, landscape, fauna and flora of the area where he lived. Despite the long-standing human intervention in the environment, the problem of the conservation of endangered species of animals was only concerned in the middle of the 16th century. Before that, they were destroyed without the slightest remorse, therefore, in history there are many cases where thoughtless actions of a person led to irreparable consequences.
Measures to protect rare and endangered species of animals include the creation of special laws, environmental organizations, and their inclusion in the Red Books. As a rule, in order to preserve endangered species, they create the most favorable and safe conditions for them. For example, their natural habitats are turned into wildlife sanctuaries, reserves and national parks where hunting is prohibited, and animals are left to their own devices.
In some cases, people try to artificially increase the survival rate of endangered species of animals: create temporary nurseries, protect young animals from its natural enemies, treat and feed weak and wounded individuals. In Asia, for example, there are special centers where only hatched turtles are collected so that they are not eaten by gulls and crabs. Cubs are raised to a certain age, and when they get stronger, released into the ocean.