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Human beings and endangered species

• IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
• The United States Endangered Species Act
• Species assessment and management

What organizations determine which organisms are endangered species?

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• Texas Parks and Wildlife Department - Threatened and Endangered Species
• National Geographic - Education - Endangered Species
• The Canadian Encyclopedia - Endangered Animals in Canada
• Biology LibreTexts - Approaches for Preserving Endangered Species and Ecosystems
• endangered species - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
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• Table Of Contents

What is an endangered species?

An endangered species is any species that is at risk of extinction because of a rapid decrease in its population or a loss of its critical habitat.

What role does human activity play in causing species to become endangered?

Roughly 99 percent of threatened and endangered species are at risk because of human activities. The principal threats are habitat loss and degradation, the spread of invasive species, the growing influence of global warming, chemical pollution, unsustainable hunting, and disease.

Among the organizations connected with assessing which organisms are endangered species are the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), and the Red List of Threatened Species, created by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

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endangered species , any species that is at risk of extinction because of a sudden rapid decrease in its population or a loss of its critical habitat . Biodiverse regions that require protection on the grounds that they host a significant number of endangered species are called hot spots .

(Read E.O. Wilson’s Britannica essay on mass extinction.)

Previously, any species of plant or animal that was threatened with extinction could be called an endangered species. The need for separate definitions of “endangered” and “ threatened ” species resulted in the development of various categorization systems, each containing definitions and criteria by which a species can be classified according to its risk of extinction. As a rule, a range of criteria must be analyzed before a species can be placed in one category or another.

Often such categorization systems are linked directly to national legislation, such as the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA) or the Canadian Species at Risk Act (SARA). In addition, regional agreements, such as the European Union’s Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC), and international conservation agreements, such as the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), are connected to species- assessment systems. One of the most-recognized independent international systems of species assessment is the Red List of Threatened Species , created by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Roughly 99 percent of threatened species are at risk because of human activities alone. By the early 21st century it could be said that human beings ( Homo sapiens ) are the greatest threat to biodiversity and are the major drivers of biodiversity loss . The principal threats to species in the wild are:

• Habitat loss and habitat degradation
• The spread of introduced species (that is, non-native species that negatively affect the ecosystems they become part of)
• The growing influence of global warming and chemical pollution
• Unsustainable hunting

Although some of these hazards occur naturally, most are caused by human beings and their economic and cultural activities. The most pervasive of these threats is habitat loss and degradation—that is, the large-scale conversion of land in previously undisturbed areas driven by the growing demand for commercial agriculture , logging , and infrastructure development. Because the rates of loss are highest in some of the most biologically diverse regions on Earth , a perpetual battle is waged to manage destructive activities there while limiting the impact that such restrictions may have on the well-being of local communities . The relative importance of each threat differs within and among taxa . So far, incidental mortality from ecological disturbance , temporary or limited human disturbance, and persecution have caused limited reductions in the total number of species; however, these phenomena can be serious for some susceptible groups. In addition, global warming has emerged as a widespread threat, and much research is being conducted to identify its potential effects on specific species, populations , and ecosystems .

Conflicts between human activities and conservation are at the root of many of these phenomena. Such controversies are often highly politicized and widely publicized in the global press and through social media . For example, habitat loss and species loss have resulted from the unregulated exploitation of coltan (the rare ore for tantalum used in consumer electronics products such as mobile phones and computers ) in Kahuzi-Beiga National Park , one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s premier forest parks. The park is also home to much of the population of the threatened Eastern Lowland gorilla ( Gorilla beringei graueri ). Mining has increased gorilla mortality by reducing the animal’s food resources and leading many people displaced by the mining to kill gorillas for their meat . In addition, the mountain gorilla ( G. beringei beringei ), a close relative of the Eastern Lowland gorilla, is also at risk of extinction . However, authorities cite poaching , disease, and crossfire between warring political groups in the vicinity of Virunga National Park as the primary sources of its population decline.

Another example of a widely publicized wildlife controversy involves the relatively recent declines in amphibian populations. Known to be important global indicators of environmental health , amphibians have experienced some of the most serious population declines to date of all groups that have been assessed globally through the IUCN Red List process ( see below ). Amphibians (a group that includes salamanders , frogs , toads , and caecilians [wormlike amphibians]), being particularly sensitive to environmental changes, are severely threatened by habitat destruction, pollution, the spread of a disease called amphibian chytridiomycosis , and climate change .

Beyond these notable examples, many of the world’s birds are also at risk. The populations of some bird species (such as some albatrosses , petrels , and penguins ) are declining because of longline fishing, whereas those of others (such as certain cranes , rails , parrots , pheasants , and pigeons ) have become victims of habitat destruction. On many Pacific islands , the accidental introduction of the brown tree snake ( Boiga irregularis ) has wreaked havoc on many bird populations .

Many fishes and other forms of aquatic and marine life are also threatened. Among them are long-lived species that have life history strategies requiring many years to reach sexual maturity. As a result, they are particularly susceptible to exploitation. The meat and fins of many sharks , rays , chimaeras , and whales fetch high prices in many parts of the world, which has resulted in the unsustainable harvest of several of those species.

Moreover, freshwater habitats worldwide are progressively threatened by pollution from industry, agriculture, and human settlements. Additional threats to freshwater ecosystems include introduced invasive species (such as the sea lamprey [ Petromyzon marinus ] in the Great Lakes ), the canalization of rivers (such as in the streams that empty into the Everglades in Florida), and the overharvesting of freshwater species (as in the case of the extinct Yunnan box turtle [ Cuora yunnanensis ] in China). While an estimated 45,000 described species rely on freshwater habitats, it is important to note that humans are also seriously affected by the degradation of freshwater species and ecosystems.

Against this backdrop of threats related to urban expansion and food production, the unsustainable harvest of animal and plant products for traditional medicine and the pet trade is a growing concern in many parts of the world. These activities have implications for local ecosystems and habitats by exacerbating population declines through overharvesting. In addition, they have cross-border repercussions in terms of trade and illegal trafficking.

November 1, 2023

20 min read

Can We Save Every Species from Extinction?

The Endangered Species Act requires that every U.S. plant and animal be saved from extinction, but after 50 years, we have to do much more to prevent a biodiversity crisis

By Robert Kunzig

Snail Darter Percina tanasi. Listed as Endangered: 1975. Status: Delisted in 2022.

© Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark

A Bald Eagle disappeared into the trees on the far bank of the Tennessee River just as the two researchers at the bow of our modest motorboat began hauling in the trawl net. Eagles have rebounded so well that it's unusual not to see one here these days, Warren Stiles of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told me as the net got closer. On an almost cloudless spring morning in the 50th year of the Endangered Species Act, only a third of a mile downstream from the Tennessee Valley Authority's big Nickajack Dam, we were searching for one of the ESA's more notorious beneficiaries: the Snail Darter. A few months earlier Stiles and the FWS had decided that, like the Bald Eagle, the little fish no longer belonged on the ESA's endangered species list. We were hoping to catch the first nonendangered specimen.

Dave Matthews, a TVA biologist, helped Stiles empty the trawl. Bits of wood and rock spilled onto the deck, along with a Common Logperch maybe six inches long. So did an even smaller fish; a hair over two inches, it had alternating vertical bands of dark and light brown, each flecked with the other color, a pattern that would have made it hard to see against the gravelly river bottom. It was a Snail Darter in its second year, Matthews said, not yet full-grown.

Everybody loves a Bald Eagle. There is much less consensus about the Snail Darter. Yet it epitomizes the main controversy still swirling around the ESA, signed into law on December 28, 1973, by President Richard Nixon: Can we save all the obscure species of this world, and should we even try, if they get in the way of human imperatives? The TVA didn't think so in the 1970s, when the plight of the Snail Darter—an early entry on the endangered species list—temporarily stopped the agency from completing a huge dam. When the U.S. attorney general argued the TVA's case before the Supreme Court with the aim of sidestepping the law, he waved a jar that held a dead, preserved Snail Darter in front of the nine judges in black robes, seeking to convey its insignificance.

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Now I was looking at a living specimen. It darted around the bottom of a white bucket, bonking its nose against the side and delicately fluttering the translucent fins that swept back toward its tail.

“It's kind of cute,” I said.

Matthews laughed and slapped me on the shoulder. “I like this guy!” he said. “Most people are like, ‘Really? That's it?’ ” He took a picture of the fish and clipped a sliver off its tail fin for DNA analysis but left it otherwise unharmed. Then he had me pour it back into the river. The next trawl, a few miles downstream, brought up seven more specimens.

In the late 1970s the Snail Darter seemed confined to a single stretch of a single tributary of the Tennessee River, the Little Tennessee, and to be doomed by the TVA's ill-considered Tellico Dam, which was being built on the tributary. The first step on its twisting path to recovery came in 1978, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, surprisingly, that the ESA gave the darter priority even over an almost finished dam. “It was when the government stood up and said, ‘Every species matters, and we meant it when we said we're going to protect every species under the Endangered Species Act,’” says Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus. Listed as Endangered: 1967. Status: Delisted in 2007. Credit: © Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark

Today the Snail Darter can be found along 400 miles of the river's main stem and multiple tributaries. ESA enforcement has saved dozens of other species from extinction. Bald Eagles, American Alligators and Peregrine Falcons are just a few of the roughly 60 species that had recovered enough to be “delisted” by late 2023.

And yet the U.S., like the planet as a whole, faces a growing biodiversity crisis. Less than 6 percent of the animals and plants ever placed on the list have been delisted; many of the rest have made scant progress toward recovery. What's more, the list is far from complete: roughly a third of all vertebrates and vascular plants in the U.S. are vulnerable to extinction, says Bruce Stein, chief scientist at the National Wildlife Federation. Populations are falling even for species that aren't yet in danger. “There are a third fewer birds flying around now than in the 1970s,” Stein says. We're much less likely to see a White-throated Sparrow or a Red-winged Blackbird, for example, even though neither species is yet endangered.

The U.S. is far emptier of wildlife sights and sounds than it was 50 years ago, primarily because habitat—forests, grasslands, rivers—has been relentlessly appropriated for human purposes. The ESA was never designed to stop that trend, any more than it is equipped to deal with the next massive threat to wildlife: climate change. Nevertheless, its many proponents say, it is a powerful, foresightful law that we could implement more wisely and effectively, perhaps especially to foster stewardship among private landowners. And modest new measures, such as the Recovering America's Wildlife Act—a bill with bipartisan support—could further protect flora and fauna.

That is, if special interests don't flout the law. After the 1978 Supreme Court decision, Congress passed a special exemption to the ESA allowing the TVA to complete the Tellico Dam. The Snail Darter managed to survive because the TVA transplanted some of the fish from the Little Tennessee, because remnant populations turned up elsewhere in the Tennessee Valley, and because local rivers and streams slowly became less polluted following the 1972 Clean Water Act, which helped fish rebound.

Under pressure from people enforcing the ESA, the TVA also changed the way it managed its dams throughout the valley. It started aerating the depths of its reservoirs, in some places by injecting oxygen. It began releasing water from the dams more regularly to maintain a minimum flow that sweeps silt off the river bottom, exposing the clean gravel that Snail Darters need to lay their eggs and feed on snails. The river system “is acting more like a real river,” Matthews says. Basically, the TVA started considering the needs of wildlife, which is really what the ESA requires. “The Endangered Species Act works,” Matthews says. “With just a little bit of help, [wildlife] can recover.”

The trouble is that many animals and plants aren't getting that help—because government resources are too limited, because private landowners are alienated by the ESA instead of engaged with it, and because as a nation the U.S. has never fully committed to the ESA's essence. Instead, for half a century, the law has been one more thing that polarizes people's thinking.

I t may seem impossible today to imagine the political consensus that prevailed on environmental matters in 1973. The U.S. Senate approved the ESA unanimously, and the House passed it by a vote of 390 to 12. “Some people have referred to it as almost a statement of religion coming out of the Congress,” says Gary Frazer, who as assistant director for ecological services at the FWS has been overseeing the act's implementation for nearly 25 years.

Gopher Tortoise Gopherus polyphemus . Listed as Threatened: 1987. Status: Still threatened. Credit: ©Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark

But loss of faith began five years later with the Snail Darter case. Congresspeople who had been thinking of eagles, bears and Whooping Cranes when they passed the ESA, and had not fully appreciated the reach of the sweeping language they had approved, were disabused by the Supreme Court. It found that the legislation had created, “wisely or not ... an absolute duty to preserve all endangered species,” Chief Justice Warren E. Burger said after the Snail Darter case concluded. Even a recently discovered tiny fish had to be saved, “whatever the cost,” he wrote in the decision.

Was that wise? For both environmentalists such as Curry and many nonenvironmentalists, the answer has always been absolutely. The ESA “is the basic Bill of Rights for species other than ourselves,” says National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore, who is building a “photo ark” of every animal visible to the naked eye as a record against extinction. (He has taken studio portraits of 15,000 species so far.) But to critics, the Snail Darter decision always defied common sense. They thought it was “crazy,” says Michael Bean, a leading ESA expert, now retired from the Environmental Defense Fund. “That dichotomy of view has remained with us for the past 45 years.”

According to veteran Washington, D.C., environmental attorney Lowell E. Baier, author of a new history called The Codex of the Endangered Species Act, both the act itself and its early implementation reflected a top-down, federal “command-and-control mentality” that still breeds resentment. FWS field agents in the early days often saw themselves as combat biologists enforcing the act's prohibitions. After the Northern Spotted Owl's listing got tangled up in a bitter 1990s conflict over logging of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest, the FWS became more flexible in working out arrangements. “But the dark mythology of the first 20 years continues in the minds of much of America,” Baier says.

Credit: June Minju Kim ( map ); Source: David Matthews, Tennessee Valley Authority ( reference )

The law can impose real burdens on landowners. Before doing anything that might “harass” or “harm” an endangered species, including modifying its habitat, they need to get a permit from the FWS and present a “habitat conservation plan.” Prosecutions aren't common, because evidence can be elusive, but what Bean calls “the cloud of uncertainty” surrounding what landowners can and cannot do can be distressing.

Requirements the ESA places on federal agencies such as the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management—or on the TVA—can have large economic impacts. Section 7 of the act prohibits agencies from taking, permitting or funding any action that is likely to “jeopardize the continued existence” of a listed species. If jeopardy seems possible, the agency must consult with the FWS first (or the National Marine Fisheries Service for marine species) and seek alternative plans.

“When people talk about how the ESA stops projects, they've been talking about section 7,” says conservation biologist Jacob Malcom. The Northern Spotted Owl is a strong example: an economic analysis suggests the logging restrictions eliminated thousands of timber-industry jobs, fueling conservative arguments that the ESA harms humans and economic growth.

In recent decades, however, that view has been based “on anecdote, not evidence,” Malcom claims. At Defenders of Wildlife, where he worked until 2022 (he's now at the U.S. Department of the Interior), he and his colleagues analyzed 88,290 consultations between the FWS and other agencies from 2008 to 2015. “Zero projects were stopped,” Malcom says. His group also found that federal agencies were only rarely taking the active measures to recover a species that section 7 requires—like what the TVA did for the Snail Darter. For many listed species, the FWS does not even have recovery plans.

Endangered species also might not recover because “most species are not receiving protection until they have reached dangerously low population sizes,” according to a 2022 study by Erich K. Eberhard of Columbia University and his colleagues. Most listings occur only after the FWS has been petitioned or sued by an environmental group—often the Center for Biological Diversity, which claims credit for 742 listings. Years may go by between petition and listing, during which time the species' population dwindles. Noah Greenwald, the center's endangered species director, thinks the FWS avoids listings to avoid controversy—that it has internalized opposition to the ESA.

He and other experts also say that work regarding endangered species is drastically underfunded. As more species are listed, the funding per species declines. “Congress hasn't come to grips with the biodiversity crisis,” says Baier, who lobbies lawmakers regularly. “When you talk to them about biodiversity, their eyes glaze over.” Just this year federal lawmakers enacted a special provision exempting the Mountain Valley Pipeline from the ESA and other challenges, much as Congress had exempted the Tellico Dam. Environmentalists say the gas pipeline, running from West Virginia to Virginia, threatens the Candy Darter, a colorful small fish. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provided a rare bit of good news: it granted the FWS $62.5 million to hire more biologists to prepare recovery plans.

The ESA is often likened to an emergency room for species: overcrowded and understaffed, it has somehow managed to keep patients alive, but it doesn't do much more. The law contains no mandate to restore ecosystems to health even though it recognizes such work as essential for thriving wildlife. “Its goal is to make things better, but its tools are designed to keep things from getting worse,” Bean says. Its ability to do even that will be severely tested in coming decades by threats it was never designed to confront.

T he ESA requires a species to be listed as “threatened” if it might be in danger of extinction in the “foreseeable future.” The foreseeable future will be warmer. Rising average temperatures are a problem, but higher heat extremes are a bigger threat, according to a 2020 study.

Scientists have named climate change as the main cause of only a few extinctions worldwide. But experts expect that number to surge. Climate change has been “a factor in almost every species we've listed in at least the past 15 years,” Frazer says. Yet scientists struggle to forecast whether individual species can “persist in place or shift in space”—as Stein and his co-authors put it in a recent paper—or will be unable to adapt at all and will go extinct. On June 30 the FWS issued a new rule that will make it easier to move species outside their historical range—a practice it once forbade except in extreme circumstances.

Credit: June Minju Kim ( graphic ); Brown Bird Design ( illustrations ); Sources: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Environmental Conservation Online System; U.S. Federal Endangered and Threatened Species by Calendar Year https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/report/species-listings-by-year-totals ( annual data through 2022 ); Listed Species Summary (Boxscore) https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/report/boxscore ( cumulative data up to September 18, 2023, and annual data for coral ); Delisted Species https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/report/species-delisted ( delisted data through 2022 )

Eventually, though, “climate change is going to swamp the ESA,” says J. B. Ruhl, a law professor at Vanderbilt University, who has been writing about the problem for decades. “As more and more species are threatened, I don't know what the agency does with that.” To offer a practical answer, in a 2008 paper he urged the FWS to aggressively identify the species most at risk and not waste resources on ones that seem sure to expire.

Yet when I asked Frazer which urgent issues were commanding his attention right now, his first thought wasn't climate; it was renewable energy. “Renewable energy is going to leave a big footprint on the planet and on our country,” he says, some of it threatening plants and animals if not implemented well. “The Inflation Reduction Act is going to lead to an explosion of more wind and solar across the landscape.

Long before President Joe Biden signed that landmark law, conflicts were proliferating: Desert Tortoise versus solar farms in the Mojave Desert, Golden Eagles versus wind farms in Wyoming, Tiehm's Buckwheat (a little desert flower) versus lithium mining in Nevada. The mine case is a close parallel to that of Snail Darters versus the Tellico Dam. The flower, listed as endangered just last year, grows on only a few acres of mountainside in western Nevada, right where a mining company wants to extract lithium. The Center for Biological Diversity has led the fight to save it. Elsewhere in Nevada people have used the ESA to stop, for the moment, a proposed geothermal plant that might threaten the two-inch Dixie Valley Toad, discovered in 2017 and also declared endangered last year.

Does an absolute duty to preserve all endangered species make sense in such places? In a recent essay entitled “A Time for Triage,” Columbia law professor Michael Gerrard argues that “the environmental community has trade-off denial. We don't recognize that it's too late to preserve everything we consider precious.” In his view, given the urgency of building the infrastructure to fight climate change, we need to be willing to let a species go after we've done our best to save it. Environmental lawyers adept at challenging fossil-fuel projects, using the ESA and other statutes, should consider holding their fire against renewable installations. “Just because you have bullets doesn't mean you shoot them in every direction,” Gerrard says. “You pick your targets.” In the long run, he and others argue, climate change poses a bigger threat to wildlife than wind turbines and solar farms do.

For now habitat loss remains the overwhelming threat. What's truly needed to preserve the U.S.'s wondrous biodiversity, both Stein and Ruhl say, is a national network of conserved ecosystems. That won't be built with our present politics. But two more practical initiatives might help.

The first is the Recovering America's Wildlife Act, which narrowly missed passage in 2022 and has been reintroduced this year. It builds on the success of the 1937 Pittman-Robertson Act, which funds state wildlife agencies through a federal excise tax on guns and ammunition. That law was adopted to address a decline in game species that had hunters alarmed. The state refuges and other programs it funded are why deer, ducks and Wild Turkeys are no longer scarce.

The recovery act would provide $1.3 billion a year to states and nearly $100 million to Native American tribes to conserve nongame species. It has bipartisan support, in part, Stein says, because it would help arrest the decline of a species before the ESA's “regulatory hammer” falls. Although it would be a large boost to state wildlife budgets, the funding would be a rounding error in federal spending. But last year Congress couldn't agree on how to pay for the measure. Passage “would be a really big deal for nature,” Curry says.

Oyster Mussel. Epioblasma capsaeformis.  Listed as Endangered: 1997. Status: Still endangered. Credit: © Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark

The second initiative that could promote species conservation is already underway: bringing landowners into the fold. Most wildlife habitat east of the Rocky Mountains is on private land. That's also where habitat loss is happening fastest. Some experts say conservation isn't likely to succeed unless the FWS works more collaboratively with landowners, adding carrots to the ESA's regulatory stick. Bean has long promoted the idea, including when he worked at the Interior Department from 2009 to early 2017. The approach started, he says, with the Red-cockaded Woodpecker.

When the ESA was passed, there were fewer than 10,000 Red-cockaded Woodpeckers left of the millions that had once lived in the Southeast. Humans had cut down the old pine trees, chiefly Longleaf Pine, that the birds excavate cavities in for roosting and nesting. An appropriate tree has to be large, at least 60 to 80 years old, and there aren't many like that left. The longleaf forest, which once carpeted up to 90 million acres from Virginia to Texas, has been reduced to less than three million acres of fragments.

In the 1980s the ESA wasn't helping because it provided little incentive to preserve forest on private land. In fact, Bean says, it did the opposite: landowners would sometimes clear-cut potential woodpecker habitat just to avoid the law's constraints. The woodpecker population continued to drop until the 1990s. That's when Bean and his Environmental Defense Fund colleagues persuaded the FWS to adopt “safe-harbor agreements” as a simple solution. An agreement promised landowners that if they let pines grow older or took other woodpecker-friendly measures, they wouldn't be punished; they remained free to decide later to cut the forest back to the baseline condition it had been in when the agreement was signed.

That modest carrot was inducement enough to quiet the chainsaws in some places. “The downward trends have been reversed,” Bean says. “In places like South Carolina, where they have literally hundreds of thousands of acres of privately owned forest enrolled, Red-cockaded Woodpecker numbers have shot up dramatically.”

The woodpecker is still endangered. It still needs help. Because there aren't enough old pines, land managers are inserting lined, artificial cavities into younger trees and sometimes moving birds into them to expand the population. They are also using prescribed fires or power tools to keep the longleaf understory open and grassy, the way fires set by lightning or Indigenous people once kept it and the way the woodpeckers like it. Most of this work is taking place, and most Red-cockaded Woodpeckers are still living, on state or federal land such as military bases. But a lot more longleaf must be restored to get the birds delisted, which means collaborating with private landowners, who own 80 percent of the habitat.

Leo Miranda-Castro, who retired last December as director of the FWS's southeast region, says the collaborative approach took hold at regional headquarters in Atlanta in 2010. The Center for Biological Diversity had dropped a “mega petition” demanding that the FWS consider 404 new species for listing. The volume would have been “overwhelming,” Miranda-Castro says. “That's when we decided, ‘Hey, we cannot do this in the traditional way.’ The fear of listing so many species was a catalyst” to look for cases where conservation work might make a listing unnecessary.

An agreement affecting the Gopher Tortoise shows what is possible. Like the woodpeckers, it is adapted to open-canopied longleaf forests, where it basks in the sun, feeds on herbaceous plants and digs deep burrows in the sandy soil. The tortoise is a keystone species: more than 300 other animals, including snakes, foxes and skunks, shelter in its burrows. But its numbers have been declining for decades.

Urbanization is the main threat to the tortoises, but timberland can be managed in a way that leaves room for them. Eager to keep the species off the list, timber companies, which own 20 million acres in its range, agreed to figure out how to do that—above all by returning fire to the landscape and keeping the canopy open. One timber company, Resource Management Service, said it would restore Longleaf Pine on about 3,700 acres in the Florida panhandle, perhaps expanding to 200,000 acres eventually. It even offered to bring other endangered species onto its land, which delighted Miranda-Castro: “I had never heard about that happening before.” Last fall the FWS announced that the tortoise didn't need to be listed in most of its range.

Miranda-Castro now directs Conservation Without Conflict, an organization that seeks to foster conversation and negotiation in settings where the ESA has more often generated litigation. “For the first 50 years the stick has been used the most,” Miranda-Castro says. “For the next 50 years we're going to be using the carrots way more.” On his own farm outside Fort Moore, Ga., he grows Longleaf Pine—and Gopher Tortoises are benefiting.

Whooping Crane. Grus americana.  Listed as Endangered: 1967. Status: Still endangered. Credit: © Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark

The Center for Biological Diversity doubts that carrots alone will save the reptile. It points out that the FWS's own models show small subpopulations vanishing over the next few decades and the total population falling by nearly a third. In August 2023 it filed suit against the FWS, demanding the Gopher Tortoise be listed.

The FWS itself resorted to the stick this year when it listed the Lesser Prairie-Chicken, a bird whose grassland home in the Southern Plains has long been encroached on by agriculture and the energy industry. The Senate promptly voted to overturn that listing, but President Biden promised to veto that measure if it passes the House.

B ehind the debates over strategy lurks the vexing question: Can we save all species? The answer is no. Extinctions will keep happening. In 2021 the FWS proposed to delist 23 more species—not because they had recovered but because they hadn't been seen in decades and were presumed gone. There is a difference, though, between acknowledging the reality of extinction and deliberately deciding to let a species go. Some people are willing to do the latter; others are not. Bean thinks a person's view has a lot to do with how much they've been exposed to wildlife, especially as a child.

Zygmunt Plater, a professor emeritus at Boston College Law School, was the attorney in the 1978 Snail Darter case, fighting for hundreds of farmers whose land would be submerged by the Tellico Dam. At one point in the proceedings Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., asked him, “What purpose is served, if any, by these little darters? Are they used for food?” Plater thinks creatures such as the darter alert us to the threat our actions pose to them and to ourselves. They prompt us to consider alternatives.

The ESA aims to save species, but for that to happen, ecosystems have to be preserved. Protecting the Northern Spotted Owl has saved at least a small fraction of old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest. Concern about the Red-cockaded Woodpecker and the Gopher Tortoise is aiding the preservation of longleaf forests in the Southeast. The Snail Darter wasn't enough to stop the Tellico Dam, which drowned historic Cherokee sites and 300 farms, mostly for real estate development. But after the controversy, the presence of a couple of endangered mussels did help dissuade the TVA from completing yet another dam, on the Duck River in central Tennessee. That river is now recognized as one of the most biodiverse in North America.

The ESA forced states to take stock of the wildlife they harbored, says Jim Williams, who as a young biologist with the FWS was responsible for listing both the Snail Darter and mussels in the Duck River. Williams grew up in Alabama, where I live. “We didn't know what the hell we had,” he says. “People started looking around and found all sorts of new species.” Many were mussels and little fish. In a 2002 survey, Stein found that Alabama ranked fifth among U.S. states in species diversity. It also ranks second-highest for extinctions; of the 23 extinct species the FWS recently proposed for delisting, eight were mussels, and seven of those were found in Alabama.

One morning this past spring, at a cabin on the banks of Shoal Creek in northern Alabama, I attended a kind of jamboree of local freshwater biologists. At the center of the action, in the shade of a second-floor deck, sat Sartore. He had come to board more species onto his photo ark, and the biologists—most of them from the TVA—were only too glad to help, fanning out to collect critters to be decanted into Sartore's narrow, flood-lit aquarium. He sat hunched before it, a black cloth draped over his head and camera, snapping away like a fashion photographer, occasionally directing whoever was available to prod whatever animal was in the tank into a more artful pose.

As I watched, he photographed a striated darter that didn't yet have a name, a Yellow Bass, an Orangefin Shiner and a giant crayfish discovered in 2011 in the very creek we were at. Sartore's goal is to help people who never meet such creatures feel the weight of extinction—and to have a worthy remembrance of the animals if they do vanish from Earth.

With TVA biologist Todd Amacker, I walked down to the creek and sat on the bank. Amacker is a mussel specialist, following in Williams's footsteps. As his colleagues waded in the shoals with nets, he gave me a quick primer on mussel reproduction. Their peculiar antics made me care even more about their survival.

There are hundreds of freshwater mussel species, Amacker explained, and almost every one tricks a particular species of fish into raising its larvae. The Wavy-rayed Lampmussel, for example, extrudes part of its flesh in the shape of a minnow to lure black bass—and then squirts larvae into the bass's open mouth so they can latch on to its gills and fatten on its blood. Another mussel dangles its larvae at the end of a yard-long fishing line of mucus. The Duck River Darter Snapper—a member of a genus that has already lost most of its species to extinction—lures and then clamps its shell shut on the head of a hapless fish, inoculating it with larvae. “You can't make this up,” Amacker said. Each relationship has evolved over the ages in a particular place.

The small band of biologists who are trying to cultivate the endangered mussels in labs must figure out which fish a particular mussel needs. It's the type of tedious trial-and-error work conservation biologists call “heroic,” the kind that helped to save California Condors and Whooping Cranes. Except these mussels are eyeless, brainless, little brown creatures that few people have ever heard of.

For most mussels, conditions are better now than half a century ago, Amacker said. But some are so rare it's hard to imagine they can be saved. I asked Amacker whether it was worth the effort or whether we just need to accept that we must let some species go. The catch in his voice almost made me regret the question.

“I'm not going to tell you it's not worth the effort,” he said. “It's more that there's no hope for them.” He paused, then collected himself. “Who are we to be the ones responsible for letting a species die?” he went on. “They've been around so long. That's not my answer as a biologist; that's my answer as a human. Who are we to make it happen?”

Robert Kunzig is a freelance writer in Birmingham, Ala., and a former senior editor at National Geographic, Discover and Scientific American .

Endangered Species Issue in the United States Essay

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In the past, widespread federal and private poisoning almost led to the extinction of the gray wolf in the United States (Goodall & Hudson, 2009).

After it was listed among the endangered species in northern America, the government and animal conservationist spent millions of dollars in ensuring that this endangered species regained its initial population size. The North America’s gray wolves have played a vital role in the ecosystem (Goodall & Hudson, 2009).

With the extinction of these carnivores in the North American habitats, trophic cascades in the ecosystem will undergo considerable changes (Cain, 2008). The alteration of trophic cascades affects the diversity and functioning of plants’ population.

Due to the increase in ungulates’ population, plants’ biomass will reduce and affect soil and water availability. Normally, plants’ roots hold the soil together and prevent soil erosion. With their destruction, soil erosion will be unavoidable. Correspondingly, the alteration of the soil composition through soil erosion results in the modification of biotic and a-biotic resources causing changes in habitats (Cain, 2008).

The presence of wolves in an ecosystem controls the distribution, conduct and foraging manner of the existing ungulates. In a research conducted in Yellow Stone National Park, the reintroduction of gray wolves resulted in behavioral change of most ungulates (Reiter, 2003).

The research established that most ungulates reduce the time they spend browsing woody vegetation upon the introduction of wolves in the national park. In this regard, the woody vegetation increased. Conversely, with the extinction of the gray wolves in the ecosystem, ungulates will have ample time to browse the woody vegetation.

This will lead to a decline in their number and may eventually become extinct. Likewise, the presence of wolves in a particular ecosystem can determine the behavior of scavengers. With the wolves’ extinction, the population of scavengers will decline as those unwilling to adapt and hunt on their own will starve and die (Swinburne & Brandenburg, 1999).

The existence of wolves in an ecosystem helps to eliminate the weak, diseased, injured and less fitting prey. In this regard, wolves ensure the sustenance of future generations of most ungulates through the passage of desired genes from the healthy and environmentally fitting preys (Reiter, 2003).

Thus, the extinction of wolves in our ecosystem will results in an increase in the ungulates population comprising of unhealthy and undesired preys. With the presence of unhealthy members of the prey, disease threats will compromise the future population (Reiter, 2003).

Wolves’ population determines an ecosystem’s mechanism, process and structures. Commonly, wolves influence the profusion of ungulates in an ecosystem (Mech, 1970). In this regard, plants’ composition and population is indirectly affected. With more wolves in an ecosystem, the number of ungulates will reduce.

This will lead to an increase in the plants’ biomass and diversity. Conversely, the extinction of the wolves’ population will result in an increase in the ungulates population resulting in the reduction and maybe extinction of some of the plant biomass and diversity (Mech, 1970).

Similarly, the extinction of gray wolves will result in an increase in the number of their competitors. These include the brown and black bears. The brown bears population will increase due to the sufficient presence of prey with the extinction of the grey wolves.

In addition, the black bears population will ultimately increase although the two species rarely compete over the same prey. Since gray wolves usually kill black bears’ cubs, their extinction means that the black bears population will increase.

Cain, M. L. (2008). Ecology . Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer Associates.

Goodall, J., Maynard, T., & Hudson, G. E. (2009). Hope for animals and their world: how endangered species are being rescued from the brink . New York: Grand Central Pub..

Mech, L. D. (1970). The wolf: the ecology and behavior of an endangered species, ([1 st ed.). Garden City, N.Y.: Published for the American Museum of Natural History by the Natural History Press.

Reiter, C. (2003). The gray wolf . Berkeley Heights, NJ: MyReportLinks.com Books.

Swinburne, S. R., & Brandenburg, J. (1999). Once a wolf: how wildlife biologists fought to bring back the gray wolf . Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin.

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Protecting Endangered Species

Still Only One Earth: Lessons from 50 years of UN sustainable development policy

Despite continued conservation efforts, the status of many endangered species remains unchanged. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) are the primary treaties tasked with protection of endangered species. But moving forward, species conservation efforts should expand to include lesser known species that serve important ecosystem services. ( Download PDF ) ( See all policy briefs ) ( Subscribe to ENB )

The Persian leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana), the largest subspecies of leopards, used to roam widely across Central Asia and the Caucasus. They are large spotted cats—about five feet in length—with slender hindquarters and long, thick tails. Both male and female leopards lead solitary lives, though they come together during winter mating. They are very territorial, patrolling wide home ranges to scent-mark trees, shrubs, and rocks. The leopard inhabits a wide variety of habitats: from mountain crags up to 3,000 meters in elevation, to grasslands and cold desert ecosystems, with a preference for cliff and rocky areas, as well as juniper and pistachio woodlands that give them cover for hunting.

During the past century, human-wildlife conflict, indiscriminate killing of their prey, habitat loss, and bounties incentivizing their killing have reduced their historic range by 72-84% (Jacobson et al., 2016). Today, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species—the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of species and subspecies, which uses a set of defined criteria to evaluate their extinction risk (Rodrigues et al., 2006)—the Persian leopard is endangered.

The story of the Persian leopard is the story of many species pushed by human action to the brink of extinction. Strong conservation measures can still reverse the course for some species. For many others, it is too late.

During the past century, human-wildlife conflict, indiscriminate killing of their prey, habitat loss, and bounties incentivizing their killing have reduced the leopard’s historic range by 72-84% JACOBSON ET AL., 2016

The foundations of global species conservation measures date back to the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment . Principle 2 of the Stockholm Declaration says “the natural resources of the earth, including the air, water, land, flora and fauna and especially representative samples of natural ecosystems, must be safeguarded for the benefit of present and future generations.” Principle 4 reads “Man has a special responsibility to safeguard and wisely manage the heritage of wildlife and its habitat, which are now gravely imperilled by a combination of adverse factors.”

Among the 109 recommendations found in the Stockholm Action Plan , Recommendation 99 calls for the preparation and adoption of an international treaty to regulate international trade in certain species of wild plants and animals. This treaty, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), had been drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of IUCN. As a result of the push provided by the Stockholm Conference, the Convention was finally adopted at a meeting of representatives of 80 countries in Washington, D.C. on 3 March 1973.

There are a few other relevant recommendations. Recommendation 29 draws attention to species of wildlife that may serve as indicators for future wide environmental disturbances. Recommendation 30 emphasizes drawing attention to the situation of animals endangered by their trade value. The Stockholm Declaration and Action Plan also legitimized the role of IUCN and especially the Red List, which had been established in 1964. In fact, IUCN was one of the few environmental organizations formally involved in the preparations of the Stockholm Conference and in the drafting and implementation of the three conventions that followed it: the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972), CITES, and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (1971).

What are Endangered Species: The Role of the IUCN Red List

Since its establishment, the IUCN Red List has been the key tool to assess the status of species and catalyze action for conservation and policy change. Through the List’s rigorous assessment processes, experts linked to the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s specialist groups collect information on a species’ range, population size, habitat and ecology, use and/or trade, threats, and conservation actions that inform necessary conservation decisions.

The assessments published in the IUCN Red List are used by governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and multilateral environmental agreements. The assessments drive conservation action and funding, albeit still in insufficient ways to always ensure saving species. In fact, Betts et al. (2020) noted that without successful communication between species experts, academics, policymakers, funders, and practitioners, IUCN Red List assessments may not lead to development and implementation of conservation action plans.

The IUCN Red List has nine categories to indicate how close a species is to becoming extinct. The closest to extinction is the “critically endangered” category, with a species example being the Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus), a subspecies found only in Iran that has dwindled to fewer than 50 animals remaining in the wild. The least critical category is defined as “least concern.” For example, the global brown bear (Ursus arctos) population is considered to be of “least concern” because it is large and spread over three continents, even though there are some local populations that are under threat. The categories in the middle, i.e., “vulnerable” and “endangered,” are for species considered under threat.

In other words, if a species is either critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable, it is in popular terms “endangered.”

This mismatch between the technical terms of the IUCN Red List and common language can lead to confusion. In 2016, a re-assessment of the snow leopard prompted an outcry from some members of the conservation community due the species’ being reclassified from endangered to vulnerable (McCarthy et al., 2016). Their anger was echoed by members of the public, in part because they did not understand “being vulnerable” under IUCN Red List criteria still means at high risk of extinction.

The way a species is assessed under the IUCN Red List can also determine whether such species deserve protection under two international treaties aimed at species conservation: CITES and the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). Listing an endangered species under either of these two conventions can catalyze further action and, possibly, save a species from extinction (Zahler & Rosen, 2013).

Without successful communication between species experts, academics, policy makers, funders, and practitioners, IUCN Red List assessment may not lead to development and implementation of conservation action plans. BETTS ET AL. (2020)

Regulating the Protection of Endangered Species

CITES and CMS are the key conventions tasked with regulating protection of endangered species.

CITES regulates international trade and therefore looks at the impact of trade on species conservation. Annually, international wildlife trade is estimated to be worth billions of dollars and to include hundreds of millions of plant and animal specimens. The trade is diverse, ranging from live animals and plants to an array of products derived from them, including food, exotic leather goods, wooden musical instruments, timber, tourist curios, and medicines. Since trade in wild animals and plants crosses borders between countries, the effort to regulate it requires international cooperation to safeguard certain species from over-exploitation. Today, CITES accords varying degrees of protection to more than 37,000 species of animals and plants, whether they are traded as live specimens, fur coats, or dried herbs (CITES, n.d.)

In the language of CITES, species listed under Appendix I are considered threatened with extinction and afforded the highest level of protection, including restrictions on commercial trade. Examples of the 931 species currently listed under Appendix 1 include gorillas (Gorilla sp.), tigers (Panthera tigris), and snow leopards (Panthera uncia). Appendix II includes species that, while currently not threatened with extinction, may become so without trade controls. It also includes species that resemble other listed species and must be regulated to effectively control the trade in those other listed species. Currently 34,419 species are listed under Appendix II, including saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica), wolf (Canis lupus), argali sheep (Ovis ammon), and kiang (Equus kiang). Appendix III includes a list of wildlife and plant species identified by particular CITES parties as being in need of international trade controls.

The purpose of CMS is conservation of migratory species, their habitats, and migration routes. “Migratory” is broadly defined as species that straddle international borders (Lewis & Trouwborst, 2019). Migratory species threatened with extinction are listed in Appendix I of the Convention. Appendix I listing is a mechanism to promote conservation measures called, in CMS terminology, “Concerted Action” among the range states of the listed species. CMS parties commit to ensure strict protections under national laws and conserving their habitats, mitigating obstacles to migration, among other threats. Migratory species viewed as benefiting from international cooperation are listed in Appendix II of the Convention (CMS, n.d.). To date, seven specialized regional agreements and 19 memoranda of understanding have been concluded for Appendix II species under the CMS.

Representative Frameworks for the Conservation of Endangered Species

The development of models tailored to conservation needs throughout migratory ranges is a unique feature of the CMS. Along these lines, there are two important initiatives benefiting endangered species in Africa and Central Asia under the CMS umbrella.

One is the Central Asian Mammals Initiative (CAMI) and its associated Programme of Work. Established in 2014, CAMI aims to strengthen the conservation of Central Asian migratory mammals through a common framework to coordinate conservation activities in the region and coherently address major threats to migratory species. By developing an initiative for Central Asian mammals, CMS is catalyzing collaboration between all stakeholders, with the aim of harmonizing and strengthening the implementation of the Convention (Rosen & Roettger, 2014). One of the most recent projects under CAMI is the proposed development of a regional strategy for the conservation of the Persian leopard.

The Joint CITES-CMS African Carnivores Initiative (ACI), established in 2017, stems from the recognition of the importance of synergies and coordination of measures toward species that are protected under both Conventions. Supported by IUCN Species Survival Commission ’s specialist groups, the Secretariats are tasked to drive effective conservation of African lion, leopard, cheetah, and wild dog, and help avoid duplicate activities and associated costs, and generate funding.

By developing an initiative for Central Asian mammals, CMS is catalyzing collaboration between all stakeholders, with the aim of harmonizing and strengthening the implementation of the Convention ROSEN & ROETTGER, 2014

There are also two other important frameworks, each focused on the conservation of single species. One is the Global Tiger Initiative Council (GTIC), and the other is the Global Snow Leopard Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP).

GTIC was originally set up as the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI), a global alliance of governments, international organizations, NGOs, and the private sector, with the goal to save tigers from extinction. Established by the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Smithsonian Institution, Save the Tiger Fund, and International Tiger Coalition (representing more than 40 NGOs), the initiative is led by the 13 tiger range countries. The St. Petersburg Declaration , adopted in 2010 at the Tiger Summit in Russia, defines the priorities.

GSLEP, propelled by GTI and established in 2013, is driven by 12 snow leopard range states, NGOs, and international organizations, which sit on a steering committee. The foundation of the GSLEP is 12 individual National Snow Leopard and Ecosystems Priorities (NSLEPs). Under GSLEP, specific activities are grouped under broad themes that correspond to the commitments of the Bishkek Declaration adopted at the 2013 Global Snow Leopard Conservation Forum (Zakharenka et al., 2016).

Some of these initiatives have successfully catalyzed attention, resources, and conservation action. They have received a high level of political attention, especially GTI in Russia and GSLEP in Kyrgyzstan, as respective hosts of the Tiger Summit and Snow Leopard Forum. However, some conservationists argue, especially in relation to tigers, that results have fallen short, and lack of transparency and accountability is compromising progress in tiger conservation efforts. Slappendel (2021) writes that “tiger-range countries are responsible for making tiger conservation efforts and holding themselves accountable for their methods and results. There’s no authority above them, so they can do whatever they want.

While the reach and influence of CAMI and ACI are more limited compared to GTI and GSLEP, they have also generated important resources for conservation and could likely have a stronger policy-driving role in the future.

Generally, these four frameworks serve as important examples for directing donor resources.

The Role of UN Agencies and Donors

The GEF, established in 1992, is the largest multilateral fund focused on enabling developing countries to invest in nature. It supports the implementation of major international environmental conventions including on biodiversity, climate change, chemicals, and desertification. Endangered species prioritized under CITES and CMS, such as GTI and GSLEP, are also prioritized for GEF funding.

In 2010, the GEF indicated it would provide up to USD 50 million in grants to save the tiger through contributions to be invested by developing countries using their GEF allocations in biodiversity, supplemented by investments from its REDD+ Program (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable use of forests, and enhancement of carbon stocks) (GEF, 2010). Since 1991, the GEF has invested nearly USD 100 million toward snow leopard projects implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The GSLEP Forum in 2013 catalyzed nine further GEF-financed, UNDP-implemented projects, representing an investment of about USD 45 million to support snow leopard range countries. These nine projects also leveraged over USD 200 million in co-financing from national and international partners (UNDP, 2016).

UNDP has emerged as one of the key implementing UN agencies when it comes to endangered species and conservation projects more broadly. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has also spearheaded initiatives for the conservation of endangered species, such as Vanishing Treasures . This EUR 9 million project, funded by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, seeks to better understand the vulnerability to climate change of the snow leopard, tiger, and gorilla and the ecosystems being affected.

Why Do Many Species Continue to be Endangered?

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warned in its Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services that “nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history—and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating” (IPBES, 2019).

Despite continued conservation efforts, the status of many endangered species remains unchanged—including tigers, lions, and cheetahs. The question is: Why? With our growing knowledge of the fragility of the planet’s ecosystems, why are we pushing entire species out of existence?

The limited amount of funding benefiting species research and conservation is one reason. Often these funds are short term, whereas to really see progress and results, a longer funding commitment is necessary. Some projects are also too narrowly focused on protection and enforcement, without seeking ways local communities can be part of the solution. Likewise, some projects do not address root causes of decline.

But there are also issues of capacity. In many countries that provide habitat for endangered species, there is limited technical capacity to protect such species. Local and national conservation organizations also would benefit from greater capacity building.

At the national level, species conservation may not be prioritized. This is often reflected in ministries tasked with both environment and agriculture or economic and mining issues—with the latter issues prioritized over conservation. Species conservation also does not operate in a vacuum, but must be considered alongside mechanisms to address threats to their survival, which may be exacerbated by conflicting development goals. For example, a development project aimed at improving access to water, through building dams and irrigation channels, may hurt access by salmon species to spawning grounds or damage riparian habitat. Finally, conservation organizations—with their own agendas and issues of competition for funding that leads to lack of cooperation—sometimes fail to create better synergies for conservation.

There are also many other endangered species that are not as well known or do not have the appeal of more popular endangered species, such as snow leopards or tigers. Some of these species have disappeared from large swaths of their range, including the striped hyaena (Hyaena hyaena), which can no longer be found in parts of Central Asia and Caucasus regions. The lesser-known Saint Lucia racer (Erythrolamprus ornatus), listed as Critically Endangered, numbers fewer than 20 individuals and is considered one of the rarest snakes in the world. Similarly, the Daguo Mulian tree (Magnolia grandis) is listed as critically endangered due to habitat loss for agricultural expansion and logging.

Moving Forward

Protecting iconic endangered species is still important for promoting policies and measures that can benefit entire ecosystems and many other endangered species. Nevertheless, species conservation efforts must expand to include many more species that are lesser known and serve important ecosystem services. Such efforts should also create incentives for local communities to conserve them, including through sustainable use when that is recognized as the only or the most effective measure. Finally, greater financial resources have to be allocated. Many hope the post-2020 global biodiversity framework will help guide the most pressing actions to keep entire species from being erased from our shared world.

Works Consulted

Betts, J., Young, R. P., Hilton-Taylor, C., Hoffmann, M., Rodríguez, J. P., Stuart, S. N., & Milner-Gulland, E. J. (2020). A framework for evaluating the impact of the IUCN Red List of threatened species. Conservation Biology: The Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology, 34(3), 632–643. doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13454

Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. (n.d.). What is CITES? cites.org/eng/disc/what.php

Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. (n.d.). CMS. cms.int/en/legalinstrument/cms

Global Environment Facility. (2010). Global Environment Facility to support $50 million in grants to save the tiger. thegef.org/newsroom/news/global-environmentfacility-support-50-million-grants-save-tiger

Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. (2019). Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3831673

Jacobson, A.P., Gerngross, P., Lemeris, Jr., J.R., Schoonover, R.F., Anco, C., Breitenmoser-Würsten, C., Durant, S.M., Farhadinia, M.S., Henschel, P., Kamler, J.F., Laguardia, A., Rostro-García, S., Stein, A.B., & Dollar, L. (2016). Leopard (Panthera pardus) status, distribution, and the research efforts across its range. PeerJ 4:e1974. doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1974

Lewis, M., & Trouwborst, A. (2019). Large carnivores and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS)—definitions, sustainable use, added value, and other emerging issues. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 7. frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fevo.2019.00491

McCarthy, T., Mallon, D., Jackson, R., Zahler, P., & McCarthy, K. (2017). Panthera uncia. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017. Panthera uncia (Snow Leopard) (iucnredlist.org)

Rodrigues, A.S.L., Pilgrim, J.D., Lamoreux, J.F., Hoffmann, M., & Brooks, T.M. (2006). The value of the IUCN Red List for conservation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 21(2), 71-76. doi.org/10.1016/j. tree.2005.10.010

Rosen, T., & Roettger, C. (2014). Central Asian Mammals Initiative: Saving the last migrations. CMS. cms.int/sites/default/files/publication/Central_Asian_Mammals_Initiative.pdf

Slappendel, C. (2021). What’s stopping some countries from keeping up with tiger conservation promises? Commentary. Mongabay news.mongabay.com/2021/11/whats-stopping-some-countries-from-keeping-up-with-tiger-conservationpromises-commentary/

UNDP. (2016). Silent Roar - UNDP and GEF in the snow leopard landscape. undp.org/publications/silent-roar-undpand-gef-snow-leopard-landscape

Zahler, P., & Rosen, T. (2013). Endangered mammals. Encyclopedia of Biodiversity. Elsevier.

Zakharenka, A., Sharma, K., Kochorov, C., Rutherford, B., Varma, K., Seth, A., Kushlin, A., Lumpkin, S., Seidensticker, J., Laporte, B., Tichomirow, B., Jackson, R. M., Mishra, C., Abdiev, B., Modaqiq, A. W., Wangchuk, S., Zhongtian, Z., Khanduri, S. K., Duisekeyev, B., … Yunusov, N. (2016). The Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program. Snow Leopards, 559–573. doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-802213-9.00045-6

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Government of Norway, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

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Government of Canada, Global Affairs Canada

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Essay on Endangered Species

Introduction to Endangered Species

“Endangered species” refers to organisms at risk of extinction due to declining populations and severe threats to their survival.

In the grand theater of Earth’s biodiversity , a cast of characters is so rare and precious that their presence adds a mystical allure to our planet’s narrative. From the elusive vaquita, the world’s smallest porpoise, to the majestic snow leopard, these creatures captivate our imaginations with their beauty and resilience. Yet, beneath their enchanting facade, a stark reality lies – their populations are dwindling at an alarming rate, making them endangered. As stewards of this magnificent stage, it is our solemn duty to protect these species, for their loss would not only dim the brilliance of our world but unravel the intricate threads of life itself.

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World’s Most Endangered Animals

Here’s a list represents a snapshot of some of the most critically endangered animals facing extinction,

The Significance of Endangered Species

Endangered species, in particular, hold immense significance for both the natural world and human society. Understanding their importance is essential for recognizing the urgency of conservation efforts. Here are several key reasons why endangered species matter:

• Biodiversity Maintenance: Endangered species represent the culmination of millions of years of evolution, each finely tuned to its specific ecological niche. They contribute to the rich tapestry of biodiversity, ensuring ecosystem balance and functionality. Losing even a single species can disrupt intricate food webs, leading to cascading effects on other organisms.
• Ecological Services: Endangered species often provide invaluable ecological services for human well-being. For example, pollinators like bees and butterflies help plants reproduce, which is important for many human foods. Predators help regulate prey populations, preventing overgrazing and maintaining ecosystem health.
• Genetic Diversity: Endangered species harbor unique genetic traits and adaptations that may be key to future medicine, agriculture , and industry innovations. By conserving genetic diversity within species, we preserve the potential for future scientific discoveries and technological advancements.
• Cultural and Aesthetic Value: Many endangered species hold cultural significance for indigenous communities and societies worldwide. They feature prominently in folklore, rituals, and traditions, embodying spiritual connections to the natural world. Additionally, their beauty and uniqueness inspire awe and wonder, enriching human experiences and fostering a sense of stewardship for the natural world.
• Economic Benefits: Endangered species contribute to local and global economies through ecotourism, recreational activities, and bioprospecting. Protected areas that harbor rare and endangered species attract visitors, generating revenue for local communities and supporting conservation efforts. Furthermore, natural products derived from endangered species, such as medicinal plants, have economic value and potential for sustainable use.

Causes of Endangerment

The plight of endangered species is often a result of various anthropogenic and natural factors that undermine their survival. Understanding these causes is paramount to formulating effective conservation strategies. Here are some of the primary contributors to the endangerment of species:

• Habitat Loss and Degradation: The relentless expansion of human activities, including agriculture, urbanization, logging, and infrastructure development, has led to widespread destruction and fragmentation of natural habitats. As habitats shrink, species lose crucial resources such as food, shelter, and breeding grounds, pushing them toward extinction.
• Exploitation and Overharvesting: Unsustainable exploitation of natural resources , including hunting, fishing, and logging, has decimated many species’ populations. The poaching of famous animals like tigers , rhinos, and elephants for the illicit wildlife trade is still a serious threat to their survival. Similarly, overfishing has depleted marine species, disrupting marine ecosystems.
• Climate Change: The biodiversity is facing an existential threat due to the swift rate of climate change . Rising temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and extreme weather events disrupt ecosystems and alter species distribution and abundance. Numerous species experience population decreases and local extinctions because they cannot travel or adapt to suitable environments.
• Pollution: Pollution in various forms, including habitat contamination, chemical runoff, and air and water pollution , poses a significant threat to wildlife. Pesticides, heavy metals, plastics , and other pollutants accumulate in ecosystems, poisoning species and disrupting their physiology, reproduction, and behavior.
• Invasive Species: Introducing non-native species into ecosystems, intentionally or unintentionally, can have devastating consequences for native flora and fauna. Invasive species outcompete native species for resources, prey upon them, or introduce diseases, leading to population declines and ecosystem degradation.
• Disease: Emerging infectious diseases, exacerbated by habitat destruction, climate change, and wildlife trade, pose a significant threat to vulnerable species. Diseases like chytridiomycosis in amphibians and white-nose syndrome in bats have caused widespread declines and extinctions in affected populations.
• Human-Wildlife Conflict: Conflicts between humans and wildlife escalate as human populations expand into wildlife habitats. Competition for resources, livestock depredation, and retaliatory killings of problem animals exacerbate the threats faced by endangered species, huge carnivores, and conflict-prone species.

Impacts of Endangered Species Loss

The loss of endangered species reverberates through ecosystems, economies , and societies, triggering a cascade of far-reaching impacts that underscore the interconnectedness of life on Earth. Exploring these impacts in detail reveals the profound consequences of species extinction:

1. Ecological Disruption

• Food Web Imbalance: Endangered species often occupy unique ecological niches, playing critical roles in maintaining the balance of food webs. Their disappearance can lead to population explosions of prey species or unchecked growth of invasive species, disrupting ecosystem dynamics.
• Habitat Degradation: Many endangered species are habitat specialists, relying on specific environments for survival. Their decline or extinction can signal habitat degradation or loss, exacerbating ecosystem fragmentation and reducing overall biodiversity.

2. Loss of Ecosystem Services

• Pollination and Seed Dispersal: Endangered pollinators and seed dispersers are essential for the reproduction of plant species and the regeneration of forests. Their decline threatens agricultural productivity, food security, and the resilience of natural ecosystems.
• Carbon Sequestration: Endangered species, including trees and marine organisms, play a vital role in carbon sequestration by using photosynthesis and storing carbon in biomass and soil. Their loss diminishes the capacity of ecosystems to mitigate climate change and adapt to rising carbon dioxide levels.

3. Economic Repercussions

• Decline in Tourism Revenue: Endangered species are often flagship species, attracting tourists and wildlife enthusiasts to ecotourism destinations. Their disappearance can lead to declining tourism revenue, negatively impacting local economies dependent on nature-based tourism.
• Loss of Ecosystem Services: Ecosystem services provided by endangered species, such as water purification, soil stabilization, and flood regulation, have tangible economic value. Their loss may necessitate costly human interventions to replicate these services artificially.

4. Human Health Implications

• Medicinal Resources: Endangered species are potential novel pharmaceutical compounds and substance sources. Their extinction would result in the loss of possible cures for diseases and ailments, hindering medical research and drug discovery efforts.
• Ecological Resilience: Healthy ecosystems, sustained by diverse and abundant species, provide critical ecosystem services that support human health and well-being. The loss of endangered species diminishes ecosystem resilience, increasing vulnerability to environmental stressors and disease outbreaks.

5. Ethical and Cultural Considerations

• Moral Responsibility: Humans, as planet stewards, have a moral obligation to safeguard and preserve biodiversity for future generations. Allowing endangered species to go extinct represents a failure to uphold this responsibility and a disregard for the intrinsic value of life.
• Cultural Heritage: Endangered species hold cultural significance for indigenous communities. They symbolize cultural identity, traditional knowledge, and a spiritual connection to the natural world. Their loss erodes cultural diversity and threatens traditional ways of life.

Challenges and Obstacles

Addressing the conservation of endangered species is fraught with numerous challenges and obstacles stemming from diverse sources ranging from human activities to systemic limitations. Having a thorough understanding of these obstacles is essential to coming up with workable solutions:

• Habitat Loss and Fragmentation: Rapid urbanization , agricultural expansion, and industrial development continue encroaching upon natural habitats, fragmenting ecosystems and reducing the available habitat for endangered species. Deforestation, land conversion, and infrastructure projects further exacerbate habitat loss, making establishing and maintaining viable populations of endangered species increasingly challenging.
• Human-Wildlife Conflict: Conflicts between humans and endangered species escalate as human populations expand and encroach upon wildlife habitats. Crop raiding, property damage, and livestock depredation fuel negative attitudes toward conservation efforts. Mitigating human-wildlife conflict requires innovative strategies such as habitat restoration, conflict resolution programs, and community-based conservation initiatives that balance the needs of both humans and wildlife.
• Poaching and Illegal Trade: Poachers and wildlife traffickers target endangered species for their valuable parts, including tusks, horns, fur, and organs. The illegal trade in wildlife items seriously threatens numerous species, pushing them into extinction. Strengthening law enforcement, enhancing anti-poaching measures, and reducing consumer demand for wildlife products are essential to combating poaching and illegal trade.
• Climate Change: Climate change increases the risks that already confront endangered species by disrupting ecosystems, altering habitats, and increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. Species with limited mobility or specialized habitat requirements are particularly vulnerable. Adaptation strategies, habitat restoration, and landscape connectivity initiatives can help endangered species cope with climate change’s impacts, but concerted global efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions are essential for long-term conservation success.
• Limited Resources and Funding: Inadequate funding, limited resources, and competing priorities often hamper conservation efforts. Conservation organizations and government agencies face challenges in securing sufficient financial support for conservation projects and initiatives. Innovative financing mechanisms, public-private partnerships, and philanthropic investments can help bridge funding gaps and leverage resources for endangered species conservation.
• Lack of Political Will and Policy Implementation: Despite international agreements and conservation policies, enforcing and implementing regulations to protect endangered species are often inadequate. Political will and commitment to conservation may vary among governments, hindering effective conservation action. Advocacy efforts, public pressure, and diplomatic engagement are essential for holding governments accountable and enforcing conservation laws and policies.
• Inadequate Scientific Knowledge and Data: Limited scientific knowledge and data gaps hinder conservation efforts by impeding our understanding of species biology, population dynamics, and ecological requirements. Incomplete information may lead to ineffective management strategies and conservation interventions. Investing in scientific research, monitoring programs, and data collection initiatives is essential for improving our understanding of endangered species and informing evidence-based conservation decision-making.

The Role of Individuals

Individuals play a pivotal role in conserving endangered species and catalyzing positive change at the grassroots level. By recognizing their capacity to make a difference and taking action in various ways, individuals can contribute significantly to efforts aimed at safeguarding biodiversity. Here are several key roles individuals can play in endangered species conservation:

• Raising Awareness: Individuals can raise awareness about the plight of endangered species by sharing information with their communities, networks, and social media platforms. By educating others about the importance of biodiversity and the threats facing endangered species, individuals can inspire collective action and foster a culture of conservation.
• Supporting Conservation Organizations: Individuals can financially support conservation organizations through donations, memberships, and fundraising events. By contributing to reputable conservation groups protecting endangered species, they can help fund vital research, habitat restoration projects, and on-the-ground conservation efforts.
• Advocacy and Policy Engagement: Individuals can advocate for stronger environmental policies and legislation to protect endangered species and their habitats. Individuals can amplify their voices and influence local, national, and international decision-making processes by writing letters to policymakers, signing petitions, and participating in advocacy campaigns.
• Promoting Sustainable Practices: Individuals can adopt sustainable lifestyle choices and encourage others to do the same. By reducing their ecological footprint, practicing responsible consumption, and supporting sustainable businesses, individuals can help minimize habitat destruction, pollution, and other threats to endangered species and their habitats.
• Participating in Citizen Science: Individuals can contribute valuable data to conservation efforts through citizen science initiatives. By participating in wildlife surveys, monitoring programs, and habitat restoration projects, individuals can provide scientists and conservationists with useful information to better understand and protect endangered species.
• Engaging in Ecotourism and Responsible Travel: Individuals can support conservation efforts through ecotourism and responsible travel practices. By visiting protected areas, wildlife reserves, and eco-friendly destinations, individuals can generate revenue for local communities and conservation initiatives while promoting the conservation of endangered species and their habitats.
• Inspiring Future Generations: Individuals can inspire and educate future generations about the importance of endangered species conservation. By engaging children and young people in outdoor activities, environmental education programs, and conservation initiatives, individuals can instill a lifelong appreciation for nature and a sense of stewardship for the planet.

Success Stories in Endangered Species Recovery

Despite the daunting challenges facing endangered species, notable success stories have demonstrated the effectiveness of conservation efforts. These stories provide hope and inspiration, highlighting nature’s resilience and the positive outcomes achievable through dedicated conservation initiatives. Here are several success stories in endangered species recovery:

1. California Condor Recovery Program

• Background: In the late 20th century, the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) was threatened with extinction due to habitat degradation, lead poisoning, and poaching. By the 1980s, the population had plummeted to just 22 individuals, prompting a collaborative effort to save the species from extinction.
• Conservation Strategies: The California Condor Recovery Program, a partnership between government agencies, conservation organizations, and zoos, implemented a comprehensive conservation strategy. This included captive breeding, habitat protection, lead poisoning mitigation, and public education initiatives.
• Key Achievements: The California condor population has rebounded significantly through decades of dedicated conservation efforts. As of [latest year], there are over 500 condors, with approximately half living in the wild across California, Arizona, Utah, and Baja California, Mexico. Successful captive breeding programs have increased population numbers and genetic diversity.
• Lessons Learned: The California condor recovery program underscores the importance of collaborative partnerships, adaptive management strategies, and long-term commitment to species recovery. It also highlights the effectiveness of captive breeding as a conservation tool for critically endangered species facing imminent extinction threats.

2. Black-footed Ferret Reintroduction Program

• Background: By the late 20th century, habitat loss and the decline of its primary prey, prairie dogs, led to the belief that the black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) had become extinct in the wild. The discovery of a small ferret population in Wyoming in 1981 led to intense conservation efforts to preserve the species.
• Conservation Strategies: The Black-footed Ferret Reintroduction Program, led by federal and state agencies, conservation organizations, and private landowners, focused on captive breeding, habitat restoration, and reintroduction efforts. Conservationists worked to establish viable populations of black-footed ferrets in their historic range across the Great Plains.
• Key Achievements: Through coordinated efforts, multiple stakeholders have successfully reintroduced black-footed ferret populations to several sites across North America. As of [latest year], over 1,000 black-footed ferrets live in the wild, and efforts are ongoing to expand their range and ensure genetic diversity.
• Lessons Learned: The black-footed ferret recovery program highlights the importance of adaptive management, landscape-scale conservation planning, and collaboration with landowners and stakeholders. It also emphasizes the value of engaging local communities in conservation efforts and addressing the underlying threats to species recovery, such as habitat loss and fragmentation.

3. Giant Panda Conservation Efforts

• Background: The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is an iconic symbol of wildlife conservation , facing threats from habitat loss, fragmentation, and poaching. By the late 20th century, the wild population had dwindled to a few hundred individuals, prompting international conservation efforts to save the species.
• Conservation Strategies: Giant panda conservation efforts have focused on habitat protection, captive breeding, and community-based conservation initiatives. Local communities, governmental entities, and conservation groups have created protected areas, replanted bamboo forests, and launched public awareness and education initiatives.
• Key Achievements: The giant panda population has rebounded thanks to decades of concerted conservation efforts, with the latest estimates indicating over 1,800 individuals in the wild. Captive breeding programs have also been successful, with pandas reintroduced to the wild in select areas. As a result of the giant panda’s recovery, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reduced the species’ status from “endangered” to “vulnerable” in 2016.
• Lessons Learned: The giant panda conservation success story highlights the importance of integrated conservation approaches, long-term commitment, and international collaboration. It also demonstrates the value of flagship species in raising awareness and mobilizing support for broader conservation efforts aimed at protecting entire ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots.

Preserving endangered species is not merely a conservation imperative but a moral responsibility to safeguard biodiversity. We can ensure that these amazing animals and their ecosystems survive by addressing the underlying issues and implementing effective conservation measures. Each success story in species recovery serves as a beacon of hope, demonstrating the potential for positive change when individuals, communities, and governments unite in the cause of conservation. As stewards of the planet, we must protect and cherish these vulnerable species, ensuring a future where all life thrives in harmony with nature.

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Endangered Species

An endangered species is a type of organism that is threatened by extinction. Species become endangered for two main reasons: loss of habitat and loss of genetic variation.

Biology, Ecology, Geography, Conservation

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What is an  endangered species ? It is a kind of plant or animal at risk of going extinct . Species become endangered for two main reasons. First, their habitat may disappear. The second way is if their population is too small.

Loss of Habitat

A loss of habitat can happen naturally. For example, nonavian dinosaurs lost their habitat about 65 million years ago. Scientists believe an asteroid hit Earth. It blasted dust into the air. Less sunlight reached plants, so they died. The air grew cooler. These changes killed off the nonavian dinosaurs, experts think.

Today, humans cause a lot of habitat loss. They cut down forests. They turn fields into farms . These changes affect wild species that live there. It may destroy the foods some animals need. There may not be safe places to raise young. Without a healthy habitat , some plants and animals may become endangered.

Loss of Genetic Variation

A population that is too small can also make a species endangered. How? Genetic variation. Genetic variations are small differences within a species. They help a species survive. Say one oak tree needs less water than another oak tree. If there is less rain, the first oak tree is more likely to live. It may give its genetic information to its seeds. Then that oak's seedlings may need less water, too.

The more genetic variation the better. It helps species survive habitat changes. It helps them survive diseases, too.

The Red List

One environmental group keeps a " Red List of Threatened Species ." This list has seven levels. It tells which species are in the most trouble. Maybe the population is shrinking fast. Maybe its habitat is disappearing.

Here are the different levels.

Least Concern and Near Threatened

Least concern is one level. Species of least concern have little chance of dying out. This level includes people as well as dogs ( Canis familiaris ) and cats ( Felis catus ).

A near threatened species is one that may be in trouble soon. For instance, some violets are near threatened . These flowers grow in Africa and South America. Their forest habitat is disappearing.

Vulnerable, Endangered and Critically Endangered

These three levels include species facing bigger trouble.

Vulnerable Species : Ethiopian Banana Frog

This small frog lives in Africa. Its forest habitat is being cut down.

Critically Endangered Species: Bolivian Chinchilla Rat

This rat lives in South America. Its habitat continues to shrink. The big threat is the loss of its forest habitat.

Extinct in the Wild and Extinct

A species is extinct in the wild when it can no longer live in its natural home. An animal may still live in zoos , though. Or a plant may grow with special care.

Extinct : Cu ban Macaw

The Cuban macaw ( Ara tricolor ) was a tropical parrot . They lived on the island of Cuba. People hunted them and made them pets . The last one died about 150 years ago.

Protecting Endangered Species

Why is it important to know if a species is endangered? If people know, they can take action. They can pass laws to stop hunting. They may stop people from destroying important habitats. Some species have survived because humans helped.

The brown pelican ( Pelecanus occidentalis ) is a good example. This seabird lives on the coasts of North and South America. In 1970, there were only 10,000 left. It was listed as vulnerable.

People took action. They raised baby pelicans and released them into the wild. They banned chemicals that harmed the birds. The number of brown pelicans climbed. Today, it is safe from extinction .

Convention on Biological Diversity The Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty to sustain and protect the diversity of life on Earth. This includes conservation, sustainability, and sharing the benefits of genetic research and resources. The Convention on Biological Diversity has adopted the IUCN Red List of endangered species in order to monitor and research species' population and habitats. Three nations have not ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity: Andorra, the Holy See (Vatican), and the United States.

Lonesome George Lonesome George was the only living member of the Pinta Island tortoise ( Chelonoidis abingdoni ) known to exist. The Pinta Island tortoise was only found on Pinta, one of the Galapagos Islands. The Charles Darwin Research Station, a scientific facility in the Galapagos, offered a $10,000 reward to any zoo or individual for locating a single Pinta Island tortoise female. On June 25, 2012, Lonesome George died, leaving one more extinct species in the world.

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Conservation

In defense of biodiversity: why protecting species from extinction matters.

By Carl Safina • February 12, 2018

A number of biologists have recently made the argument that extinction is part of evolution and that saving species need not be a conservation priority. But this revisionist thinking shows a lack of understanding of evolution and an ignorance of the natural world. 

A few years ago, I helped lead a ship-based expedition along south Alaska during which several scientists and noted artists documented and made art from the voluminous plastic trash that washes ashore even there. At Katmai National Park, we packed off several tons of trash from as distant as South Asia. But what made Katmai most memorable was: huge brown bears. Mothers and cubs were out on the flats digging clams. Others were snoozing on dunes. Others were patrolling.

During a rest, several of us were sitting on an enormous drift-log, watching one mother who’d been clamming with three cubs. As the tide flooded the flat, we watched in disbelief as she brought her cubs up to where we were sitting — and stepped up on the log we were on. There was no aggression, no tension; she was relaxed. We gave her some room as she paused on the log, and then she took her cubs past us into a sedge meadow. Because she was so calm, I felt no fear. I felt the gift.

In this protected refuge, bears could afford a generous view of humans. Whoever protected this land certainly had my gratitude.

In the early 20th century, a botanist named Robert F. Griggs discovered Katmai’s volcanic “Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.” In love with the area, he spearheaded efforts to preserve the region’s wonders and wildlife. In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson established Katmai National Monument (now Katmai National Park and Preserve ), protecting 1,700 square miles, thus ensuring a home for bear cubs born a century later, and making possible my indelible experience that day. As a legacy for Griggs’ proclivity to share his love of living things, George Washington University later established the Robert F. Griggs Chair in Biology.

That chair is now occupied by a young professor whose recent writing probably has Griggs spinning in his grave. He is R. Alexander Pyron . A few months ago,  The Washington Post published a “ Perspective” piece by Pyron that is an extreme example of a growing minority opinion in the conservation community, one that might be summarized as, “Humans are profoundly altering the planet, so let’s just make peace with the degradation of the natural world.” 

No biologist is entitled to butcher the scientific fundamentals on which they hang their opinions.

Pyron’s essay – with lines such as, “The only reason we should conserve biodiversity is for ourselves, to create a stable future for human beings” and “[T]he impulse to conserve for conservation’s sake has taken on an unthinking, unsupported, unnecessary urgency” – left the impression that it was written in a conservative think tank, perhaps by one of the anti-regulatory zealots now filling posts throughout the Trump administration. Pyron’s sentiments weren’t merely oddly out of keeping with the legacy of the man whose name graces his job title. Much of what Pyron wrote is scientifically inaccurate. And where he stepped out of his field into ethics, what he wrote was conceptually confused.

Pyron has since posted, on his website and Facebook page, 1,100 words of frantic backpedaling that land somewhere between apology and retraction, including mea culpas that he “sensationalized” parts of his own argument and “cavalierly glossed over several complex issues.” But Pyron’s original essay and his muddled apology do not change the fact that the beliefs he expressed reflect a disturbing trend that has taken hold among segments of the conservation community. And his article comes at a time when conservation is being assailed from other quarters, with a half-century of federal protections of land being rolled back, the Endangered Species Act now more endangered than ever, and the relationship between extinction and evolution being subjected to confused, book-length mistreatment.

Pyron’s original opinion piece, so clear and unequivocal in its assertions, is a good place to unpack and disentangle accelerating misconceptions about the “desirability” of extinction that are starting to pop up like hallucinogenic mushrooms.

In recent years, some biologists and writers have been distancing themselves from conservation’s bedrock idea that in an increasingly human-dominated world we must find ways to protect and perpetuate natural beauty, wild places, and the living endowment of the planet. In their stead, we are offered visions of human-dominated landscapes in which the stresses of destruction and fragmentation spur evolution. 

White rhinoceros ( Ceratotherium simum ). Source: Herman Pijpers/ Flickr

Conservation International ditched its exuberant tropical forest graphic for  a new corporate logo  whose circle and line were designed to suggest a human head and outstretched arms. A few years ago, Peter Kareiva, then chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy,  said , “conservationists will have to jettison their idealized notions of nature, parks, and wilderness,” for  “a more optimistic, human-friendly vision.” Human annihilation of the passenger pigeon, he wrote, caused “no catastrophic or even measurable effects,” characterizing the total extinction of the hemisphere’s most abundant bird — whose population went from billions to zero inside a century (certainly a “measurable effect” in itself) — as an example of nature’s “resilience.”

British ecologist Chris Thomas’s recent book, Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature is Thriving in an Age of Extinction, argues that the destruction of nature creates opportunities for evolution of new lifeforms that counterbalance any losses we create, an idea that is certainly optimistic considering the burgeoning lists of endangered species. Are we really ready to consider that disappearing rhinos are somehow counterbalanced by a new subspecies of daisy in a railroad track? Maybe it would be simpler if Thomas and his comrades just said, “We don’t care about nature.’’

Enter Pyron, who — at least in his initial essay — basically said he doesn’t. He’s entitled to his apathy, but no biologist is entitled to butcher the scientific fundamentals on which they hang their opinions.

Pyron began with a resonant story about his nocturnal rediscovery of a South American frog that had been thought recently extinct. He and colleagues collected several that, he reassured us, “are now breeding safely in captivity.” As we breathed a sigh of relief, Pyron added, “But they will go extinct one day, and the world will be none the poorer for it.” 

The conviction that today’s slides toward mass extinction are not inevitable spurred the founding of the conservation movement.

I happen to be writing this in the Peruvian Amazon, having just returned from a night walk to a light-trap where I helped a biologist collect moths. No one yet knows how many species live here. Moths are important pollinators. Knowing them helps detangle a little bit of how this rainforest works. So it’s a good night to mention that the number of species in an area carries the technical term “species richness.” More is richer, and fewer is, indeed, poorer. Pyron’s view lies outside scientific consensus and societal values. 

Pyron wasn’t concerned about his frogs going extinct, because, “Eventually, they will be replaced by a dozen or a hundred new species that evolve later.” But the timescale would be millennia at best — meaningless in human terms — and perhaps never; hundreds of amphibians worldwide are suffering declines and extinctions, raising the possibility that major lineages and whole groups of species will vanish. Pyron seemed to have no concerns about that possibility, writing, “Mass extinctions periodically wipe out up to 95 percent of all species in one fell swoop; these come every 50 million to 100 million years.”

But that’s misleading. “Periodically” implies regularity. There’s no regularity to mass extinctions. Not in their timing, nor in their causes. The mass extinctions are not related. Three causes of mass extinctions — prolonged worldwide atmosphere-altering volcanic eruptions; a dinosaur-snuffing asteroid hit; and the spreading agriculture, settlement, and sheer human appetite driving extinctions today — are unrelated.

Rio Pescado stubfoot toad ( Atelopus balios ). Source: De Investigación y Conservación de Anfibios/ Flickr

The conviction that today’s slides toward mass extinction are not inevitable, and could be lessened or avoided, spurred the founding of the conservation movement and created the discipline of conservation biology.

But Pyron seems unmoved. “Extinction is the engine of evolution, the mechanism by which natural selection prunes the poorly adapted and allows the hardiest to flourish,” he declared. “Species constantly go extinct, and every species that is alive today will one day follow suit. There is no such thing as an ‘endangered species,’ except for all species.”

Let us unpack. Extinction is not evolution’s driver; survival is. The engine of evolution is survival amidst competition. It’s a little like what drives innovation in business. To see this, let’s simply compare the species diversity of the Northern Hemisphere, where periodic ice sheets largely wiped the slate clean, with those of the tropics, where the evolutionary time clock continued running throughout. A couple of acres in eastern temperate North America might have a dozen tree species or fewer. In the Amazon a similar area can have 300 tree species. All of North American has 1,400 species of trees; Brazil has 8,800. All of North America has just over 900 birds; Colombia has 1,900 species. All of North America has 722 butterfly species. Where I am right now, along the Tambopata River in Peru, biologists have tallied around 1,200 butterfly species.

Competition among living species drives proliferation into diversified specialties. Specialists increasingly exploit narrowing niches. We can think of this as a marketplace of life, where little competition necessitates little specialization, thus little proliferation. An area with many types of trees, for instance, directly causes the evolution of many types of highly specialized pollinating insects, hummingbirds, and pollinating bats, who visit only the “right” trees. Many flowering plants are pollinated by just one specialized species.

Pyron muddles several kinds of extinctions, then serves up further misunderstanding of how evolution works. So let’s clarify. Mass extinctions are global; they involve the whole planet. There have been five mass extinctions and we’ve created a sixth . Past mass extinctions happened when the entire planet became more hostile. Regional wipeouts, as occurred during the ice ages, are not considered mass extinctions, even though many species can go extinct. Even without these major upheavals there are always a few species blinking out due to environmental changes or new competitors. And there are pseudo-extinctions where old forms no longer exist, but only because their descendants have changed through time. 

New species do not suddenly “arise,” nor are they really new. They evolve from existing species, as population gene pools change.

Crucially for understanding the relationship between extinction and evolution is this: New species do not suddenly “arise,” nor are they really new. New species evolve from existing species, as population gene pools change. Many “extinct” species never really died out; they just changed into what lives now. Not all the dinosaurs went extinct; theropod dinosaurs survived. They no longer exist because they evolved into what we call birds. Australopithecines no longer exist, but they did not all go extinct. Their children morphed into the genus Homo, and the tool- and fire-making Homo erectus may well have survived to become us. If they indeed are our direct ancestor — as some species was — they are gone now, but no more “extinct” than our own childhood. All species come from ancestors, in lineages that have survived.

Pyron’s contention that the “hardiest” flourish is a common misconception. A sloth needs to be slow; a faster sloth is going to wind up as dinner in a harpy eagle nest. A white bear is not “hardier” than a brown one; the same white fur that provides camouflage in a snowy place will scare away prey in green meadow. Bears with genes for white fur flourished in the Arctic, while brown bears did well amidst tundra and forests. Polar bears evolved from brown bears of the tundra; they got so specialized that they separated, then specialized further. Becoming a species is a process, not an event. “New” species are simply specialized descendants of old species.

True extinctions beget nothing. Humans have recently sped the extinction rate by about a thousand times compared to the fossil record. The fact that the extinction of dinosaurs was followed, over tens of millions of years, by a proliferation of mammals, is irrelevant to present-day decisions about rhinos, elephant populations, or monarch butterflies. Pyron’s statement, “There is no such thing as an ‘endangered species,’ except for all species,” is like saying there are no endangered children except for all children. It’s like answering “Black lives matter” with “All lives matter.” It’s a way of intentionally missing the point. 

Chestnut-sided warbler ( Setophaga pensylvanica ). Source: Francesco Veronesi/ Wikimedia

Here’s the point: All life today represents non-extinctions; each species, every living individual, is part of a lineage that has not gone extinct in a billion years.

Pyron also expressed the opinion that “the only reason we should conserve biodiversity is for ourselves …” I don’t know of another biologist who shares this opinion. Pyron’s statement makes little practical sense, because reducing the diversity and abundance of the living world will rob human generations of choices, as values change. Save the passenger pigeon? Too late for that. Whales? A few people acted in time to keep most of them. Elephants? Our descendants will either revile or revere us for what we do while we have the planet’s reins in our hands for a few minutes. We are each newly arrived and temporary tourists on this planet, yet we find ourselves custodians of the world for all people yet unborn. A little humility, and forbearance, might comport.

Thus Pyron’s most jarring assertion: “Extinction does not carry moral significance, even when we have caused it.” That statement is a stranger to thousands of years of philosophy on moral agency and reveals an ignorance of human moral thinking. Moral agency issues from an ability to consider consequences. Humans are the species most capable of such consideration. Thus many philosophers consider humans the only creatures capable of acting as moral agents. An asteroid strike, despite its consequences, has no moral significance. Protecting bears by declaring Katmai National Monument, or un-protecting Bears Ears National Monument, are acts of moral agency. Ending genetic lineages millions of years old, either actively or by the willful neglect that Pyron advocates, certainly qualifies as morally significant.

Do we really wish a world with only what we “rely on for food and shelter?” Do animals have no value if we don’t eat them?

How can we even decide which species we “directly depend’’ upon? We don’t directly depend on peacocks or housecats, leopards or leopard frogs, humpback whales or hummingbirds or chestnut-sided warblers or millions of others. Do we really wish a world with only what we “rely on for food and shelter,” as Pyron seemed to advocate? Do animals have no value if we don’t eat them? I happen not to view my dogs as food, for instance. Things we “rely on” make life possible, sure, but the things we don’t need make life worthwhile.

When Pyron wrote, “Conservation is needed for ourselves and only ourselves… If this means fewer dazzling species, fewer unspoiled forests, less untamed wilderness, so be it,” he expressed a dereliction of the love, fascination, and perspective that motivates the practice of biology.

Here is a real biologist, Alfred Russell Wallace, co-discoverer of evolution by natural selection:

I thought of the long ages of the past during which the successive generations of these things of beauty had run their course … with no intelligent eye to gaze upon their loveliness, to all appearances such a wanton waste of beauty… . This consideration must surely tell us that all living things were not made for man… . Their happiness and enjoyments, their loves and hates, their struggles for existence, their vigorous life and early death, would seem to be immediately related to their own well-being and perpetuation alone. —The Malay Archipelago, 1869

At the opposite pole of Wallace’s human insight and wonder, Pyron asked us to become complicit in extinction. “The goals of species conservation have to be aligned with the acceptance that large numbers of animals will go extinct,” he asserted. “Thirty to 40 percent of species may be  threatened  with extinction in the near future, and their loss may be inevitable. But both the planet and humanity can probably survive or even thrive in a world with fewer species … The species that we rely on for food and shelter are a tiny proportion of total biodiversity, and most humans live in — and rely on — areas of only moderate biodiversity, not the Amazon or the Congo Basin.”

African elephant ( Loxodonta africana ). Source: Flowcomm/ Flickr

Right now, in the Amazon as I type, listening to nocturnal birds and bugs and frogs in this towering emerald cathedral of life, thinking such as Pyron’s strikes me as failing to grasp both the living world and the human spirit. 

The massive destruction that Pyron seems to so cavalierly accept isn’t necessary. When I was a kid, there were no ospreys, no bald eagles, no peregrine falcons left around New York City and Long Island where I lived. DDT and other hard pesticides were erasing them from the world. A small handful of passionate people sued to get those pesticides banned, others began breeding captive falcons for later release, and one biologist brought osprey eggs to nests of toxically infertile parents to keep faltering populations on life support. These projects succeeded. All three of these species have recovered spectacularly and now again nest near my Long Island home. Extinction wasn’t a cost of progress; it was an unnecessary cost of carelessness. Humans could work around the needs of these birds, and these creatures could exist around development. But it took some thinking, some hard work, and some tinkering.

It’s not that anyone thinks humans have not greatly changed the world, or will stop changing it. Rather, as the great wildlife ecologist Aldo Leopold wrote in his 1949 classic A Sand County Almanac , “To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.”

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Faced with heavier rains, cities scramble to control polluted runoff, as canadian river shrivels, northern communities call for a highway, in warming world, global heat deaths are grossly undercounted, biodiversity, grim dilemma: should we kill one owl species to save another, on gulf coast, an activist rallies her community against gas exports, with co2 levels rising, world’s drylands are turning green, as world’s springs vanish, ripple effects alter ecosystems, the race to save glacial ice records before they melt away, turning brownfields to blooming meadows, with the help of fungi.

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News from the Columbia Climate School

Why Endangered Species Matter

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was established in 1973 to protect “imperiled species and the ecosystems upon which they depend” and help them recover.

The Trump administration has put forth a number of proposals that would weaken the ESA. These include measures to allow for the consideration of economic impacts when enforcing the ESA, ending the practice of automatically giving threatened species the same protection as endangered species, and making it easier to remove species from the endangered list.

In a way, this is nothing new because the ESA has been under attack for decades from construction, development, logging, water management, fossil fuel extraction and other industries that contend the act stifles economic development. But between 2016 and 2018 alone, there were almost 150 attempts to undercut the ESA; and last year, from July 8 to 22, Republicans in Congress or the Trump administration introduced 24 such measures and spending bill riders.

These bills included efforts to remove the gray wolf’s protected status in Wyoming and the western Great Lakes; a plan to remove from the endangered list the American burying beetle that lives on oil-rich land; and a strategy to roll back protection of the sage-grouse, which also inhabits oil-rich land in the West and whose numbers have declined 90 percent since the West was first settled. The Trump Administration recently opened up nine million acres of sage-grouse habitat to drilling and mining.

Endangered species, if not protected, could eventually become extinct—and extinction has a myriad of implications for our food, water, environment and even health.

Extinction rates are accelerating

Ninety-nine percent of all species that have ever lived have gone extinct over the course of five mass extinctions, which, in the past, were largely a result of natural causes such as volcano eruptions and asteroid impacts. Today, the rate of extinction is occurring 1,000 to 10,000 times faster because of human activity. The main modern causes of extinction are the loss and degradation of habitat (mainly deforestation), over exploitation (hunting, overfishing), invasive species, climate change, and nitrogen pollution.

There are also other threats to species such as the pervasive plastic pollution in the ocean—a recent study found that 100 percent of sea turtles had plastic or microplastic in their systems.

Emerging diseases affecting more and more wildlife species such as bats, frogs and salamanders are the result of an increase in travel and trade, which allows pests and pathogens to hitch rides to new locations, and warming temperatures that enable more pests to survive and spread. Wildlife trafficking also continues to be a big problem because for some species, the fewer members there are, the more valuable they become to poachers and hunters.

How many species are endangered?

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species , over 26,500 species are in danger of extinction. This includes 40 percent of amphibians, 34 percent of conifers, 33 percent of reef-building corals , 25 percent of mammals and 14 percent of birds. In the U.S., over 1,600 species are listed as threatened or endangered.

A 2018 report by the Endangered Species Coalition found that ten species in particular are “imperiled” by the Trump administration’s proposals: California condor, giraffe, Hellbender salamander, Humboldt marten, leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles, red wolf, rusty patched bumble bee,

San Bernardino kangaroo rat, West Indian manatee, and Western yellow-billed cuckoo.

The web of life

While it may seem unimportant if we lose one salamander or rat species, it matters because all species are connected through their interactions in a web of life. A balanced and biodiverse ecosystem is one in which each species plays an important role and relies on the services provided by other species to survive. Healthy ecosystems are more productive and resistant to disruptions.

A recent study found that extreme environmental change could trigger an “extinction domino effect.” One of the study’s authors said, “Because all species are connected in the web of life, our paper demonstrates that even the most tolerant species ultimately succumb to extinction when the less-tolerant species on which they depend disappear.” So saving one species means saving its habitat and the other species that live there too.

“When you lose one species, it affects the ecosystem and everything around it gets a little bit more fragile while it adapts to change,” said Kelsey Wooddell , assistant director of the Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability. “Even if it’s not a keystone species [a species that others in an ecosystem depend on], its loss will weaken the functionality of the entire ecosystem, which just makes it easier for that ecosystem to stop working.”

What are the consequences of extinction?

Altering ecosystems through cascading effects

If a species has a unique function in its ecosystem, its loss can prompt cascading effects through the food chain (a “trophic cascade”), impacting other species and the ecosystem itself.

An often-cited example is the impact of the wolves in Yellowstone Park, which were hunted to near extinction by 1930. Without them, the elk and deer they had preyed upon thrived, and their grazing decimated streamside willows and aspens, which had provided habitat for songbirds. This left the stream banks susceptible to erosion, and a decline in songbirds allowed mosquitoes and other insects the birds would have eaten to multiply. When the wolves were reintroduced to the park in 1995, they once again preyed on the elk; plant life returned to the stream banks and along with it, birds, beavers, fish and other animals. (Note: David Bernhardt, acting secretary of the Department of the Interior, just announced a proposal to strip gray wolves of their endangered status in the Lower 48 states.)

Kelp forests are another classic example. They play an important role in coastal ecosystems because they provide habitat for other species, protect the coastline from storm surges and absorb carbon dioxide.

Yet kelp forests are rapidly getting mowed down by exploding numbers of purple sea urchin. California sea otters eat the purple sea urchins that feed on giant kelp. These otters used to number in the hundreds of thousands to millions, but their population has been reduced to about 3,000 as a result of unchecked hunting in the 19th century and pollution. Moreover, in 2013 the sunflower starfish, which also eats purple sea urchins, began dying because of a virus that was likely exacerbated by warmer waters. Without the sea otter and the sunflower starfish predators, the purple sea urchin began feasting on the kelp forests, which declined 93 percent between 2013 and 2018. (A new study   found that kelp forests are now also threatened by ocean heat waves.) The explosion of sea urchins not only damaged the kelp ecosystem, it also had serious impacts on Northern California’s red urchins that are valued for sushi. Fish that need the kelp forests for spawning, such as sculpin, rock cod and red snapper may become vulnerable in the future as well.

As another example, Wooddell explained that on Guam, after the invasive brown tree snake was accidentally introduced to the island in the 1950s, 10 of the island’s 12 endemic bird species went extinct. “Typically birds eat seeds and spread seeds elsewhere on the island but that is no longer a functioning ecosystem,” she said. “So the forest and the trees have decreased a lot. And Guam is covered in spiders because the birds are not there to eat them.”

Losing apex species has multiple effects

Eliminating the large predators at the top of the food chain, the “apex species,” may be humans’ most serious impact on nature, according to one study . These large species are more vulnerable because they live longer, reproduce more slowly, have small populations, and need more food and a greater habitat area. Scientists say their loss has played a role in pandemics, fires, the decline of valued species and the rise of invasive ones, the reduction of ecosystem services, and decreased carbon sequestration.

Elephants are an apex species that may go extinct in our lifetime, as a result of tourism, habitat loss and poaching for ivory. This could dramatically change ecosystems in Africa and Asia. Through consumption and digestion, elephants disperse more seeds farther than any other animals; this fosters the growth of plants and trees that birds, bats and other animals depend upon for food and shelter.

Elephants also dig water holes that all animals share, and they fertilize the soil with their rich dung, which provides food for other animals.

The loss of apex species can also affect wildfires. After rinderpest, an infectious virus, wiped out many plant-eating wildebeest and buffalo in East Africa in the late 1800s, plants flourished. During the dry season, this over-abundance of vegetation spurred an increase in wildfires. In the 1960s, after rinderpest was eliminated through vaccinations, the wildebeest and buffalo returned. The ecosystem went from shrubbery to grasslands again, decreasing the amount of combustible vegetation, and the wildfires decreased.

Jeopardizing pollination

Seventy-five percent of the world’s food crops are partially or completely pollinated by insects and other animals, and practically all flowering plants in the tropical rainforest are pollinated by animals. The loss of pollinators could result in a decrease in seed and fruit production, leading ultimately to the extinction of many important plants.

Flying foxes, also known as fruit bats, are the only pollinators of some rainforest plants. They have been over-hunted in tropical forests with several species going extinct. One study noted that 289 plant species, including eucalyptus and agave, rely on flying foxes to reproduce; in turn, these plants were responsible for producing 448 valuable products.

Bees pollinate over 250,000 species of plants, including most of the 87 crops that humans rely on for food, such as almonds, apples and cucumbers.

But in recent years, large populations of bees have been wiped out by the mysterious “colony collapse disorder” wherein adult honeybees disappear from their hive, likely in response to numerous stressors.

Over the last 20 years in the U.S., monarch butterflies, which pollinate many wildflowers, have decreased 90 percent. The rusty-patched bumble bee, another important pollinator and the first bee species to be put on the endangered list, now only occupies one percent of its former range.

Insect populations overall are declining due to climate change, habitat degradation, herbicides and pesticides. A 2014 review of insect studies found that most monitored species had decreased by about 45 percent. And a German study  found 75 percent fewer flying insects after just 27 years. As insect populations are reduced, the small animals, fish and birds that rely on them for food are being affected, and eventually the predators of fish and birds will feel the impacts as well. One entomologist who had studied insects in the rainforest in the 1970s returned in 2010 to find an up to 60-fold reduction. His study reported “a bottom-up trophic cascade and consequent collapse of the forest food web.”

Endangering the food chain

Plankton, tiny plant and animal organisms that live in the ocean or fresh water, make up the foundation of the marine food chain. Phytoplankton are critical to the health of oceans and the planet because they consume carbon dioxide and produce oxygen during photosynthesis.

In 2010, researchers found that phytoplankton had decreased 40 percent globally since 1950, and attributed the decline to rising sea surface temperatures. The scientists speculated that the warming surface waters did not mix well with the cooler, deeper waters rich in nutrients that phytoplankton need. In addition, zooplankton are very sensitive to slight changes in the amount of oxygen in the ocean, and may be unable to adapt as areas of low oxygen expand due to climate change.

The quantity and quality of plankton also affects the nutrition of other creatures further up the food chain. In the Mediterranean Sea, the biomass of sardines and anchovies declined by one-third in just ten years. One scientist speculated that this is because the sardines’ and anchovies’ normal plankton had disappeared, so they had to resort to eating a less nutritious species of plankton with fewer calories. Changes in plankton quality could be a result of water temperature, pollution or lack of nutrients, but scientists are not exactly sure why the plankton makeup in some places is changing. If it is due to global warming and pollution, some say the situation could worsen.

However, Sonya Dyhrman, a professor in Columbia University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences who studies phytoplankton with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, is more sanguine about the future. “Microbes like phytoplankton can adapt, can acclimate, and can evolve, so I worry less about lineages of phytoplankton going extinct and more about how phytoplankton community composition will change in the future ocean,” said Dyhrman.

A different community composition of phytoplankton could change the food web structure, but Dyhrman is not really worried about the total collapse of fisheries. She is concerned, however, that “there could be changes in ocean ecosystems and we don’t really know what those changes will be. What will the architecture of that ecosystem look like in the future? The problem is, the ocean is already changing and we don’t understand the architecture of the ecosystem right now well enough to predict what will happen in the future.“

Losing nature’s therapeutic riches

More than a quarter of prescription medications contain chemicals that were discovered through plants or animals. Penicillin was derived from a fungus. Scientists are studying the venom of some tarantulas to see if one of its compounds could help cure diseases such as Parkinson’s. One molecule from a rare marine bacterium could be the basis of a new way to treat to melanoma.

Scientists have so far identified about 1.7 million different types of organisms, but between 10 and 50 million species are thought to exist on Earth.

Who knows what substances or capabilities some of these species might possess that could help treat diseases and make human lives easier?

Destroying livelihoods

According to a study for the U.N., the continued loss of species could cost the world 18 percent of global economic output by 2050.

Already, a number of industries have been economically impacted by species loss. The collapse of bee populations has hurt many in the $50 billion-a-year global honey industry. Atlantic cod in the waters off of Newfoundland formed the basis of the local economy since the 15 th century — until overfishing the cod destroyed the livelihoods of local fishermen.

What you can do about extinction

Extinction is hard to see. We may not realize how much of the natural world has been lost because the “baseline” shifts with every generation. Past generations would regard what we see as natural today as terribly damaged, and what we see as damaged today, our children will view as natural.

Wooddell believes the most important thing one can do is to put pressure on Congress and elected leaders to create land management, pollution and other sustainable policies that will protect biodiversity and the environment. However, because it’s unlikely that these kinds of top-down policies will be instituted in the current political climate, she recommends mobilizing grassroots community groups to create “bottom-up” policies.

Here are some other things you can do to protect endangered species and prevent extinction:

• Eat less meat. Soybean production is one of the main causes of deforestation, and most soybean meal is used for animal feed.
• Buy organic food because organic farmers use only non-synthetic or natural pesticides on their crops. Synthetic pesticides may be toxic for other organisms.
• Choose sustainable seafood. The Marine Stewardship Council provides a list of certified sustainable fish for responsible eating.
• Compost food waste . In New York City, the compost is used for urban farming and gardening, which provide habitat for pollinators.
• Buy wood and paper products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council , to ensure they’re harvested from responsibly managed forests.

• Don’t buy products made from endangered or threatened species, such as tortoise shell, ivory, coral, some animal skins, and “traditional” medicines.
• Be aware of the source of palm oil used in countless food and cosmetic products. Many tropical forests are being razed for palm oil plantations. If a product contains palm oil, make sure it’s from a deforestation-free plantation .
• Reduce your use of plastic .
• If you have a garden, plant native shrubs and flowers that attract butterflies and other pollinators. Milkweed is particularly helpful for monarch butterflies.
• Set up a beehive.
• Diversify your diet. Eating these 50 foods will promote biodiversity and a healthier plant.
• Support and get involved with organizations that are helping endangered animals.
• Join the Center for Biological Diversity and use their Take-Action Toolboxes.

Correction: This post was updated on April 3, 2019 to remove a sentence about cownose rays devastating scallop populations off of North Carolina. It turns out that other studies have challenged those findings. 

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Columbia Climate School has once again been selected as university partner for Climate Week NYC, an annual convening of climate leaders to drive the transition, speed up progress and champion change. Join us for events and follow our coverage .

A new UN report ( https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/06/climate/biodiversity-extinction-united-nations.html ) finds that one million species are at risk of extinction; this is threatening ecosystems around the world that human beings need to survive.

The Trump administration has put forth new rules that will significantly weaken the Endangered Species Act. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/climate/endangered-species-act-changes.html?module=inline

Wouldn’t there be an evolutionary development that occurs when one species is gone? What happened when something like the Dodo went extinct? Did other creatures in its ecosystems adapt to perform the Dodo’s services? When I think about extinction, I always wonder what would have happened if the dinosaurs had not become extinct.

I am late to the discussion about keystone species but since I have learned about the roles of these key animals to specific environments around the world I have tried and failed to see homo sapiens as a keystone species but rather I see us more like the ungulates, which when left unchecked by a corresponding predator, such as the wolf in the Yellow Stone Park scenario, would decimate any environment we occupy. We are overpopulating, over consuming, over producing items that are harmful to the entire world (such as plastics) and what will keep us in check? Who will be our wolves? Cancer? Illnesses? Violence? If humans disappeared from the earth, just suddenly vanished, I think the earth and all her flora and fauna would recover quickly. Our intelligence should curb our avarice, but I fear we are too shortsighted and too quick to rationalize away the science which spells out the looming disaster brought on my our ignorance and greed.

Dear Deborah, Your analysis is very disturbing; and unfortunately, true. Nice post, keep it up.

well said. I think this is spot on and with the human species looking to colonize Mars and the Moon…what more damage will we do?

Endangered species are important. In my opinion, their absence can cause a break in the food chain or break synergies with other species, and thus a negative impact on them. One species and can change so much. Like a domino effect. We should take care of every species.

I have been searching for a reasonable explanation of preservation of endangered species, and the search continues still. Apart from few redundant examples like bees or birds/animals taking part in pollinating processes or overgrowth/extinction, I can’t see any direct explanation on the outcomes of the extinctions of any species, viz. Tigers, Elephants, Rhinos, Deers etc. on the ecosystems or direct influence on humankind. Whereas, deforestation, excessive usage of fossil fuels, phytoplankton extinctions leading to global warming effects are easily understood, no such wide range of explanations and outcomes do exist on the extinction of species and their wide range of influences. Still looking for a reasonable explanation….

can effect the food chain and thus effect humans less tigers mean more prey and then they will take up resources and could become extinct and so on

I love animals!

same, i hope we can work together to stop some animals from going extinct.

Endangered Animals Matter Because If They Disappear, It Could Destroy Entire Ecosystems, STEA ( Save The Endangered Animals )

Yes, absolutely!

the thought of someone killing a poor turtle to make a stupid mirror just makes me want to cry! how could people be so cruel!?!?!?

That’s the sad world we live in.

I LOVE ANIMALS WE LOVE ANIMALS.HELP ANIMALS!

That is a wild amount of money that bees are responsible for pollinating crops.

I can’t believe that how many animals have gone extinct

I know right, it is so sad

I agree, without animals there would be no cures for horrible and possibly deadly diseases. Who knew that most of our endangered species helped with cures.

Why do they endanger species this makes me mad

We should save them, not hunt them. I hate the trump administration

I agree entirely.

I wish all animals would live without the fear of extinction.

I wish there was a way we could stop the cause of extinction and make a way to where more people would actually care.

How do i cite this?

how do i cite this

This is so wonderful. It has lots of info. I absolutely love this site!

This is such a great article with a great display of information!

yo i think we should get alot of people to explore the water and to save animals to pick up trash too.

bruh can they delete the trash out of the ocean using robots or elon musk can do somthing

At this point I don’t think anyone can take on a task that big

I don’t want any more animals to go extinct

Hi there! I just read the article on https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2019/03/26/endangered-species-matter and I found it informative. I appreciate how the author broke down complex ideas in a way that was easy to understand. It’s great to see content that is both engaging and educational. Thanks for sharing this resource!

Good resource, and lots of imformation

I went to Alley Springs and saw the scenery and now I run a business where I sell eco-friendly things and do manual labor to help trees. All the money is put to help forests and animals. -Evalyn Demery

Thats a good idea!

I think an easier way to clean out our ocean is to just volunteer and stop having robots or people that act like they do but don’t really care doing it

Great Article!!

HELP ANIMALS

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Fighting Extinction: Researching and Designing Solutions to Protect Endangered Species

By Sara Rust

• Oct. 19, 2017

The African wild dog. The Asian elephant. The Eastern lowland gorilla. These are just three of the many vertebrate species facing possible extinction because of human activities. Is there anything we can do to protect endangered species, and slow overall extinction rates?

In this lesson, students use Times reporting to learn about how human activity threatens the Earth’s biodiversity, and they research possible solutions that weigh environmental, economic and social concerns. As a Going Further activity, we invite students to act as citizen scientists addressing the problem in their own communities.

This lesson addresses the Next Generation High School Life Sciences Standard on Ecosystems, particularly HS-LS2-7 , which asks students to design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.

One possible entry point to this discussion is through the vivid, often disturbing pictures in the photo essay “ A Mausoleum for Endangered Species .” You could select one image to show students, or give students access to the full text, and ask them to:

• Describe what you see. • Describe your reaction to seeing these images. • Address: What questions do these images raise for you?

Then hold a brief discussion in small groups or as a class.

Background Reading and Questions

Students can then develop a preliminary understanding of the issue of endangered and extinct species by reading the article “ Era of ‘Biological Annihilation’ Is Underway, Scientists Warn .” After reading, ask them to first write in response to, and then discuss, the following questions:

1. The author writes, “Gerardo Ceballos, a researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City, acknowledged that the study is written in usually alarming tones for an academic research paper. ‘It wouldn’t be ethical right now not to speak in this strong language to call attention to the severity of the problem,’ he said.”

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Home / Essay Samples / Environment / Environment Problems / Endangered Species

Endangered Species Essay Examples

The importance of protecting endangered species.

Our planet's rich biodiversity is a source of wonder and a testament to the intricate web of life that has evolved over millions of years. However, this diversity is now under threat as numerous species face the peril of extinction. The decline in global biodiversity...

Ivory Trade - the Problem of African Elephant's Population

Weighing in at up to a staggering 6 tonnes, standing up to 3.3 meters high at the shoulder and measuring 7.5 meters in length, African Elephants are the largest land animals in the world. There are two subspecies of African elephants, the larger savannah elephant...

Endangered Species: We Need Them as They Need Us

Adam Smith once said, “Human is an animal of desire. ” In this respect, humans have made tremendous economic and technological development based on that desire, which also led to countless destructions of nature and wildlife. Accordingly, many species have been gone extinct or close...

The Status of Endangered Species in Canada

Canada covers the major part of North America and is home to the plenty of flora and fauna species. Canada is habitat of around 70,000 of species. Jeff Wells, the Boreal Songbird Initiative's science policy director, says Canada hosts biological phenomena rarely seen elsewhere on...

An Overview of the Humpback Whale

On a planet that’s more than a billion years old, one might think that the biggest animals alive today would probably be apex predators. While this is true, the humpback whale (one of the largest whales in the world) is far from earth’s killing machine....

Girdled Lizards Research: Namazounorus Pustultus and Karusasaurus Jordain Girdled Lizards

Across the globe, conservation and the protection action for species that are being endangered or at the edge of facing a risk of getting extinct is being put in place. The main issue with the ecology and conservation biology is the determination of how the...

The Environmental Change and Its Involvement in the Diversity of Species in the Tundra

The changing climate means changing habitats, threatening vulnerable species. They have to adapt to the new changes and face the upcoming challenges or migrate to new places in order to survive. The tundra plays condemning roles. It has little nutrients, simple vegetation structure, is the...

In the Lens of the Endangered: Roloway Monkey

Are the signs of mass extinction still not evident to you? When I swing across the branches and settle in the canopies of the remaining trees, I think about how so many things have changed in the past few years. In these times where I...

The Success of the Chinese Government in Ensuring the Safety of Panda Populations

The Giant Pandas are one of the exclusive animals with its unique white and black coat, also is cherished by the world and appraised as the national treasure of China. Pandas are mainly settled in temperate forests around the forests of southwest China, where they...

Mathematical Modeling of Energy-saving Mechanism for Running

Energy is required for every mechanical and non-mechanical process in this entire universe. When a terrestrial mobilization is involved it requires optimum energy levels to ensure that the mobilization should be completed within a given time-frame. The topic of my Investigation involves mathematical Modeling of...

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About Endangered Species

An endangered species is a type of organism that is threatened by extinction.

Species become endangered for two main reasons: loss of habitat and loss of genetic variation.

Giant panda, Red Panda, tiger, whoopng crane, blue whale, asian elephant, sea otter (Enhydra lutris), snow leopard, gorilla, tasmanian devil, orangutan, Amur Leopard and many others.

Over 12% of bird species are under extreme threat and close to extinction. More than 20% of mammals are nearly extinct. 97% of all species on Earth are invertebrates, including butterflies, worms, and mollusks. One-third of them are close to extinction. Extinction is a natural process in the wild. But the standard rate is about five species per year. The current extinction rate is over 12 species a day, which means we’re losing far more animals than ever recorded throughout history. If we continue in the same way, 30%–50% of animals will be extinct within the next 30 years. More than 125,000 animals get hunted as trophies every year.

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