CAUSES OF ENDANGERMENT:
1. Global Warming- as the Earth gets warmer, animals (such as polar bears) who depend on a cooler climate will die, leaving those who eat them with no meal.
2. Pollution- This is one of the reasons that killed off the Baiji White Dolphin. Pollution can kill animals in different ways. One way, (have you ever seen Happy Feet?) pollution can either be mistaken for food and eaten, killing the animal, or the animal can get caught in it, and with suffocate to death. Both ways has and will continue to kill animals.
3. Species Introduction- Humans in general love to create, and occasionally we have been smart enough to create new species. However, once we introduce these species into the wild, they may overtake the natural specimen there, eating them or maybe even taking all of their food.
4. Poaching- Whether you’re killing animals for their hides, for food, for their hooves or tusks, for medicinal value, for their furs, or for fun– you’re still killing animals. In the case of the Passenger Pigeon, we presumed that there were so much of them that we used them for target practice! We eventually made the entire species extinct. What have animals ever done to us?
5. Habitat Loss- Animals are able to adapt, but the speed at which they are built to adapt is not able to catch up to the way we have been destroying their natural habitats. We’ve been polluting the oceans, cutting down rain forests, and taking nutrients from the rich soil in which so many things depend on.
