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Endangered Species

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Endangered Species
There are plants and animals all over the world, each in their own habitat. Over time they have found a balance with other plants and animals in their ecosystem or they will begin to disappear - go extinct. Scientists keep track of many plants and animals species and notice when they begin to disappear and often try to protect them.
     A plant or animal species that is disappearing is listed under one of two groups – endangered or threatened.
An “endangered species” is a plant or animal species that is in danger of going extinct throughout all or most of where it lives – its range.
    When a plant or animal species is almost endangered, it is called a “threatened species”. This means the plant or animal is likely to become endangered soon throughout all or most of its range.
After a plant or animal is listed as endangered or threatened on the “Federal list” it can then be protected under the Endangered Species Act.
    This protection is the responsibility of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-Fisheries.
    A species is added to the Endangered Species List when its survival is endangered or threatened by a few important things done my humans or nature. Some things that cause animals (or plants) to become endangered or threatened are loss of habitat, over hunting (or over collecting) by man or predators, or disease.
To find out about which animals or plants are endangered or threatened, how it happened, and what is being done to protect them, check out some of the topics below.
 
The Endangered Species Act is the responsibility of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-Fisheries.

CITES - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, is an international agreement between governments. Its job is to make sure that international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. The species covered by CITES are listed in three categories or “Appendices”, according to how much protection they need. 
• Appendix l includes species threatened with extinction. Trade in these species is allowed only in exceptional cases.
• Appendix II includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled to protect their survival.
• Appendix III includes species that are protected in at least one country, which has asked other CITES Parties for help in controlling their trade.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species provides the taxonomy, conservation status and distribution of plants and animals that have been studied using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. This system is meant to decide the risk of extinction of endangered plants and animals. They use the listings Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable.


Endangered Species Act

In 1973, Congress passed the Endangered Species Act. The Endangered Species Act is meant to protect threatened and endangered plants and animals from going extinct. It is also meant to protect the habitats where endangered species live. The numbers of plants and animals on the list changes. This is because as studies show how the populations of plants and animals are doing, congress changes the list. If an animal like the grizzly bear recovers – its numbers grow to safer levels – it is taken off the endangered animal list and moved up to a threatened animal list. If an animal like the bactrian camel of the Gobi desert becomes so scarce that they are threatened with extinction, that species is added to the endangered animal list.
    According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, there are several things that measure if an animal is threatened or endangered. Here is how they explain it: “A species is added to the list when it is determined to be endangered or threatened because of any of the following factors:
•  the present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range;
• over-utilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes;
• disease or predation;
• the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms;
the natural or man-made factors affecting its survival.”

This means loss of habitat, over-hunting (or over-collecting) by man or predators, or disease. Though over-hunting did drive the American bison to being endangered and the passenger pigeon to extinction, most species become endangered because of loss of habitat. If an animal has no place to live, it will go extinct. So the Endangered Species Act gave the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Fisheries (NOAA) the job of picking habitats in locations on land or in U. S. coastal waters that needed protection to save each endangered species.


Who’s Gone Extinct?

In studying man and the environment, it is easy to think that humans have caused all the extinctions of animals in the world so far. In fact most extinctions happened millions of years before humans even lived on Earth. We know from the fossil record that thousands of prehistoric species of animals and plants have lived on Earth and over time went extinct, including all the dinosaurs. Scientists studying the fossil record have found that there were five big mass extinctions prehistorically where whole orders of animals died out.
    A smaller, but important extinction happened about 14,000 years ago, called the end-Pleistocene extinctions. This was where a lot of large animals went extinct in a short period of time, many of them right here in North America. This was when North American animals like the woolly mammoth, mastodon, ground sloth, horse, camel, and lion disappeared.
    Scientists have many theories about what happened to cause the end-Pleistocene extinctions. Climate change could have been one reason, because during that time there was a dramatic change in the Earth’s climate as world temperature rose at the end of the last ice age. Another reason could have been that early man had finally migrated to reach North America and started hunting. If humans affected certain important keystone species by over hunting, it could have triggered many other extinctions as well.
    Today, we are aware of the importance of protecting endangered species and their habitats. It may be too late for many species that have gone extinct throughout the world in recent times because of the actions of humans, like the passenger pigeon, stellar sea cow, dodo, moa and quagga – all of which have disappeared in the last 400 years. Now many very endangered animals are being watched and taken care of in the hopes of their return to safe numbers. Hopefully, knowing the importance of healthy habitats and learning from the experiences with keystone species, we can keep any more animals from going extinct by the careless actions of humans. We can be part of the solution.

 

Poaching of Endangered Animals
Most countries around the world have made laws to stop or limit hunting of endangered species. A treaty called, The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has been signed by most countries.
    Though many animals are protected from hunting, it does not stop some people from hunting them illegally. This is called poaching. Poaching happens all over the world, because poachers can get a lot of money for their illegal game. They sell the horns, ivory, body parts, and skin of protected animals.
    Even with game wardens hired to patrol animal preserves, poachers have the advantage. Preserves are very large tracts of land and there are not enough wardens to protect the whole thing. The other problem is that poachers that go after big game like elephants and rhinos have big guns and can be very dangerous. One warden cannot stop six poachers and might get killed if they try. In many places, poachers seem to be winning out over our endangered species.
    Poaching does not just happen in Africa or Asia. There is a lot of poaching in our own National Parks right here in the United States. People steal cacti, trees, tortoises, and even grass if they can sell it.  It’s a frustrating problem for those of us who want to protect our disappearing national treasures.

What You Can Do To Help
There are many ways you and your family can help stop poaching.
• Never buy, sell or own anything made from ivory. Even legal ivory sales drive the sale of poached ivory and poaching. Remember all ivory represents the death of an elephant or walrus.
• Don’t support coral reef poachers. Never buy coral for your fish tank unless it is been stamped with Marine Aquarium Council (MAC) stamp. This makes sure the coral was raised for aquariums and not poached from a wild reef.
• Don’t keep exotic animal pets, even if you see them at the pet store. The exotic animal pet trade, though legal if regulated in the U.S., is not regulated in all countries around the world. So owning exotic animals drives the hunting and capture of exotic species. It’s best to leave wild animals in their natural habitat.
• Spread the word!

 

Endangered Species In Your Backyard
Protecting an endangered species’ habitat is important, even if its habitat is on land owned by a private landowner like you and me. The problem is, once an endangered species is found on our land, we lose our rights to develop the land or do anything that may hurt the habitat. This has had an unexpected effect.
    Landowners who found an endangered species, like a nesting bald eagle, living on their land also found that it would lower the value of their land – because no one could develop it. Ranchers could not kill endangered predators, like wolves and grizzly bears, even if they were killing their livestock. This made landowners mad and led to some sad events. Landowners sometimes killed an endangered species that they found on their property before someone from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could discover it and name their land endangered species habitat.
What is Being Done?
To help solve this problem, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has special consultants who will work with landowners and offer grants to help people overcome their problems with endangered species on their property, including lost income or land value.
    A fund called the “Defenders of Wildlife’s Predator Compensation Fund” was started to pay ranchers for cattle and sheep killed by grizzlies or wolves. They also helped ranchers come up with other ways to protect their herds. They helped them get electric fences and guard dogs. They got rid of dead cattle carcasses that might attract grizzlies. This helped make the ranchers less angry at the bears and accept them as neighbors.
    Then, in 2003, the National Wildlife Federation and others started a fund. They would pay ranchers to give up their leased lands in areas where the grizzlies hunted. They would move to safer grazing areas away from Yellowstone. They called this “retiring their allotments.” Conservationists have retired more than 300,000 acres of former grazing allotments in the greater Yellowstone area so far.

Endangered Species Success Story – The Peregrine Falcon
The peregrine falcon was once very close to extinction. This was not from over-hunting or habitat loss, but from use of the pesticide DDT. For 30 years, starting in the 1940s, DDT was a chemical pesticide that was sprayed in wetlands to kill mosquitoes. It worked really well for killing mosquitoes, but it caused a serious problem. The fish, frogs and small birds that ate lots and lots of the mosquitoes started to build up DDT in their bodies. Then bigger predators, like the peregrine falcons, ate lots of small birds. They got an even bigger dose of DDT as it moved up through the food chain. DDT wasn’t poisonous enough to kill the falcons outright, but it caused their eggs to have soft shells. All their eggs broke, so no new young falcons could be born. Peregrine falcons started to disappear. Within a few years, they were endangered.

What is Being Done?
Once scientists discovered what the DDT did in the food chain, they knew the chemical had be banned. On June 14, 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency made DDT illegal to use in the United States. Then animal populations slowly began to recover. The peregrine falcon was so endangered by then though that it needed help. Wildlife biologists used a captive breeding program to help the peregrine falcons to recover. They took wild falcons and hand raised many nestlings for release until their numbers were high enough that they would not go extinct. Now it is not unusual to see peregrine falcons nesting on skyscrapers in New York City hunting pigeons.


Endangered and Threatened Animals

Giant anteaters are found on grasslands and in deciduous woodlands and rainforests from southern Mexico to South America. They will only live in areas that are undeveloped. As areas in Mexico, Central America and South America are developed with roads, homes and farms, the giant anteaters disappear. Habitat destruction is their primary threat. As of 2000, the Giant Anteater has been listed as vulnerable on the CITES IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Red List. They have already gone extinct in El Salvador, Guatemala and possibly Uruguay

African elephants once ranged all over Africa south of the Sahara desert. They lived in the forest, scrublands and grasslands (savanna). There are roughly half the elephants now as their were in 1970.
    There are many reasons why the African elephant population is shrinking. In the past it was due to ivory hunting, but ivory bans have helped slow that threat – though illegal ivory poaching does still take place. The biggest present day threat to their survival is habitat loss, as more and more of their range is developed into farms and villages. The irony is that, because of habitat loss, there are actually too many elephants in some areas for the shrinking wild habitat to support.
    Many African countries are making the effort to protect their elephant populations and find ways for them to reduce human-elephant conflicts. International conservation organizations like WWF (World Wildlife Fund), National Geographic Society, and others are raising money to protect elephant habitat and study ways to protect them from extinction. As of 2000, the African elephant is listed as Endangered on the CITES IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Red List.


Gorillas
live in Central Africa. The mountain gorillas of Rwanda, Zaire and Uganda have become very rare. There are two groups of lowland gorillas: the eastern lowland gorillas of Zaire and the western lowland gorillas of Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Central African Republic, and Guinea.
    Even though they are “protected”, all gorilla species suffer from habitat loss from development and lumber harvesting, poaching and even occasional civil wars that bring soldiers into the forest with weapons that more often than not are used on the gorillas and other wildlife in their path.
    There may be fewer than 700 of the rare mountain gorillas left in the wild. As of 2000, the Western Lowland Gorillas, Eastern Gorillas and Mountain Gorillas (Gorilla beringei) have been listed as Endangered on the CITES IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Red List.
    The International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), a joint initiative of the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Fauna and Flora International (FFI) and WWF are working to save gorilla populations and habitat.


Orangutans
, the red-haired great ape of Borneo and Sumatra, are disappearing. They live alone high in the canopy of the rainforest. For years, hunters would take baby orangutans to sell in the pet trade. Many babies died in transport. Though this is now illegal, poaching does continue and deforestation from timber harvest further affects their numbers. Sadly, a great forest fire in Borneo in 1997-98 was believed to have killed many orangutans as well.
    As of 2000, both Sumatra and Borneo orangutans have been listed as Endangered on the CITES IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Red List. Their numbers are so low that there has been some effort to confiscate captive orangutans and re-introduce them to their native homes. Only time will tell if this amazing primate will survive.


The giant panda is a well known (and well loved) species that is being driven close to extinction by habitat loss. It has become one of the most endangered mammals in the world, with fewer than 2,500 left. Although they have been protected from hunting and are on the endangered species list since 1984, pandas are still disappearing.
    Their problem is complex. The giant panda eats bamboo and only bamboo. There is so little nutrition in bamboo that they have to eat for more than 14 hours a day to get the calories they need. They don’t even have time to stop and hibernate. Without a bamboo forest on which to feed, all the pandas will die.
    China has one of the most populated countries in the world. There are more people every year. To house and feed themselves, they cut down forests for farms and communities, including the shrinking bamboo forests. Sometimes pandas are left in small islands of bamboo surrounded by houses and highways - this is called habitat fragmentation. Worse yet, sometimes bamboo will die off and the pandas will have to go in search of a new bamboo forest -- if there is one.
    Unless all development of the bamboo forests stop soon, there will be no more panda habitat and then no more pandas.
    The Chinese government recognizes the great treasure they have in their pandas. They have protected more than 2.5 million acres of bamboo habitat in the hopes of saving the panda from extinction. The panda is classified by the IUCN Red List of Threatened species as VULNERABLE. Due to conservation efforts they are no longer lists on the Appendix l on CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) as endangered.

There are five species of rhino: the black rhino and white rhino in Africa, the Asian (or Sumatran) rhino, Indian rhino and Javan rhino.
    All rhinos are very endangered. The Asian, Javan and Northern white rhinos are critically endangered on the CITES IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Red List. Many regions have developed rhino sanctuaries that are closely guarded to protect them from poachers. This has worked for some species like the Southern white rhino and black rhino in Africa and the Indian rhino. All are increasing in numbers from being critically endangered.


The snow leopard is found in the high mountains (Himalayas, Altai and Hindu Kush) of Central Asia. This includes many countries (Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan). The snow leopard’s range has been decreasing over time as it becomes more endangered. The reason for its disappearance is mostly from the relentless hunting for its fur. Even after being protected, snow leopard poaching continues.
    As of 2000, the snow leopard has been listed as Endangered on the CITES IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Red List.

There are 5 different kinds of tiger alive today; the Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) found in Russia, China, and North Korea, the Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti) found in Burma, Vietnam and Malaysia, the South China (Panthera tigris amoyensis) tiger found in South China, the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) found in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Western Burma, and Tibet, and the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) found in Sumatra. The Caspian, Javan and Bali tigers are extinct.
    Tigers live in tropical forests, pine forests, mangrove swamps, grasslands, and open rocky hillsides. Their habitat needs places to hide, so they can stalk and leap on prey. Unfortunately all tiger habitat is shrinking from development and timber harvest. Though protected, tigers still are poached as well. There may be fewer than 3,200 left in the wild.
    As of 2000, all tigers have been listed as Critically Endangered on the CITES IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Red List. WWF (World Wildlife Fund) has created a plan for how to protect the tiger and its wild habitats and reduce poaching. The Smithsonian National Zoological Park along with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Exxon Mobil Corporation have developed a fund called the Save The Tiger Fund (STF) for tiger conservation.


The blue whale is the largest animal in the world. They measure up to 100 feet long and weigh as much as 150 tons (300,000 pounds). Their heart alone can weigh 2,000 pounds. Scientists think that there once were 300,000 blue whales swimming the oceans. Then modern whaling began and quickly the blue whale population disappeared. By 1960, scientists thought that there were only 1,000 left on Earth.
    In 1972, they were protected from hunting by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Then in 1973, they were given added protection by the endangered species act. Even the International Whaling Commission banned whalers from taking blue whales. Blue whales numbers are rising again slowly. Scientists believe there could be as many as 15,000 now. Only time will tell how this giant of the ocean will recover.


Biodiversity – Who’s Out There?
Biodiversity is not just how many animals and plants there are, but the different kinds of animals and plants there are. Each different habitat, from rainforests to deserts to grasslands to polar regions, each has different kinds of animals, plants, fungus, etc. 
    Biodiversity is important! Every living thing (organism) in an ecosystem, whether it is a giant elephant or a tiny bacteria, has a job to do to help keep things healthy and in balance. Many living things share jobs in their ecosystem. For example, there are many different kinds of predators in every ecosystem – not just one. The overlapping jobs help act as a back up, in case there is drought, disease, floods or fire and some living things die off. This complex weaving of lives together has formed – evolved – over a long period of time. Even the smallest bacteria in the soil plays its part. When species begin to disappear from an ecosystem, the balance depends on fewer and fewer living things. It increases the chances that the whole ecosystem can go out of balance and collapse.
    An example of the danger of losing species biodiversity can be shown with many farm crops – like modern corn. American farmers, over many generations, grew the best tasting sweet corn by breeding and planted only the purest strains of sweet corn year after year. This is called growing a “monoculture.” It seemed like the right thing to do. People like the sweetest corn, so there was no need to keep around many strains that weren’t as sweet. Right? That is what the farmers thought too. Then something happened. A disease called corn smut attacked the crop. The corn had been bred to be so specific, so much the same, that it had little resistance to the fungus. The entire corn was destroyed. They didn’t even have any seeds saved from the older, stronger, less sweet strains of corn. It was a disaster.

What is Being Done?
Farm researchers went to Mexico, searched for and found wild maize from which corn was descended. They found the gene that resisted smut and bred it back into the corn. Now farmers plant a variety of crops and strains to avoid the danger of crops losing their healthy biodiversity.

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Fulfillment of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

Disciplinary Core Ideas

ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems
• Human activities in agriculture, industry, and everyday life have had major effects on the land, vegetation, streams, ocean, air, and even outer space. But individuals and communities are doing things to help protect Earth’s resources and environments. (5-ESS3-1)

Performance Expectations  Students who demonstrate understanding can:
5-ESS3-1.
Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.

ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems
• Human activities have significantly altered the biosphere, sometimes damaging or destroying natural habitats and causing the extinction of other species. But changes to Earth’s environments can have different impacts (negative and positive) for different living things. (MS-ESS3-3)
• Typically as human populations and per-capita consumption of natural resources increase, so do the negative impacts on Earth unless the activities and technologies involved are engineered otherwise. (MS-ESS3-3),(MS-ESS3-4)

ESS3.D: Global Climate Change
• Human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming). Reducing the level of climate change and reducing human vulnerability to whatever climate changes do occur depend on the understanding of climate science, engineering capabilities, and other kinds of knowledge, such as understanding of human behavior and on applying that knowledge wisely in decisions and activities. (MS-ESS3-5)

Performance Expectations  Students who demonstrate understanding can:MS-ESS3-3. Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.

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