Why Should We Bother Saving These Animals?
Fun fact:
While 2,500 doesn't exactly seem like a life-threateningly low number, it's enough to make a species endangered. To put things into perspective, there are more than 400 million pigeons in the world.
First, to understand why these animals are so important, we need to know why they are endangered. Some of them, like the Black Rhino and the Asian Elephant, are endangered due to over-hunting. They have valuable parts like horns and tusks that people want. They can't just walk up to a elephant and take it's tusks, so they sedate and sometimes kill the animal to get what they want. Even if the animal survives, it cannot defend against predators without its horns/tusks, so it would die either way.
Other animals, like the Ganges River Dolphin, are endangered because of pollution. The river they live in (Ganges River in India) is heavily polluted. Despite this river being sacred to the Hindu people who live there, 1.2 billion pounds of plastics and other items are still dumped in the river each year.
Now that we know some of the reasons these animals are endangered, we can see why they're so important. Many of them play a vital role in sustaining the environment they live in. For example, removing the Black Rhino from the African Savanna would result in the deaths of several species. The grasses and weeds that they feed on would continue to grow with nothing to stop them. Lions, cheetahs, and other things that feed on these rhinos would have no food.
Fun Fact:
Saying an animal is extinct does not always mean that none are left. Animals are technically considered extinct if there are only 1 or two left of the same gender. In other words, if there is nothing we can do to save them.
What Can I Do To Help?
There's no point in learning about these animals, then going back to watching TV or something else unproductive and useless. What can you do to help these animals?
1) One thing that helps these species is reducing pollution. Taking your dog for a walk and not picking up it's poop isn't just annoying and gross, it can also end up in oceans, lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water. Recycle your used plastics, and check labels on items you buy to make sure they are biodegradable and eco-friendly.
2) You can't do much to help if you don't know if what you're doing is helpful! Educate yourself and others to help make a change.
What Is Making These Animals Endangered?
The number one cause of animals going extinct is destruction of habitat. This can include...
1) Logging
Nothing kills off birds faster than cutting down 2.47 million trees per day.
2) Water Pollution
Dumping 14 billion pounds of plastic into the ocean isn't exactly helping the underwater population.
3) Air Pollution
Factories, cars, smoking, and even cows can pollute the air. This may not directly kill animals the same way logging and water pollution do, but it can cause birth defects, cancer, and other issues in humans and animals alike.
Technical Stuff
Visitors
Charities
Here are some charities you can donate to that help endangered animals and their environments:
IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION
I do not own any of these charities, and they are all copyrighted.
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I legally had to add that