Animal Extinction Essay

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As humans our population is increasing at a very rapid pace. Human interference with the natural wildlife is skyrocketing the rate of extinction for the animals that we coexist with. As more and more humans are born the more territory is required in order to live a comfortable life, but it seems that we are not aware of how our expansions throughout the world is affecting the lives of the native species. We jeopardize the lives of these animals when we recklessly flatten the surrounding land and drive the living animals out of their natural habitats. When we feel the need to acquire more territory in order to create a suitable place to live on, we destroy the already occupied land of the native species thus driving the rate of extinction to increase. The occupation of the animals’ native soil forces the animals to leave the area in hopes of adapting to another piece of land. For some this adaptation is simply impossible and the species begin to die off. In an article on Treehugger.com the author states, “Thanks to human development and expansion, species are now going extinct exponentially faster than ever before- they’re dying out at the frightening speed of one thousand times their natural rate (Merchant 1). As we are busting around making these “developments”, we pollute the natural landscape with petroleum products, pesticides, and other chemicals. When this happens we endanger the living species and speed up the process of extinction because of our interference with the local wildlife. While our population continues to grow, so does the amount of waste we produce. Due to the fact that there are so many humans, a majority of the waste we produce do not get disposed of properly and it eventually ends up contaminating the la... ... middle of paper ... ...lled by poachers. Even the White Rhino population was hit hard because of poachers seeking their priceless horns. The Los Angeles Times reported that,” The world’s largest surviving population of white rhinos suffered its heaviest toll on record last year when poachers killed more than one- thousand of the threatened animals to feed an international market for trinkets and potions made from their horns” (Williams 1). According to the WWF, The population of the White Rhino has diminished to a mere twenty- thousand. The worst part is the rare tusks are being used for the most unbelievably useless products. The number of White Rhinos are so scarce that even the killing of one- thousand is a huge blow to the delicate and slowly increasing population. It is truly disappointing that such a majestic species is being sacrificed due to the high demand of their rare tusks.

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