Over the past, many endangered animals have become extinct due to mankind's ignorance towards them. Many animals suffer from providing the humans products and needs such as deforestation for wood which could destroy various ecosystems which the animals rely on or poaching which kills off the population of animals for food, medicine or even as simple souvenirs. In 2010, the endangered population list has increased to 17,315 (which is including the vulnerable, the endangered and the critically endangered) out of 1,740,330 (Curiosity.com) which might only be a small percentage, but it it ever increasing. Many people are trying to conserve them instead by building animal sanctuaries and protesting against the poaching of the animals. Some examples are the long-beaked echidna, the dugong and the kiwi bird. These animals are worth conserving for the future.
Let's start with the kiwi bird. As a reliable website states, Kiwi birds are indigenous to New Zealand and are apparently quite strange. They have many features similar to a mammal including heavy bone marrow, cat like whiskers and hair like feathers, along with many other unusual birdlike features. Kiwis also have very small wings and one third of their body weight is from their heavy muscled legs thus causing an inability to fly. Because of these features and also the fact that the kiwi bird is quite small, kiwis have lowered defenses causing to be easy prey for predators like dogs, stoats and feral cats. Besides that, the loss of habitat due to deforestation and destruction of native bushes around the country is also affecting it's survivability because not only is it threaten it's food source, but it means that the kiwi bird has less places to hide from it's predators. Currently, there are 5 different species of kiwi, two of which are vulnerable, one of which is endangered and one of which is critically endangered. However people at the Department of Conservation's 'overarching goal is to restore and, wherever possible, enhance the abundance, distribution and genetic diversity of all kiwi species.' (Department of Conservation). The few ways that the DOC will do to reach this goal are to control the predators within the kiwi's habitats, to continue to breed kiwi chicks in captivity and to preserve the land that they live in. These notions of the DOC reveal that the kiwi is worth conserving since they are a vital part to New Zealand's ecosystem. However, not only this bird is becoming endangered but another mammal is as well.
The long-beaked echidna is next on the list. The echidna, otherwise known as the spiny anteater, ia primitive mammal that lives in both Australia and New Guinea. The long-beaked echidna is a solitary animal that burrows underground. When attacked, it burrows down under to protect itself of it curls up into a ball and uses it's spines that cover the top of it's body as a method of defense against a predator. Including the sensitive nose it uses to find food, it's long sticky tongue to eat it's prey and it's 35-50 centimeter long claws, a long-beaked echidna's average weight is in between 2 to 7 kilograms (Australian Fauna). But similar to the kiwi bird, the echidna faces deforestation as it's reason for endangerment, however as the echidna isn't a vulnerable as the kiwi bird and is actually even more adaptable to changes in habitat, you might ask yourself how it could affect an animal like this. The deforestation of the echidna's habitat makes it easier for the ground to dry out causing the worms indigenous to New Guinea which are also the echidna's main food source, to disappear (Konika Minolta). This greatly affects the amount of food that can sustain the long-beaked echidna population to survive and even though you could plant more trees to replace the ones that were deforested, it could take years or even decades for the trees to grow back into a forest, forcing the echidna population into extinction. This could greatly change New Guinea's ecosystem. Sadly, not much is known about the rare and cryptic animal so nothing much can be done, but the Papua New Guinea Institute of Biological Research (PNG-IBR) 'has established a long-term long-beaked echidna conservation research programme for the eastern long-beaked echidna in the Crater Mountain Wildlife Management Area (CMWMA) in Papua New Guinea' (Edge of Existence). The time and effort shown by the PNG-IBR shows that the long-beaked echidna truly is worth fighting for and conserving as the rare animal might become an extinct one. But the long-beaked echidna and the kiwi bird are both land creatures. How about underwater?
Finally, the dugong. The dugong lives in the water of Australia and East Africa. The dugong, otherwise known as a 'sea cow' from it's diet of sea grasses, have a thick layer of fat which gives them a round body, small paddle-like flippers upper on it's body, a flat broad tail that resembles that of a whale and can reach a length of up to 3 meters and a weight of whopping 300 kilograms (Dugongs). Although it's appears to be smooth, a close up view shows us a rough surface covered in pits which from it grow short, thick hairs. Even though the dugong is slow moving and have almost no protection against predators, they are relatively large and only predators like saltwater crocodiles large sharks and killer whales pose as a threat to them. The real reason why the dugongs are becoming endangered is because of the destruction of the very food it eats from farm soil that has been washed into the sea and the cleaning out of sea beds that the dugongs graze on. Not only that, pollution and falling victim to accidentally swimming into large fishing nets also contribute to the fact that the dugong population is decreasing. During 1987, on the Great Barrier Reef, the population of dugongs was approximately 3,500 but in 1991, only 4 years later, it's population has decreased to approximately 1,700 dugongs. The CMS (Convention on Migratory Species) are working hard to help conserve this endangered sea cow and has nine objectives to try and help. A few of their objectives are to raise awareness to the endangered species, to reduce direct and indirect causes of death to the dugong and improve their understanding of the dugong trough research and monitoring (CMS). The CMS has spent a large amount of time trying to get different states and countries gathering signatures to show understanding for the dugong's conservation, showing that the dugong's protection is the utmost importance in order to save Australia's ecosystem.
The endangerment of animals will not only cause the shortage of a specie's population, resulting in the very extinction of the animal itself but the disruption of an entire ecosystem. This is because if prey for the predators die, the predator's food source will be cut off and they will die as well. This will also affect the prey of the endangered species because if the predator dies, the prey will suffer from over population. Both of these outcomes will almost always affect the human race, a shortage of food or an over population of pests. Thankfully multiple individuals and groups are working to protect the animals on the brink of extinction by building animal sanctuaries or taking care of the animal's environment. The echidna, dugong and kiwi bird were only 3 examples of the generosity of these groups and people. Hopefully, we can save them and all the other endangered animals that are close to extinction. Even though we humans are the main cause for the demise of each animal species, we are also working hard trying to conserve, nurture and save them from ourselves.
