Animals Facing Extinction in the Next Decade

By Chance Carlisle

Photo courtesy: nczoo.org, wikipedia

The deer population has increased a significant amount with no natural predators to keep them in check. The amount of ticks that can be carried by deer has affected both people and wildlife in the area. Another species facing elimination in the upcoming decade is the San Joaquin Kit Fox which has lived in California grasslands for years. Their population has begun to decrease in recent years with causes due to poisoning and the decline of prey populations. There are now less than 7,000 foxes left in the wild. The ecosystem and species are suffering as the fox species decline. Another example of an animal facing extinction is the North Atlantic Right Whales which in the last decade have been narrowed down to 350 remaining. These whales are going extinct due to pollution, ship striking and were decimated as a result of commercial whaling which was eventually outlawed during the 1900’s. Many endangered species like these are crucial to their respective ecosystems. According to Animals on the Brink of Extinction the endangered Florida Panther helps to keep other species in check and affect the plants and wildlife in the area. With many animals going extinct, many ecosystems and the animals that depend on them will suffer. Many people also depend on the local ecosystems being healthy and proficient. The extinction of animals in the coming decades will affect not only the environment but the world as a whole.

According to Animals on the Brink of Extinction the extinction rate of animals has increased over the past 100 years significantly, over 500 species of animals have gone extinct in the past decade with many more expected to be extinct in the near future. Predictions depict that 200 to 10,000 species will disappear each year. The causes for such mass extinction heavily rely on human activities that have affected climate change. One of the bigger causes is unsustainable land use as well as biodiversity loss and climate change, because of these factors over one million animals are faced with extinction in the upcoming decade. One such animal being the red wolf, which are the cousins of the gray wolf and with 99.7% of the population gone they can only be found in rural North Carolina. The effects of the red wolf’s disappearance have started to appear.