High Alert: Animal Extinction Reaching Heights

True but frightening!! Did you know our planet is now reaching to its sixth mass extinction of both plants and animal species, which is the sixth process of extinctions in the past half- billion years. We all are aware of the fact that extinction is a natural phenomenon, but researches lead us into data’s which are shocking. In a year around one to five extinction is the normal rate but it we are now losing the endangered species up to 1000 times more than the ground rate of extinction. On simple analysis, we can say we are losing dozens of beautiful species every day, and if this continues, then by mid-century more than 30 to 50 percent of all species will be possibly moving towards extinction.
Past mass extinctions such as of Dinosaurs were caused by natural climate shifts, asteroid strikes or volcanic eruptions but to the utter shock the current crisis is purely because of us ‘humans’. Global warming, habitat loss, introduction of exotic species are all factors that risk life of species.
The diversity in species ensures resilience in ecosystem, which further gives the ecological communities the power to withstand stress. In the past 500 years, we have known approximately 1,000 species that have gone extinct; the count ranges from the woodland bison of West Virginia and Arizona's Merriam's elk to the Rocky Mountain grasshopper, passenger pigeon and Puerto Rico's Culebra parrot. Nobody really knows how many species are in danger of becoming extinct.
Noted conservation expert and scientist David Wilcove has estimated that there are 14,000 to 35,000 endangered species in the United States, which is approx. 7 to 18 percent of U.S. flora and fauna. According to assessment of IUCN roughly 3 percent of described species and identified 16,928 species worldwide are being threatened with extinction. In its latest four-year endangered species assessment, the IUCN has reported that the world will not be able to meet a goal of reversing the extinction trend toward species depletion.

In all this above scenario, what's clear is that many thousands of species are at currently at risk of disappearing forever in the coming decades and it’s time for us humans to work in favour of helping this to not happen.

By: Prerana Sharma
Content:https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/elements_of_biodiversity/extinction_crisis/