By: Liv Miller

The earth is filled with millions of different beautiful species of animals. No matter where you are in the world, you are exposed to many different unique and amazing animals. There is one huge problem facing these animals today, extinction.

First let’s talk about extinction itself, what it is and how it happens. Extinction is the dying out, or extermination of a single species of animal. There can be many reasons or causes of this happening. Extinction can occur when species are negatively affected due to environmental forces. Some examples of these environmental forces are natural disasters, global change, or overexploitation of species for human use.

Another cause of extinction can be due to evolutionary changes, this includes poor reproduction, genetic inbreeding, or decline in population numbers.

No matter how or where it happens, extinction is a growing issue putting many different beloved species at risk.

The first species I found that was at risk of extinction was the loggerhead sea turtle. The reason why many species who mainly live near, or in water, like the loggerhead turtles are in danger, is because according to Biologicaldiversity.org a huge percentage of the world’s population live within at least 150 miles of the coast. This puts a lot of pressure on species trying to find space to live and reproduce among all of the people and crowds. This causes more problems that are contributing to the extinction of this animal. For example; destruction of their nesting habitat, harassment while nesting, over harvesting of its eggs, ect.

Another species I want to talk about is the Florida panther. A great population of this animal used to live across all of the southeastern parts of the United States, but now is confined to just a small area in Florida. The reason this animal is facing extinction is because of the destruction of their habitat. Urban expansion is a huge threat to wildlife, and is causing not just the Florida panther, but many other species to become extinct. According to Biologicaldiversity.org, large numbers of panthers died due to the growing network of roads connecting Florida’s growing human population spread throughout the state. As of 2011, there were only 100-120 panthers left.

These are just two of the close to a million species in which their population is declining and facing extinction. Many causes of this issue are unavoidable, but I do believe that there can be something done to save at least some of these beautiful animals.