Species we’ll be saying goodbye to

Source: Flickr- stunning variety of animals from around the globe, capturing their unique beauty and diversity.

Learn more about the impact of human activity on geography which affects wildlife. Get to know more about animal species which will go extinct sooner or later if this goes on.

We all remember watching the Spiderman movies when we were younger. And we most definitely remember one of the most important pieces of advice Uncle Ben gave to Peter- ‘With great power comes great responsibility’. While we have heard and interpreted this sentence in context of the superpowers he gets later on, this is actually great advice that can be applied to the situation we have at our hands currently.

Our greatest power is our curiosity. This one quality has taken human beings from hunting and gathering to going to the moon. What’s our great responsibility, you ask? Well, using our powers for good. Just like Spiderman. If we use what we have for wrong things, we will be the ones who will suffer in the long run.

Our current actions have an immediate and concerning impact on the lifeforms around us. Be it our consumer habits or our food cycle, everything has an effect on how they live and proliferate. So, it’s obvious that scientists will bring us reports which indicate how badly these beautiful creatures are faring.

According to some reports published by scientists over the years, a lot of species are in danger of going extinct if the living conditions we have now persist. Simply put, the next 50 years of climate change can lead to the extinction of numerous species, if nothing is done to fix this.

Asiatic/African Lion

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Lions, dubbed as the ‘King of the Jungle’, are not doing so well in present conditions. The national park in Gir, located in Gujarat in India, is home to the Asiatic lions. Their African brothers live in different places scattered in Africa. And none of these places have good news for us.

There are currently 523 lions left in Gir. This isn’t a good statistic. The current population of human beings can be estimated to be 8 billion; this is by no means a fair ratio between the two groups! Considering lions were once one of the most globally spread-out mammals in the world, this current number is more than enough to make any animal lover cry.

The lion population became endangered because of well known reasons like poaching, and hunting for sport. But there are geographical reasons too. A big chunk of the lion population is endangered and got displaced because of man-made threats like depletion of prey, loss of their habitats, and conflict between them and the local human population. Jungles and the savannah are ideal habitats which are hard to leave because of how well suited they are for these majestic animals. Well, these were just as favourable for human beings. This became the reason for conflict, and eventually led to displacement.

Asian Elephant

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The same plight is suffered by the Asian Elephants. They live in conditions, more or less, similar to those of the Asiatic Lion.

These big, lovable creatures are revered and loved in a lot of south Asian countries such as Thailand, India, Southern China, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Elephant herds prefer living in places full of green, luscious forests, and/or grasslands.

Extremely intelligent and sociable in nature, Asian Elephants contribute to the well-being of the ecology of the forests. They dig up ground water when surface water isn’t readily available. And because of how much they roam around, they make way in the forest- this allows sunlight to reach the densest parts of the forest.

The IUCN estimates that there are less than 50,000 elephants left on the planet. Their intelligence- a boon- helps them adapt according to the changing landscape triggered by human activity. But how much can they adjust? And more importantly, why should they be forced to do so?

Red Panda

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Do you know about the red panda festival held in Sikkim in India every year? Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? This is because this little cutie is Sikkim’s state animal and they enjoy honoring it with events, parades, and live music. They don’t know their growing population poses a threat to these cuties.

If you are part of the population that thinks red pandas are related to giant pandas, then I am sorry to break it to you but they are not. Red pandas, with their catlike features, are the only living members of their taxonomic family, and are found in the dense forests of Asian mountains.

Another bad news is that their global population has reduced significantly by 50% in the last 20 years. Less than 2,500 might be left right now. All of this mess can be attributed to climate change and the disappearance of favourable geographical regions for these little creatures.

There has been a significant increase in the human population where red pandas live. Many projects have become the cause for deforestation and removal of the red panda habitat. Their home is at risk…

Polar Bear

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Polar-bear-arctic-wildlife-snow-53425.jpg

Now, we will talk about one of the worst hit animal species because of climate change. The earth is heating up and it’s literally melting the polar bear’s home. Imagine your house suddenly breaking apart and vanishing out of nowhere! That’s one scary situation. And it’s becoming a reality for the 26,000 remaining polar bears on earth.

Everyone knows about these beautiful, white creatures who live in cold climates far away in the Arctic and Antarctic. Many people would think that we have no direct connection with their situation because of how far they are. But with every cold drink you have from the refrigerator, with every moment you spend in your car’s AC, and every time you keep your electric devices on for uselessly long periods of time, you are contributing to climate change.

This climate change is triggering a major change in the world we live in. All the ice caps in the north and south poles of the earth are slowly melting. Add to this, an absurd increase in pollution, commercial activities, and conflict. All these activities are ruining what polar bears have; an aerial survey in 2021 reported a 27% percent decrease in a period of five years.

To rub salt on the wound, many sightings of polar bears in warmer areas have been reported. This is obviously dangerous and highlights a change in living conditions for our white, furry friends from the poles.

Koala

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Yes, Koalas are an endangered species. Many people don’t expect the iconic species from Australia to be part of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Koalas are very popular- with their distinctive features, like the spoon-shaped noses and large fluffy ears, they are one of the symbols of Australia. Another popular feature is the Eucalyptus tree which is the main ingredient in their diet. Koalas can eat up as much as 500 grams of Eucalyptus leaves in a day!

But being popular and iconic has its disadvantages too. In the 1900s, Koalas had become a target for poachers for their fluffy fur. This became the reason behind a big decline in the koala population which couldn’t be reversed unfortunately. So now, even though they aren’t hunted anymore, other issues like deforestation and urban development have become a pain. In the 2019-20 bushfires in Australia, an estimated number of 5,000 koalas were killed.

Hence, the most painful fact about koalas, according to conservation scientist Stuart Blanch, is that their species started off as no-listing, then became vulnerable to an endangered species in just a decade.

This is the harsh reality right now. And might persist into the future if we don’t take any action soon. Doing something good for these animals today is better than regretting some mishappening in the future. How hard can doing something nice for the environment be?

Resources

1. Ladle, R. J., Jepson, P., Araújo, M. B., & Whittaker, R. J. (2004). Crying wolf on climate change and extinction. Biodiversity Research Group, School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University, UK.
2. del Val, J. (2023). 1st Liveable Futures Report: Food of Mass destruction: how exploiting animals drives us to extinction. Plant-based diet as global emergency. Creating an integrative frame of action.

Asiatic Lion

1. Asiatic lion. (2024). Wwfindia.org. https://www.wwfindia.org/about_wwf/priority_species/threatened_species/asiatic_lion/
2. Marc de Manuel, Barnett, R., Sandoval-Velasco, M., Yamaguchi, N., Filipe Garrett Vieira, Zepeda, L., Liu, S., Martin, M. D., Sinding, M.-H. S., Sarah, Carøe, C., Liu, S., Guo, C., Zheng, J., Zazula, G., Gennady Baryshnikov, Eizirik, E., Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Johnson, W. E., & Antunes, A. (2020). The evolutionary history of extinct and living lions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(20), 10927–10934. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1919423117
3. Jain, A. (2014, September 7). Why dozens of India’s Asiatic lions are dying. BBC News; BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-29009234

Asian Elephant

1. The Endangered Asian Elephant: Diet, Threats, and Conservation | Earth.org. (2023, February 3). Earth.org; Earth.org. https://earth.org/?endangered-species=asian-elephant
2. Asian elephants: intelligent, sociable, but endangered. (2024, January 24). WWF. https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/wildlife/asian-elephants

Red Panda

1. Threats. (2024). Redpandanetwork.org. https://redpandanetwork.org/threats/
2. https://www.facebook.com/Treehugger. (2020). Why Red Pandas Are Endangered and What We Can Do. Treehugger. https://www.treehugger.com/red-pandas-endangered-5024939
3. Red pandas, climate change, and the fight to save forests | Stories | WWF. (2018). World Wildlife Fund. https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/red-pandas-climate-change-and-the-fight-to-save-forests

Polar Bear

1. Status | Polar Bears International. (2020). Polarbearsinternational.org. https://polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears-changing-arctic/polar-bear-facts/status/
2. Briggs, H. (2020, July 20). Climate change: Polar bears could be lost by 2100. Bbc.com; BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53474445
3. New. (2015, November 19). New assessment highlights climate change as most serious threat to polar bear survival – IUCN Red List. IUCN. https://www.iucn.org/content/new-assessment-highlights-climate-change-most-serious-threat-polar-bear-survival-iucn-red-list

Koala

1. W News, B. (2022, February 11). Koalas: Australia lists marsupial as endangered species. Bbc.com; BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-60342830
2. WF Australia. (2022). WWF Australia. https://wwf.org.au/what-we-do/species/koala/