10 Animals We Are Running Out Of & One We Did

10 Animals We Are Running Out Of & One We Did

Five Endangered Reptiles:
1. The Eastern Indigo Snake
2. The Galapagos Land Iguana
3. The American Crocodile
4. The Beaded Lizard
5. The Kemp's Ridley Sea turtle

Five Endangered Amphibians:
1. The Houston Toad
2. The Greater Siren
3. The Gliding Leaf Frog
4. The Texas Blind Salamander
5. The One-toed Amphiuma

One Recent Extinction:
1. The Golden Toad (last seen May 15, 1989; designated extinct since 2005)

Bufo periglenes ~ The Golden toad

Photo: Charles H. Smith

With all Earth's animals divided into the two groups: invertebrate and vertebrate, 97% would be listed as invertebrates, leaving 3% as vertebrates, including hominids, in which man belongs to. Of all the planet's species, including here also plants and microbes, 99.9% are extinct leaving only 0.1% of species as currently living. Presently, scientists have described 1.7 million living species. Man directly, or indirectly has accelerated extinctions. Some do argue that as long as there is life, extinction will be a normal occurring event and is natural irregardless of man. This may be true, but for modern Holocene times since man has made his appearance, the rate of species extinctions is estimated to be 500 times more than the 'background' averaged natural extinction rates ever since life first recorded itself in the evolutionary time scale here on planet Earth.

Extinction is a scary word, for it means gone forever...


All species are tied into nature, for it not only courses through us, nature is within us. No matter how much effort is involved in perceiving man as separate, through his/her religions, societies, cultures or thoughts...man is simply another species strand connected to the web of  Earth's life. 


Once a species becomes extinct, a part of life's whole web becomes unraveled...that one now missing link weakens the whole of the chain. At times this could be good for the surviving species, but for the most part, it is a negative impetus for the survivors. 

As far as the conservation status of species goes, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the main global authority. The loosely knitted system of common, uncommon, threatened, endangered, rare, and extinct has been superseded. Major species assessors and governmental entities supply IUCN with updated and pertinent data on all organism species. The major aim of the IUCN is to have each and every Earth species reevaluated every five years with, among others, the concerning factors of current species populations, disease, the health of ecological biomes and habitat destruction. Once a species population is threatened it is listed as red.

The IUCN Red List chart supersedes all other categories and is as follows:

Conservation status
by risk of extinction
Extinct
Extinct Extinct in the Wild
Threatened
Critically Endangered Endangered Vulnerable
At lower risk
Conservation Dependent Near Threatened Least Concern
See also IUCN Red List International Union for Conservation of Nature

Regards,
BJA