Cross Breeds

What Causes Animals to become extinct or endangered?

Many animals suffer and die and then become extinct, but why?

Public Comments

1. Hunting... Global Warming.
2. Hunting and mass disease and probably the primary factors.
3. Two things: A lack of food, and an abundance of predators. Sometimes just one is enough to wipe out a species. Say, it gets cold. Flowers die. Animals that eat flowers have one less thing on the menu. Goes from there. And by "predator" I mean anything alive that will kill that animal, including humans. We're just predators, after all.
4. The main fundamental cause of animal extinction in most recent times has been, without any reasonable doubt, human demand, either for animal resources directly, or for the natural resources constituting the animals’ habitats. In addition to that, Habitat loss, as a result of human demand, is widely considered to be the most important cause of animal extinction. Poaching and (legal and illegal) wildlife trade are another common threat to animals. Climate change / Global warming, Pollution are also other causes of extinction.
5. Inbreeding.
6. poaching and habitat destruction
7. The fact that they can't adapt or their food chain is very fragile. e.g. panda only eat bamboo, if the bamboo died it would have nothing left to eat. They can't adapt to a change in enviroment. Most of these things are affected by human activity.
8. Habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation Pollution Climate Change Poaching Invasive species People
9. If you look at a list of recently-extinct animals that also include causes, the overwhelming majority of them list "loss of habitat" as the cause.
10. Most simply, the extinction of a species is caused by the occurrence of a fundamental change in its broader environment that it cannot tolerate. If the entire population of a species looses the ability to reproduce the amount of individuals needed to compensate for those lost due to this change, it may be in danger of becoming extinct. Many types of changes can occur, man made or otherwise, that may cause this. Examples such as toxic pollution of its environment, genetic pollution, disease, an elevated predation rate, increased competition for resources by the introduction of a new species, and/or destruction of vital habitat are just a few factors that may cause a species to become in danger of extinction.
11. The two main factors are over exploitation and habitat loss, but also competition both in the species and out of the species.
12. There are a few reasons. Slight changes in the environment can really mess with the animal(Think of the Polar Bears.) People are also needed more space because we're becoming overpopulated and We chop down trees and completely flatten woodsy areas for houses and Shopping Centers. The food supply for the animal may also have diminished, making it harder for them to survive. And lets not forget the one everyone complains about, People! We poach and hunt for animals all over the world, not worring about what that means for the entire species.
13. Many animals become endangered because of hunters, like the people who slay dolphins. Loss of habitat is another, because, while many may not realize, by tearing down forests and rainforests to get more business, they are harming the earth and endangering animals.
14. Racism of humans plus irrational set up animals do not have same rights as humans plus humans did not have a world democracy or appreciation of other humans to make such possible. Over population of humans another factor. Also United Nations does not consider killing wild animals genocide even though genus means a specific type and kill is what is being done. Other reason when Europeans came to North America after 1492 killed most off. Also Global Warming and destroying environment not designated as genocide yet plus predominant people in 19th-20th Century North America thought in terms of economy and did not think anything was wrong with killing animals and destroying the environment. An example of this can be found in the film Wee Georgie in which a man shoots a kestrel after being told it was beneficial and would not harm the chickens the man owned.
15. Stupid questions like this one