Extinct and Endangered Animals
The extinction of species has always been a 1 … part of evolution. The fossil record shows that since life originated about four billion years ago the vast 2 … of species that have existed are now extinct. Extinct species outnumber living ones by a factor of perhaps a thousand to one.
Scientists have identified five extinction events in 3 … history, with some so severe that more than 90 percent of all life forms were killed off. The last and most famous extinction was the Cretaceous-Tertiary event some 63 million years ago that killed off the 4 … and allowed the rise of mammals. It is thought to have been caused by an 5 … hitting Earth.
Today we are in the 6 … of a sixth extinction event that began about 50,000 years ago but is now accelerating in an alarming speed! This extinction event is not a natural event, but is caused 7 … or indirectly by humans.
Most recent extinctions have been 8 … with European expansion in the 15th and 16th century. However, in some parts of the world some species are known to have become extinct before the arrival of the 9 …. For example, the Polynesians who colonised the Hawaiian Island in the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries may have been responsible for the 10 … of around 50 of the 100 or so species of endemic land birds in the period between their arrival and that of the Europeans.
Although this smallest of the sea turtles occurs from Nova Scotia to Mexico and across to Europe, its only 11 … beaches are on the Gulf of Mexico, mainly just north of Tampico. There, in 1947, as many as 40,000 nesting females crowded the beach in a single day. Despite legal protection and military patrols of the beach at nesting times, these numbers have 12 … to sometimes only a few hundred.
Words:
- – directly
- – asteroid
- – loss
- = majority
- – dwindled
- – middle
- – dinosaurs
- – natural
- – Europeans
- – nesting
- – Earth's
- – associated
Exercise 8. Read the following texts about the endangered animals and match the pictures with the texts:
1. Atlantic Ridley
| A.
The world population of this animal, about the size of a woodchuck, is found only on a few of the higher mountains on Vancouver Island. Dependent on a very restrictive habitat of alpine and sub-alpine meadows and avalanche slopes, the Vancouver Island rodent has suffered from human interference through logging, recreational activity, and hunting. Its numbers have been declining since its discovery in 1910, and it is estimated that fewer than 70 animals now remain.
This endangered species has gained the attention of naturalist groups and government agencies. Protective measures call for no further habitat disturbances, especially logging, mining, and ski developments; complete protection from hunting; and a ban on scientific collecting.
| 2. Black Lemur
| B.
The Galapagos flightless bird evolved in an isolated island environment that was free of predators. The birds had no need to fly and eventually became flightless. However, the Galapagos Islands have not remained free of predators, and, consequently, this cormorant is now one of the world’s rarest birds.
Through the years, dogs, cats, and pigs were introduced to the Islands and have had a drastic effect on the bird population. As well, these birds had no fear of man and could be easily approached and picked up. There are now only about 1,000 flightless cormorants left and the species is listed as rare.
| 3. Galapagos Flightless
| C.
These shy, usually nocturnal primates once inhabited the northwestern part of the island of Madagascar. There were taboos against killing them, but as natural forests were replaced by plantations, this protection disappeared. They were poisoned, or shot as pests. Today they are an endangered species and are confined to a small area on Madagascar and two small islands off its northwest coast. On one island they have the benefit of a reserve of natural forest. Animals are legally protected and international trade is strictly controlled, but on those plantations where they flourish their capture for zoos is permitted.
| 4. American Alligator
| D.
Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, was the only home of a large, flightless bird that weighed up to 14 kg and was very good to eat. Birds were an easy-to-catch source of food for sailors and settlers.
Having developed in isolation, the dodo easily fell victim to this new pressure. In addition, forest clearing destroyed the bird’s habitat, and introduced pigs, goats, cats, rats, and monkeys became competitors as well as predators.
First seen by Europeans in 1507, the bird was extinct by 1681. Today it is represented in museums by only parts of skeletons and one complete skeleton made up of many individuals
| 5. Bowhead Whale
| E.
This armoured mammal was once widespread in the tropical forests east of the Andes, from Venezuela to Argentina. The largest of the animals, the giant armadillo can grow up to 1.5 m in length and weigh up to 55 kg. They feed on ants, termites and the occasional snake.
The giant armadillo seems to have become scarce everywhere within its range because of overhunting, the expansion of settlement, and the corresponding loss of its forest habitat.
| 6. Giant Armadillo
| F.
This slow-moving animal, which grows up to 20 m in length, inhabits the Arctic Ocean and the sub-arctic waters of the north Atlantic and Pacific.
Hunting for this species began near Spitsbergen as early as 1611 and continued until the early 1900s when the animal’s numbers became too low to be economically viable and the demand for whalebone ended.
The bowhead has been protected by the International Whaling Commission since 1937. However, Native peoples are still allowed to hunt these whales for food.
The bowhead seems to be recovering well in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas, but its recovery has been slower in the Baffin Island, Greenland and Spitsbergen regions where whaling was more intensive and carried on over a longer period. There are approximately 8,000 bowhead whales in existence today.
| 7. Carolina Parakeet
| G.
Although recorded for the Carolinas, Georgia, and Texas, the manatee’s centre of abundance in the United States was Florida where it frequented streams and brackish estuaries and fed solely on vegetation. Early depletion of this aquatic mammal began with hunting by natives for hides, meat, and oil. Later, the loss of habitat to coastal development, the use of herbicides to control aquatic vegetation, and injuries from power boats all contributed to its decline.
Although legally protected, the animal’s numbers are low as it continues to survive in Everglades National Park and a refuge near Tampa. Other populations of Manatees in the coastal Caribbean are probably declining.
| 8. Dodo
| H.
This reptile of the coastal marshes and inland waters of the southeastern United States is considered an endangered species. Relentless hunting for hides reduced the numbers drastically in the 1960s until state and federal laws provided for complete legal protection. In addition, there are now import and export restrictions controlling trade in alligators and their skins.
Although poaching and illegal trade are always a threat, the American alligator is recovering in the wild. There are also thousands of them in zoos where they breed successfully.
| 9. Florida Manatee
| I.
With the spread of agriculture, this brilliantly coloured bird developed a liking for the seeds of many kinds of fruit and grain crops. For this, and its habit of gathering in great destructive flocks, it was condemned as a pest and subjected to wholesale slaughter. Many were also sold as pets.
Once common in the southeastern United States, the Carolina parakeet became increasingly scarce as deforestation reduced its habitat. Already rare by the mid 1880s, its last stand was in Florida, where, in 1920, a flock of 30 birds was the last ever seen of the only native parrot of the United States.
| 10. Vancouver Island Marmot
| J.
Although this smallest of the sea turtles occurs from Nova Scotia to Mexico and across to Europe, its only nesting beaches are on the Gulf of Mexico, mainly just north of Tampico. There, in 1947, as many as 40,000 nesting females crowded the beach in a single day. Despite legal protection and military patrols of the beach at nesting times, these numbers have dwindled to sometimes only a few hundred.
Nest robbing, and capturing females for food and leather caused much of the decline, and many Atlantic ridley turtles have been accidentally drowned in shrimp trawls. Protective enclosures for egg-hatching and attempts to establish nesting beaches in Texas may help the Atlantic ridley survive.
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