Endangered Species

Human activities that influence the extinction and endangerment of wild species fall into a number of categories: (1) unsustainable hunting and harvesting that cause mortality at rates that exceed recruitment of new individuals, (2) land use practices like deforestation, urban and suburban development, agricultural cultivation, and water management projects that encroach upon and/or destroy natural habitat, (3) intentional or unintentional introduction of destructive diseases, parasites, and predators, (4) ecological damage caused by water, air, and soil pollution, and (5) anthropogenic (human-caused) global climate change. Alone or in combination, these stressors result in small, fragmented populations of wild flora and fauna that become increasingly susceptible to inbreeding, and to the inherent risks of small abundance, also called demographic instability. Without intervention, stressed populations often decline further, and become endangered.