Endangered Species
More than eleven-thousand kinds of plants and animals are at risk of disappearing forever (Web).When animals just recently come off the endangered list, it is presumed they do not need to be protected any longer, and it is lawful to hunt them once more. These animals are just recovering from being critically endangered, and there are still precious few of them left, even if they have been taken off the list. Not only predators suffer from this brutality, but prey animals do also. The gray wolf (above) is mentioned in the paper. This must change. Other examples can be found below.
The American Crocodile
In pre-Columbian days, the coastal tip of South Florida was literally crawling with thousands of American crocodiles. By the time they were listed as endangered in 1975, hunting for sport and skins as well as over collection for zoos and museums had reduced their numbers to as few as 200. With the entire population, including only 10 to 20 breeding females, living in one small area of northeastern Florida Bay, American crocodiles were in stark danger of becoming little more than a memory. But only eight years after gaining Endangered Species Act protection, populations had grown to about 1,000, and crocodiles had already returned to much of their historic range, from Biscayne Bay and Key Largo to Florida’s southwestern coast. In 2005 the crocodiles’ numbers reached 2,085, and two years later the species was downlisted to threatened (Web). Today, the American crocodile is considered an endangered species in nearly all parts of its North, Central, and South American range (Web). Yet, currently over 2,000 licensed alligator hunters harvest 30,000 to 35,000 wild alligators annually in Louisiana (Web). These animals may become more critically endangered if this continues.
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