Extinction.

#5

Extinction is known as the end of an organism or group. It is officially decided when the last individual dies or no more can be found. Here are a few animals that recently became extinct:

The Caribbean Monk Seal is one of the most recent animals to be declared extinct. This animal officially became extinct on June 6th, 2008. This seal was the only known seal to be native to the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The reason why this animal became extinct was because of human causes such as being hunted for their meat. The seal was originally discovered by Christopher Columbus on the coast of Santo Domingo in 1494. Columbus called them "sea-wolves", and ordered his men to kill eight of them for food. This seal was slow on land, unaggressive and wasn't afraid of humans. I think that because they were hunted so much for food and oil, it probably made them become extinct much faster then they should have been.

Another animal recently declared extinct is the Baiji River Dolphin. This Dolphin was found in China and became extinct in late 2006, when a search was preformed and not one dolphin was found. The reason this animal became extinct is again because of human causes. But this time it was because their habitat was put into heavy use for fishing, transportation and hydroelectricity. As China grew bigger, the Dolphins became more and more endangered. The river they lived in began getting waste poured into it, concrete walls, bigger boats were going through and colliding into the dolphins, and fishermen were using bigger nets. By 1980 nearly half the deaths of the River Dolphin were cause by fishing gear and only a few hundred were left. I think that if the people who caused this extinction would have taken the time to realize what was happening and what they could have done differently maybe the Baiji River Dolphin would still be around today.

In conclusion, there are many animals becoming extinct and endangered by human activity and I think we should take the time to learn how we can help make a difference to save some of the species today.