Endangered Species: A Call for Rethinking Conservation
The ecological situation on
our planet is complex. Beyond the common concerns about global warming,
industrial pollution, and deforestation, there’s a significant problem of
species extinction. While humanity can hopefully halt the processes it directly
causes, it remains unclear whether this extinction can be prevented or at least
decelerated.
Mass Extinction: A
Historical Perspective
The term “mass extinction”
might sound alarming, but it’s not uncommon for our planet. Currently, we’re
witnessing the sixth mass extinction of species. Over the past
500 million years, there have been five mass extinctions, with the largest
being the Permian-Triassic and the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinctions, 245 and 65
million years ago respectively. These events led to the disappearance of 14% to
84% of the genera or families from the fossil record.
Types of
Extinction
There are two types of
extinction: “dead-end extinction,” where an extinct species is not replaced by
a new, more adapted one, marking the end of a certain evolutionary lineage; and
“taxonomic extinction,” which implies that during the evolutionary process,
certain species have changed to such an extent that they should be considered a
different species.
Current State of
Endangered Species
Currently, there are 14,000
to 35,000 endangered species in the United States alone; 16,928 species
worldwide stand on the brink of human-caused extinction. Saving them requires
significant effort. This is especially challenging considering that every species’
extinction can lead to the disappearance of other species that are somehow
bound to it. For example, if bees die out, many types of plants will not be
able to reproduce, and will either have to adapt quickly or vanish. Such
changes tend to accumulate astonishingly fast.
The Impact of
Extinction
Over the last five
centuries, about 1,000 species of all possible sizes and shapes have gone
completely extinct. This includes large mammals such as the woodland bison of
West Virginia and Arizona, US, passenger pigeons, and Culebra parrots; Rocky
Mountain grasshoppers, and so on. It’s probably impossible to calculate how
many kinds of microorganisms disappear every day before scientists even get a
chance to discover and study them. In nature, size does not matter: the tiniest
organism is as important for the ecosystem as the largest of mammals.
The good news is that it’s
indeed possible to not only decelerate extinction but also rescue some species
from the brink of vanishing. In the early 1990s, a program was initiated to
reintroduce captive-born condors to their natural habitat in California,
Arizona, and northern Mexico. Before the program’s inception, there were about
20 of these condors left; currently, there are more than 200 of these birds
inhabiting their “original” environments. The recovery of the condor, along
with other examples, demonstrates the feasibility of pulling some species back
from the extreme brink. For instance, gray wolves, which were nearly hunted to
extinction across North America by the end of the 1970s, are now a relatively
thriving species with around 3,500 individuals. Northern elephant seals, which
had dwindled to fewer than a hundred, now number around 150,000 along the West
Coast. All of this became possible due to significant reintroduction efforts.
Resurrecting
Extinct Species: The Power of Science
Furthermore, with the
advancements in science, it’s possible not only to reintroduce endangered
animals to their natural environments but also to resurrect those believed to
have completely disappeared. New discoveries in genetics, particularly
advancements related to CRISPR-Cas9, offer humanity hope of bringing back
animals considered to have vanished forever. Ecologists at the University of
California, Santa Barbara, believe that the woolly mammoth and the passenger
pigeon would be particularly reasonable candidates for resurrection.
The Woolly Mammoth
and the Passenger Pigeon
The last woolly mammoth
died about 4,000 years ago, and the passenger pigeon, a gray bird with a red
breast once common all over North America, went extinct in the early 1900s.
Scientists believe that due to technological progress, the chances of such “de-extinction”
are high, so the question is not “if,” but “when” this will be done. Both of
these species were functionally unique, strongly affecting their environments,
so their disappearance altered the ecosystems they lived in. George Church, the
lead researcher working on the resurrection of a mammoth at Harvard University,
believes these precursors of modern elephants would help convert the modern
Arctic tundra back to grasslands. Similarly, the passenger pigeons were
extremely important for the forests they inhabited.
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Mass Extinction: A
Recurring Phenomenon
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As can be seen, mass extinction is not a novel phenomenon on Earth. Currently, we are witnessing the sixth mass extinction, with the main difference being the significant contribution of human factors to species’ disappearance. However, there are ways to slow down or even reverse the processes of extinction. One of them, the more traditional one, is the reintroduction of cage-bred species to their natural environments. The other, more advanced one, involves the most recent advancements in genetics, which will probably allow scientists to resurrect animals believed to have gone extinct forever. Thus, there is still hope for planet Earth.