What are endangered species and why is their conservation important?

The term endangered species refers to a species which is in danger of becoming extinct, throughout all or a significant portion of its range. According to some estimates, 40% of all species, including plants and animals, are considered endangered currently. The objective to preserve, protect and guard these living beings from being extinct is what is known as conservation.  

Nations around the world have created wildlife preserves where endangered animals are transferred and kept safe, and there are also various national and international laws to ensure their protection. The International Union for Conservation of Nature takes care of this conservation process enacted across the globe. Unfortunately, only a handful of species qualify to the endangered list and receive sufficient legal action. 

Why do species get endangered?  
When the population of a certain species in jungles or forests has reduced drastically because their existence is constantly threatened by external forces, that species might become endangered. Species may become endangered because of various distinct reasons. The most common ones include: 

• Overhunting: A species that is hunted down is often left with no or very limited numbers to reproduce among themselves. 
• Poaching: Illegal hunting and killing species, lresults in them getting endangered. Elephant, for example, is killed for its ivory teeth. 
• Deforestation: Cutting down trees means robbing the animals of their natural habitat.  
• Climate change: Global warming is leading to calamities like wildfires and even melting of icebergs in the polar regions, thereby massively threatening the survival of many species, like the Arctic polar bear.  
• Urbanization: When human beings need to shift to new areas to build towns and cities in order to accommodate their booming population, it directly results in the loss of habitat for several species. 

How do the species end up on the endangered list?  
Not all species who are reducing in numbers make it to the endangered list. Creatures all over the world are tracked to find out whether or not they are in trouble of getting extinct, before they are added to the list. However, what makes this process complicated is that there could be species on the verge of extinction without anyone having the slightest clue. Currently, there are a few thousands of endangered plant and animal species on the Red List, which is where all such information is stored.  

What does it mean for the ecosystem?  
Different kinds of species are interconnected through the food chain, and even because they share habitat. Thus, when one kind becomes extinct, it automatically affects others by disrupting the food chain as well as disturbing the balance of the ecosystem.  

Categories of endangered species  
World Conservation Union categorizes species into six different groups, namely: 

• Extinct: No longer in existence. Example: dodo, the flightless Mauritian bird, that became famous after its extinction.  
• Extinct in the wild: Part of the species that are in captivity survive, but the other half of natural population is extinct due to lack of free-living.  
• Critically endangered: Susceptible to an extremely high risk of extinction in the near future. Example: Ivory-billed woodpecker. 
• Endangered: Faces a partially high risk of extinction in the immediate future. Example: Snow leopard and blue whale. 
• Vulnerable: Faces a moderate risk of extinction. Example: Lion and wolverine. 
• Least concern: There’s no immediate threat to the species. Example: Cypress tree and brown rat.  

How to conserve endangered species?  
Extinction isn’t something new, it’s something that’s happened over centuries. We all remember about dinosaurs, don’t we? However, people just know more about extinction now than they used to. They didn’t really understand what it meant until 200 years ago. Today, people can work together more easily to help endangered species through conservation. This means doing things right to ensure that the species don’t succumb to external forces.  

National parks and wildlife reserves can play a significant role in conservation of animals. They work to keep different species healthy and intact, and protect their natural habitats. Conservationists have also attempted to breed endangered animals in places like the zoos, in order to increase their numbers and then release them in the jungles. Some endangered animals have even been moved to safer locations to stop them from being wiped out by human predators. Others are further safeguarded by international laws which put a limit on illegal poaching, and business exchanges surrounding rare species. 

Conservation is also more than just knowing that a species is threatened. It means figuring out why a specie is struggling, starting a protective campaign to keep that species alive, while working on restoring their habitat.