science extinction essays

science extinction essays Australia has an alarming amount of endangered and extinct species compared to the rest of the world. Biologists have listed all plants and animals that they know are at risk of extinction in Australia. These are called endangered species. The list includes 10 species of fish, 12 frogs, 13 reptiles, 32 birds, 33 mammals and 209 plants. In addition, there are many more species that are listed as vulnerable and some that are classified as rare. Here is an example of an endangered species. The Dugong when fully grown is about 3m long and weighs about 295kg. It has a whale like body greyish coloured skin. The sea mammal feeds on sea grass, mainly at night. Dugongs tend to live and migrate in groups. The Dugong is found in Australia in the West Indian Ocean. There was once a colony of Dugongs in Moreton Bay in Queensland, Australia. The main reason for endangerment is they were once hunted for their oil, hide and meat. In modern times the Dugong is protected by law but only in Australia. The aborigines are still able to hunt them but only if they use traditional methods of hunting. You will not find dugongs in shark-infested waters. Sharks and humans are the only predators that we know of. This amazing sea mammal is endangered because in the 1900s sailors killed them for their meat, and then later on the dugong was killed for it's oil and hide. Many animals in Australia prior to protection laws died out completely. This is called extinction. Here is an example of an extinct species. The Thyalcine or Tasmanian Tiger, closly related to the Tasmanian Devil is listed as presumed extinct under both the Federal and State Threatened Species Protection Acts. This means Thylacine have not been officially sighted in the wild or captivity for at least 50 years. The last known record of a Thylacine is from a Tasmanian zoo, where it died in 1936. ...