Speach on endangered animals.

What is an endangered animal? An endangered animal is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the close future. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and invasive species. There are conservation statuses given to an animal, these conservation statuses indicate how likely the group of animals will become extinct in the near future. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. IUCN stands for The International Union for Conservation of Nature, there are nine conservation statuses, Multiple factors are considered when assessing the status of a species; example of this is the number of animals remaining, the overall increase or decrease in the population over time, breeding success rates, or known threats. The nine statuses are extinct, extinct in the wild, critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, near threatened and least concerned. The most recently extinct animal in New Zealand would be the Bush Wren, which went extinct in 1972. The cause of this was because of rats and stoats. The animal closest to extinction would be the fairy tern, there's about 35-40 of the species left and they are found in the lower half of Northland Peninsula and North Auckland beaches, the threats to them would be habitat loss and predation by rats, cats and dogs. Animal extinction is a natural process, so why should we stop it? However, Most of the extinction we are experiencing now is manmade, most of the causes are pollution, deforestation and unsustainable hunting. We can easily avoid all of these by reducing use of fossil fuel, gardening and raising awareness.