Over the past few days, we have talked about biodiversity, consequences of the loss biodiversity and then extinction. It is also important that as we move into biological diversity proper, the terms endemic and endangered be defined because we will use them frequently in our subsequent posts.
Endemic:
Endemic is used to describe an organism which is native and limited/ restricted to a specific geographical area such as country, island, zone or a defined habitat type. Plants and animals which are restricted in their distribution to the areas, in which they evolved, therefore, are said to be endemic to that area.
This confinement may be as a result of physical barriers to dispersion, as observed with many island flora and faunas; or they possibly have only evolved recently and have had limited time to spread from their centers of origin. Endemic species are called by a variety of different names depending on the scale of the geographic area. The names are; local, provincial, national, regional or continental endemic.
Examples of endemic species include Newtonia camerunensis, Tauraco bannermani, etc
Endangered:
Endangered as used by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) describes any species or a taxon of an organism that is at a very high risk of becoming extinct in the near future. These are species that are at risk of disappearing from the face of the earth and examples include the Mexican Wolf, African penguin, African wild dog, Tigers, Elephants, Orangutans, Chimpanzees and Gorillas, Pangolins, etc
If the extinction of the specie is predicted to be in the nearest or immediate future, then the specie is classified as Critically Endangered. Examples of critically endangered species include African wild ass, Asiatic lion, Alabama cavefish, Amur leopard, Arabian leopard, Arakan forest turtle
Though other terms such as Vulnerable, Near Threatened and Least Concerned are used to describe species extinction threat level, we believe almost every species is at risk of becoming extinct because extinction rates have quadrupled as a result of human activities and within the twinkle of an eye, species that are least concerned could easily be wiped off from the earth.
Tomorrow we begin profiling the endangered and endemic species of the Bamenda Highlands Forests and around the world.
Biodiversity keeps us alive.
Learn about the things you can do to stop species from becoming extinct: https://steemit.com/steemiteducation/@biodiversity/things-you-can-do-to-save-species-from-becoming-extinct
Learn about Biodiversity and the importance of biodiversity: https://steemit.com/steemiteducation/@biodiversity/what-is-biodiversity-and-why-is-biodiversity-important
What is causing biodiversity loss? https://steemit.com/steemiteducation/@biodiversity/drivers-of-biodiversity-loss-the-earths-biodiversity-is-in-grave-danger--1535996837
The consequences of biodiversity loss: https://steemit.com/steemiteducation/@biodiversity/the-loss-of-biodiversity-will-be-the-downfall-of-mankind-consequences-of-biodiversity-loss
The relationship between Biodiversity and Health: https://steemit.com/forestfriendlyfamily/@biodiversity/the-relationship-between-biodiversity-and-human-health-a-must-read
Read our @biodiversity introductory post and resteem so that your followers can join us to learn and take action to conserve biodiversity: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@biodiversity/introducing-biodiversity-a-blog-about-endangered-and-endemic-species-of-the-world-and-what-people-can-do-to-stop-species
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