Noah Tiedemann
8-19-15
7th
Endangered Species

The Amur Leopard

Have you ever had a leopard-skin coat, or purse? You know, generally orange fur with black spots? It?s stereotypically worn by regular connoisseurs of lust and debauchery. Hopefully you haven?t. It makes me cringe whenever I see one for sale or being worn by some ignorant bimbo. I just don?t see the appeal. Nevertheless, it?s a profitable business, and humanity is greedy, ignorant, and occasionally sociopathic; thus, the Amur Leopards are a highly endangered species. The Amur Leopard specifically is in especially dire straits, with their species only having around 60 remaining individuals, excluding those in captivity. Contrary to the norm for leopard habitats, this species resides …show more content…
However, humanity usually wins in these cases, and that often leaves the other struggling just to keep up. One decent example for this scenario would be the African Wild Dog. They populate various spots of southeastern Africa. The human settlements in developing countries there tend to be heavily dependent on agriculture. This is a problem. The African Wild Dog sees the livestock in these settlements as easy prey, which is an opportunity they act upon. Humans don?t like it when other animals eat their food, so, BANG! They shoot them. Or kill them in some other fashion. However, the same livestock initially came from the wild, where the dogs hunted. As a result, the African Wild Dog is running out of prey to eat, and what remains is being warded off. As they grow desperate for food, they are liable to eat anything they think could be edible, things they normally would choose not to eat. With viral diseases being a prevalent natural threat in the area, the dogs are far more prone to infection as they weaken and attempt to push their boundaries, or reclaim the ones we took. This has all reduced the African Wild Dog population to a range between 3,000 and 5,000, though it is difficult to be precise. The World Wildlife Fund has been working to control the situation and help the dogs survive in an ample habitat. They have attempted to reduce the amount of hunting done in particular areas that the African Wild Dog roams, as well as come up with more efficient, non-lethal methods to keep the dogs away from human settlements. The situation isn?t in dire straits just yet, but they?re still on the endangered list, so let?s hope that this is enough. Only time can