Endangered Species - Research Paper Example

Scholars have even suggested that the world may be in the verge of experiencing its sixth massive species die off (Darling 14). Extinction may be defined as the death of a particular species and thus, disappearing completely. In the past there have been about five events of historical mass extinction acknowledged by scientist: the Cretaceous, the Ordovician, the Triassic, the Permian, and the Devonian. Scientists are of the opinion that the world is actually experiencing the Holocene, which is the sixth massive species die off.

Even though the past historical mass extinction episodes were induced by natural phenomenon, the current extinction event (the Holocene) is the directly cause by human activities. Discussion The current extinction event unlike the past ones is directly cause by human activities the earlier events were caused by events such as natural climate shifts, volcanic eruptions, and asteroid strikes. It is a proven fact that about 99 % of the currently endangers plants and animals in our planet , are at risk from the activities of human beings particularly those activities that leads to loss of habitat, global warming, as well as introduction of exotic species (Sheehan 33).

It is worth mentioning that for every species that faces extinction, there is a very high possibility that other species that are bound to that particular species in the complex web of the ecology may also be at a risk of extinction following the interruption of the complex ecological web. Consequently, a number of species may be directly or indirectly at risk of extinction once a particular species disappears from the face of the earth following its extinction. One of the many species that are at risk of extinction is the Komodo dragon found in the natural habitats of Indonesian Islands.

The Komodo dragons are found in Lesser Sunda islands, Komodo Islands, Rinca Islands, as well as Islands of Montang, Gili, and Padar found in indonasia. It is estimated that the remaining population of the Komodo dragons is approximately 4,000 to 5,000 and as such, they are listed as the endangered species in the Red List of the IUCN. The komodo dragons are commonly reffered by the name of buaja, Ora, and darat which basically means terra firma crocodile. The scientific name of the Komodo dragon is Varanus Komodoensis.

They weigh about 300 pounds and grow to a length of up to 29 inches, making it the largest and heaviest lizard in the world. The creature also has an incredible sense of smell (Sahtouris 32). The Komodo dragon has a very flexible skull for purposes of enabling it to swallow huge lumps of prey. The dragons’ bit is extremely dangerous as it has very deadly venom that is capable of killing the prey within a very short time. These fascinating creatures have a life span of about 20 to 40 years. They also have a freckled skin with various colors such as slate black, earthen red, and slate gray in the adult dragons, while on the younger ones they have numerous colors ranging from green, brown, gray, and sometimes yellow (Miller 45).

The major factors that poses a great risk of possible extinction of the komodo dragons is decrease in the prey base of the creature, volcanic activities, as well as forest fire. In addition, it is pertinent to mention that the loss of the creature prey based is largely as a result of human activities such as poaching these prey species, and forest fires caused by human activities