submitted by Eric Klos   Class of 2004

 Over-Harvesting

            Extinction is a natural process in our ecosystem known as Earth.  However, extinction is also aided and sped up by the help of the human race.  Many things can add to this process, but one major cause for it, that humans do, is to over harvest animals.  Over harvesting of animals is the process in which an animal hunted for food, its materials, or whatever else it may be killed for, is over hunted to the point where it can no longer reproduce fast enough to replenish its numbers in the wild. 

            This has been a very large problem for our planet for a long time.  From the time of hunting the dodo bird, to the wagon train over hunting American Bison on the prairies.  In terms of the dodo birds, it was only known to man for about 80 years.  The bird was found on the island Mauritius, and had no natural predators before humans.  Since the bird had no predators, it did not fear the new humans.  This made the new settlers believe that it was a dumb animal and took advantage of this.  The bird was hunted for foot, sport, and its eggs were eaten by animals brought by the humans like dogs and cats.  As for the buffalo, the pioneers traveling by wagon train to the west coast hunted them.  The meat was used for food.  Their skins were used blankets.  Bones were used for tools.  The problem was that the buffalo, the name we know them by, were taken for granted so much that over harvesting of them occurred.  In both cases, the people hunting were totally unaware of what they were doing to the species. 

            This problem is easily prevented and is becoming less of a problem.  By putting animals on an endangered species list and making it illegal to kill them it greatly helps the species chances of survival.  Even for animals that are hunted that are not endangered, by having a designated season for which they can be hunted helps to ensure their protection.  If more land were to be set aside for national parks that would make natural habitat illegal to be hunted, that would also help to ensure the survival of all kinds of species.  However, poachers are also a problem that needs to be solved and increasing the number of people watching over the parks is important also.

            Many steps have been taken to help prevent the extinction of species.  Over harvesting of animals has become a lesser cause of extinction for many species. However, it still exists and is still a major problem facing our planet today.