We know about one million kinds of animals and can give names to them. But there are more than thirty million species of animals in the world. Every year some of these species disappear and we never see them again. What do you think if one or two disappear?
One answer is this: animals make the world a richer place, a more interesting and a more beautiful place for us to live in. Another answer is: animals help us in many important ways. They give us meat to eat and milk to drink, and we can make things to wear from their coats. Scientists learn a lot from animals and this helps them to understand people. Doctors take things from animals to help sick people. And another answer is: we have to protect animals because we are animals too. Many of these living things are in danger. Without our help, a lot more animals are going to die.
People and animals live in one world. Our land is their land; our trees are their trees; our rivers are their rivers. We protect animals because we want to protect our world. A million years ago there were a lot more species of animals. Of course, some species disappear naturally, but today they are disappearing faster than before.
Animals are in danger from accidents; some animals die even when there are small changes in the weather. But animals are also in danger from our activities. We cannot protect animals -- or people -- from accidents or changing weather, but we can think about our activities and change them. We put new buildings on empty land and do not think about animals. We make new roads; we move rivers; we take away trees.
Sometimes we take animals from their home to a different country. In this new home, other animals do not know the newcomer and are not afraid of it. Black rats went by ship from Asia to the Galapagos Islands and killed many different species of birds. Some of those birds lived only in the Galapagos, but after the rats came they disappeared.
Some people that visit new places take pictures of animals, but other people hunt and kill them. They do not kill the animals for food. They kill them because they like hunting.
In many countries people can also make a lot of money from animals. For example, elephants are killed because people want ivory. Many bigger animals are in danger because their coats are beautiful and some people would like to have them to put in their houses, or to wear.
Pollution of our land, seas, rivers and sky is getting very bad. We are making our world a very dirty place, so many animals cannot live in it. Pollution is bad for all of us. It is killing animals. In the future it is going to kill people too.
More people in bigger cities take more land and make more pollution. So we are taking the homes of animals very fast. Where can they go? They will have no place to go...and the animals will die in the end.