6977-47.

3-1CYP AID: 203098 | 25/09/2019

Where there are no more species alive anywhere in the world, the species is said to be
Extinct. Extinction is also known as the process of dying out. This process is completely
natural part of evolution. But sometimes extinction happens faster than usual. Factors
such as large body size, small population and position at higher trophic level favors
extinction.
Apart from the above cited reasons for extinction, there are certain major key factors
which leads to the higher rate of extinction than usual. Below are the five major causes of
excessive rate of extinction of species:
(a) Habitat loss
(b) Over exploitation
(c) Invansion of alien species
(d) Co-extinctions.
(e) Fragmentation.

Habitat loss: These are the most important reasons for the loss of biodiversity.
(a) Deforestation leads to the species extinction in forests. For example.
Tropical rain forests once covering 14% of the earth’s land surface is not
now more than 4%.
(b) Conversion of forest land into agricultural land for example, the Amazon
rain forest, called Lungs of the planet, harbouring innumerable species is
cut and cultivate soya beans and conversion to grass lands for raising beef
cattle.
(c) Pollution enhances the degradation of habitats and threatens the survival
of many species as pollutants change the quality of the environment.

Over exploitation: When need turns to greed, it leads to over exploitation. For example,
stellar sea cow, the sea cow which is named after stellar, a naturalist and passenger
pigeon which existed in North America are extinct due to over exploitation by humans.
The existence of many commercially important marine fishes are endangered as they are
over harvested.
Invasion of Alien species: When alien species are introduced into a habitat, they turn
invasive and establish themselves at the cost of indigenous species. Indigenous species
are those which are occurring naturally in a particular region. For example:
For example Nile perch introduced into Lake Victoria, in east Africa led to extinction of
200 species of cichlid fish in the lake.
Illegal introduction of African cat fish which is called Clarius gariepinus, for aquaculture
purposes is posing a threat to indigenous cat fishes.
Exotic and invasive weeds like the Carrot grass which is called Parthenium, Spanish flag
(Lantana), water hyacinth (Eichornia) are introduced into our ecosystems they not only
damaged the environment but also threatened the very existence of species.

Co-extinctions: In an obligate association between a plant and an animal, if a plant

becomes extinct, the animal also becomes extinct as seen in parasite and host association,
if the host becomes extinct, parasite meets the same fate.
Another association which explains co-extinction is plant pollinator mutualism where
extinction one invariably leads to the extinction of the other.

Fragmentation: Fragmentation is the process of discontinuous in the natural habitat due

to geological processes or human activities. Geological fragmentation may leads to
speciation, but fragmentation caused by human activity mostly leads to extinction of
many species. These are the most important reasons for the loss of biodiversity.
Fragmentation of habitat leads to population decline for example, mammals and birds
requiring large territories and certain animals with migratory habits are badly affected.
Migratory birds are those which move from place to place even from one country to
another in search of food when the former place has stacked with unfavourable weather
conditions.