species extinction
Permanent biological disappearance
Species extinction is the complete disappearance of a species—when its last living member dies.
Extinction can result from natural causes like climate shifts or catastrophic events, but human activity has dramatically accelerated the rate: habitat destruction, overhunting, pollution, and introduced species.
Once extinct, a species is gone permanently.
The dodo's extinction happened within a century of human contact.
Mass extinction refers to periods when many species vanish rapidly, like the event that killed the dinosaurs.
- Tasmanian tigerExtinct striped marsupial carnivore
- dodo birdExtinct flightless Mauritian fowl
- ocean acidificationSeawater pH dropping from CO2
- climate changePlanetary atmospheric transformation
- deforestationLarge-scale woodland elimination
habitat destruction · pollution · silent · Steller's sea cow · irreversible · great auk · biodiversity loss · passenger pigeon · woolly mammoth · conservation biology · poaching · disease outbreaks · desertification · food chain collapse · dying · remnant · wildlife corridors · vanishing
- environmentair pollution, ecology, clean air, biosphere, air quality
- environmental harmair pollution, water pollution, pollution, oil spills, acid rain
- environmental issuesair pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, global warming, habitat loss
- Environmental problemsair pollution, water pollution, climate change, global warming, habitat loss
- Eco-crisesclimate change, global warming, oil spill, deforestation, biodiversity loss
- ecological threatsbiodiversity loss, climate change, ecosystem collapse, habitat loss, pollution
species extinctionspecies recovery
Rebuilding threatened animal populations
species survival · species conservation · species preservation · rewilding · species reintroduction