Formosan Animals- What happened?

Formosan Animals- What happened?

HIPPO

The mnemonic HIPPO represents the five major causes of declining wildlife biodiversity.

*Habitat loss

*Invasive Species

*Pollution and Pesticides

*Population growth and pet trade

*Overfishing, overhunting and over collecting

Habitat loss

Habitat loss refers to the disappearance of natural environments that are home to particular plants and animals. Orangutans, tigers, elephants, rhinos, leopards and many other species are increasingly isolated and their sources of food and shelter are in decline.

Invasive Species

An invasive species can be any kind of living organism. Spot-legged tree frogs are a threat to Taiwanese tree frogs as they reproduce faster by laying more eggs and therefore enjoy an advantage in quantity. They will quickly consume all the food and edge the endemic tree frogs out of their habitats.

Pollution

Pollution is when something is added to the environment that is harmful or poisonous to living things. Smoke or dust in the air is a type of pollution as it is bad for the lungs when we breath in.  Can you think of other form of pollution?

POPULATION GROWTH

The impact of so many humans on the environment takes two major forms: consumption of resources such as land, food, water, air, fossil fuels and minerals. waste products as a result of consumption such as air and water pollutants, toxic materials and greenhouse gases.

OVERCONSUMING

This includes targeted hunting, gathering, or fishing for a particular species as well as incidental harvesting such as bycatch in ocean fisheries. Atlantic cod is an example of overfishing causing biodiversity loss.

Taiwanese Salmon is an endangered specie.