Narrator: Now listen to a talk in a biology class.

Professor: Extinction of a species is always tragic. It is our job as humans to protect animals and keep them from all dying out. When the last animal of a species dies, valuable information is lost. It is the fault of humans that so many animals have become endangered, or scarce, and then completely extinct. There are several reasons why animals become endangered and then shortly afterward extinct, and we, as humans, almost always have something to do with it.

Let’s take a look at the extinct bird, the Dodo. The Dodo lived on an island off the eastern coast of Africa several hundred years ago, but it has become the most famous recently extinct species. This flightless bird, that resembled a chicken, stood at about three feet tall. It lived on its island with virtually no predators until humans started coming regularly. Humans brought with them cats, dogs, pigs, and other species that the Dodo had never seen before. It is most likely that these new animals that traveled with humans plundered the Dodo’s nests and ate their eggs and young. A slow-witted bird that does not fear animals which it hasn’t seen before doesn’t stand much of a chance against a human. The humans, on their new island, which was mostly forests when they got there, began chopping down the trees for various purposes. The Dodos lived in these forests, and the food of the Dodo was in these forests. If the habitat of the animal is destroyed, where will it live? What will it eat? Destruction of the natural habitat of a species is a really quick way to end its existence.

Narrator: Now get ready to answer the question.

 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Answer

Endangered animals are animals that are hard to find…there aren’t a lot of them. Extinction is when there are no more of a certain type of animal. So…first an animal is endangered, then it becomes extinct. Humans are usually to blame for the extinction of animals. In the case of the Dodo, it was the humans’ fault that the bird became extinct. The Dodo lived on a small island that didn’t have people on it, or, it didn’t have many people on it. Then sailors started coming frequently. The men chopped down the forest where the Dodo lived. The men also brought animals that helped kill the Dodo. If people didn’t go to that island, there would still be Dodos today.