Kool Kidz discuss endangered species

What are endangered species? Endangered species are plants or animals at risk of going extinct.

A couple common examples of endangered species are giant pandas and polar bears.

Animals and plants become endangered or extinct each year. Recently, the rate of endangered species dying out has increased dramatically. It is estimated that 27,000 species become extinct each year. That is about three species every hour.
When discussing the causes of endangerment, it is important to understand there are many reasons a particular species becomes endangered. Most of the time it involves human beings.

For example, the main reason polar bears are endangered is because of pollution. Illegal hunting, or poaching, is another factor threatening the lives of endangered species.

Before there were laws protecting endangered species, people hunted whatever they wanted. To this day, many people still hunt endangered species. Some endangered species in Germany are the Eurasian otter, European squirrel, garden dormouse, Geoffroy’s bat, harbor porpoise, lesser horseshoe bat, pond bat, Western barbastelle and the white whale.

What the Kool Kidz Express Torch Club is doing …
Our club, at the Ramstein School Age program, participated in Endangereds Species Day May 21. Our club planted a butterfly herb garden on our playground.  We are hoping the flowers we planted will attract beautiful butterflies, giving them a safe place to live. We created a poster board to display in our building to show information about endangered species.

What you can do …
Thankfully, there is still hope. You can help these species stay alive and protect them from being endangered. To do this you can carpool, recycle, conserve energy and water, and pick up trash from the ground. Trust me, the animals will thank you.