What is one major cause of species extinction?

Extinctions occur due to changes in a species’ habitat, natural disasters, or direct human actions aimed at the species.

Humans are currently driving the sixth mass extinction through various factors:

• Habitat destruction
• Climate change
• Introduction of non-native species
• Hunting and overharvesting of wild species
• Pollution

The scale of environmental change and species loss we have caused over the past few centuries has led some scientists to propose naming a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene.

The first five mass extinctions were triggered by natural events such as:

• Meteorite impacts
• Changes in sea level
• Super-volcanic eruptions
• Climate change
• Tectonic plate movements

A key difference between these events and the current mass extinction is the speed. While past extinctions occurred over thousands to millions of years, the current one is unfolding at an accelerated pace due to human activity.

It’s important to recognize that extinctions are a natural part of life. As species evolve, they may shift into new niches or change their habitat, leading to the extinction of other species. This, in turn, creates opportunities for new species to evolve and fill the vacated niches. This roughly steady rate of extinction is known as the background extinction rate. However, the current extinction rate, driven by human actions, is estimated to be 100 to 10,000 times higher than the natural background rate.