Name: Is it too late to save endangered animals from extinction? | BBC Ideas
Uploaded: 2025-06-18T10:23:26.000Z
Duration: 5 min 23 s
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The story of the last great auk is a tragic tale, but one worth telling.

A gentle, flightless seabird, it once thrived on the windswept islands of the North Atlantic, but it was hunted for its meat, collectible eggs, feathers and oil, and its population declined rapidly in the 19th century.

Unused to any kind of predator, enormous numbers were captured.

The islands on which the auks lived became fast food drive-throughs for European sailors travelling to the New World.

In 1844, the last known pair of great auks were found on Aldey Island, off the coast of Iceland.

A group of sailors captured the placid birds.

Tragically, the last pair were killed not for food, but for scientific curiosity and collection.

For much of Western European history, many people, including scientists, believed that nature's creations were eternal or protected by God.

In 1796, scientist Georges Cuvier put forward a new theory.

By studying fossils of ancient elephants called mastodons, he proved that some species could completely die out.

Cuvier thought natural disasters had killed the mastodons.

But it wasn't until humans hunted the great auk to extinction around 50 years later that people realised that human action could directly cause a species extinction and forever reshape the natural world.

Scientists have now identified five periods of mass extinction where species have been eradicated at alarming speed.

Previously, these mass die-offs had natural causes like volcanic activity and the asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

Normally, a new or existing species fills the gap.

But today, life on Earth is vanishing faster than it can be replaced.

Intensive farming has transformed the planet.

The burning of fossil fuels has caused catastrophic climate change, and sprawling cities have paved over habitats.

Human activity has driven flora and fauna into smaller and smaller spaces and reduced them to smaller and smaller numbers.

There are thought to be over a million species on the brink of extinction globally.

Expanding cities and shrinking hedgerows, toxic pesticides and busy roads are driving our prickly friends to the brink.

Three quarters of Britain's rural hedge-loving hogs have disappeared in the last couple of decades.

The loss of an iconic species signals a much deeper issue.

The collapse of entire ecosystems, where countless creatures and plants depend on one another.

These ecosystems are vital to our survival, providing the pollination of our food, cleaning our air and water, and protecting us from floods and droughts.

Since we are the cause of this sixth mass extinction, we can also be the solution.

In 2022, nations across the world agreed to reverse biodiversity loss and protect 30% of our planet by the end of the decade.

Achieving the target would certainly slow biodiversity loss, but arguably it will take a far greater effort from governments, businesses and individuals working together to transform our relationship with nature and prevent mass extinction.

And sometimes individuals can have a big impact.

Hotlin Ompasongu is a dentist who lives in Indonesian Borneo.

This Asian island is covered in some of the most incredible rainforest and is home to hornbills, leopards and orangutans.

Slowly swinging through the rainforest with their long arms, orangutans have been driven to near extinction, in part because of rapid deforestation.

Hotlin knew that poor health and poverty incentivized local people to chop trees to pay for treatment.

So Hotlin offered discounted dentistry to anyone who didn't cut down the forest.

If anyone couldn't afford treatment, they could plant native trees or learn how to earn an income from organic farming.

Since she started in 2011, over 100,000 trees have been planted and illegal logging in her area has been significantly reduced, improving and protecting the orangutans' habitat.

These charismatic creatures are now beginning to come back in numbers, thanks in part to Hotlin.

Extinction isn't just about far-off, exotic creatures.

But unlike the great orc, the fate of the hedgehog and countless other species can still be changed.

The extinction crisis we're facing isn't just about animals and plants.

It's about the future of all life on Earth, including us.

Will we work together to stop driving the sixth mass extinction?