• Human activities often pose threats to other organisms.

The top 3 harmful activities to vertebrates are all due to habitat destruction and fragmentation.

• Agriculture and aquaculture remove viable habitat from the wild.

• Logging destroys complex community interactions and fragments large forests.

• Residential and commercial development further reduce habitat areas for other organisms.

• Threats to biodiversity

The major threats for the extinction of terrestrial species due to human activity are:

• Habitat loss: destruction and fragmentation of native habitats is by far the biggest threat.

• Climate change: a major factor of a habitat is its overall temperature and precipitation patterns.

• Pollution: toxins released into the environment can harm organisms.

• Invasive species: organisms introduced from foreign habitats can out-compete native species.

• Over-exploitation: humans tend to over-harvest wild stocks for short-term commercial gain.

• The IUCN maintains a worldwide Red List of Threatened Species.

The conservation status of species which have been evaluated range from least concern to the threatened categories of vulnerable, endangered, and critically endangered.

The focus is to recover populations of threatened species and prevent them from slipping further into extinct in the wild and extinct - total eradication of a species.

• Species Survival Plans focus on recovery of a single, often charismatic, species.

• Captive breeding programs, such as the one for the California Condor, rear the young in captivity (without imprinting) and release adults back to the wild.

• Field Conservation work involves hands-on work ranging from restoring habitats to protecting animals from poachers.

• Re-introduction programs move individuals from areas where they are abundant to areas where they are endangered.

• Gene technology can be used to track poached contraband such as elephant tusks.

Microsatellite regions from individuals or populations show unique banding patterns that can serve as DNA fingerprints.

DNA fingerprinting can identify poaching hotspots and reveal population dynamics such as the fact that the forest elephant and savanna elephant of Africa are distinct species.

• Protecting habitats and species require national and international laws.

U.S. laws include Marine Mammals Protection Act and Endangered Species Act offer protection for high-profile species.

International treaties such as CITES and CBD regulate trading of protected species or products and conserving of biodiversity in general.