Case Study Templates: Endangered Species
Use the IUCN red list website to compile a case
study for 3 different species:
1. Extinct due to human activity
2. Critically endangered due to human activity
3. Recovering (improved Red List conservation
status) due to human intervention.
Use the templates on the next three pages to structure your work and ensure you
have sufficient detail. Choose your examples carefully.
Case study 1: Extinct due to human activity
Species common
name:
Scientific name
Description (including
photo)
Date of extinction
(approx.)
Ecological role (niche)
Factors leading to
extinction
Elephant bird
Aepyornithidae
big bird; conical beaks, short thick legs, three-toed feet,
and relatively small wings that were useless for flight
1000 CE
The woods of southern Madagascar, predominantly
herbivores feeding on grass, fruits, leaves and seeds.
Giant Fossa was their main predator
Ecological:
Humans/colonists arriving on madagascar and reducing
their habitat, nest raiders stealing their eggs, major
drought
Social:
competition for habitat after humans started to clear
forest areas
Consequences of its
extinction
Political:
Mass hunting of these animals
Consequence for the ecosystem:
General extinction of all of madagascar's megafauna like
the giant hippo, giant fossa and giant tortoise
Consequences for humans:
idk less cool/epic
Case study 2: Critically endangered species
Species common
name:
Scientific name:
Current population
estimate
Description (including
photo)
galapagos pink land iguana
Conolophus marthae
192
pink because of a lack of pigmentation and blood is
visible
Geographic range
(could include a map) galapagos islands
Habitat
forest, grassland
Ecological role (niche)
within ecosystem
ecosystem engineers - they modify the ecosystem
around them with their feeding patterns
Factors threatening
populations
Ecological:
geological events (volcano), climate change (drought)
Social:
invasive species, cats and rats eating the young and the
eggs, disease
Political:
Consequences of its
extinction
Consequence for the ecosystem:
living in communities with other land iguanas, might
make them sad.
Consequences for humans:
little humans on the island, little effect
Conservation Efforts
international regulations, restriction in trade, protected
areas, systematic monitoring regime, no species
management
Case study 3: Recovered/recovering species (species whose conservation
status has improved due to human intervention).
Species common
name:
Scientific name:
black-footed ferret in the northern ground planes
Current population
estimate
Description (including
photo)
206
Current conservation
status
Mustela nigripes
Critically endangered
Previous conservation
status
Extinct in the wild (1996)
Ecological role (niche)
within ecosystem
Predators? eagles, hawk, fox, badgers, bobcats
Prey? prairie-dogs, mice, rats, occasionally insects
Factors threatening
populations
they control population of prairie dogs
Ecological:
biological resource use, invasive species, agriculture,
residential and commercial development
Social:
sylvatic plague (1987)
Political:
prairie dog control actions
.
Human interventions
used to improve its
status
As of early 2015, there are about 295 wild born mature
individuals distributed among several re-established
populations. Of these, 206 are in self-sustaining
free-living populations. Of the 24 current sites where this
species has been reintroduced, few have viable
populations
2 self sustaining communities in america
extinct in canada and mexico
education, species monitoring, species management,
water/land protection
Impact of these
interventions
Even with augmentation, wild Black-footed Ferret
populations remain small, fragmented, and intensively
managed.