Species can have different benefits to the environment and humans. Some animals help the environment by cleaning water or balancing the number of animals in an area, and plants can be used for medicine. Examples include the gray wolf that hunted the Elk that was overpopulating the Yellowstone or bark from the Pacific yew tree that aided in curing ovarian cancer, according to fws.gov.

In the 1800’s, Mexican gray wolves had a huge population, but declined as time went on. They were considered extinct in the wild in 1976 until three years later, a recovery team was founded. With the help of the recovery team, five wolves were captured and bred until there was enough to let them out into the wild again in 1997 with a certain area safe for them, according to nywolf.org.

To help animals and stop species from becoming endangered, people can get in touch with a politician to help create policies against activities that put animals in danger. Some can also help create educational programs to help kids learn about endangered animals.

“Animals become less endangered through conservation efforts like creating wildlife preserves for animals to live and breed, creating anti-poaching policies and laws to prevent exotic pet trades, and captive breeding and reintroduction programs to help increase the populations of endangered animals,” Zoology teacher Mary Kretz said.

Extinction can also be caused by pollution. To limit pollution, people can conserve energy by composting and using gas logs as an alternative to wood which burns into fossil fuels, according to epa.gov.

“For some animals, [extinction is caused by] either remains from plastic that we put out there or just the air pollution, the habitat loss,” senior Jose Alfredo said. “There are plenty of things that could cause such problems to the environment, especially with the animals there.”