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what do pandas orangutan rhinos and
gorillas have in common
aside from being animals that you
probably only see at the zoo these
animals are all in danger scientists say
that an animal is endangered when there
aren't many of them living in the wild
anymore and any kind of animal can
become endangered birds insects reptiles
and of course mammal for example meet
the amoral leopard this kind of leopard
lives in a small area in eastern Asia
and there are only a very few of them
left in the wild scientists think that
not counting the ones in zoos there are
only about sixty or more leopards on the
entire planet so they're definitely
endangered but how do animals become in
danger there are a few good answers to
that question but probably the common
cause of animals becoming endangered is
when they lose too much of their habitat
an animal's habitat is the place where
it lives
that's right squeaks an animal's habitat
is its home it's where an animal can get
all of the things that it needs to stay
alive
animals need things like enough food to
eat clean water to drink air to breathe
space to move around and shelter Plus
mother animals need a safe place to lay
their eggs or to have and raise their
babies so habitats can be very different
for different kinds of animals one
animals habitat might keep it dry and
warm for another it might help an animal
stay cool wet and well hidden from
predators an animal's habitat might be
large or it might be very small but
there's one thing that all habitats have
in common they can only support so many
animals if a habitat starts to get
smaller that means that fewer animals
can live in it this is what happened to
the unmoor leopard its habitat used to
be a lot bigger but people started to
cut down trees in the forest where the
leopard lived to use for lumber and to
make space to build houses so over time
the leopards habitat got smaller and
smaller the leopards started to have a
hard time finding enough food and
finding enough safe spaces to raise
their cubs so after a while there were
fewer and fewer are more leopards in the
wild until
there were so few that scientists said
that this kind of leopard was endangered
pollution can also change an animal's
habitat pollution is anything that makes
the earth unhealthy like litter and
trash or the dirty smoke that comes out
of cars and power plant pollution can
also prevent the eggs of certain kinds
of birds fish reptiles and amphibians
from hatching pollution change the
habitat of a bird called the brown
pelican the brown pelican lives near the
ocean where it eats fish and about 70
years ago people sprayed a chemical
around to try and get rid of pesky
insects like mosquitoes but the chemical
polluted the water in the brown pelicans
habitat some pollution ended up in a
fish that the pelicans ate which made
the birds sick and kept many of their
eggs from hatching soon there are fewer
pelicans for a while the brown pelican
was endangered but scientists and other
people solved the problem they told
other people about the problem and soon
everyone stopped using the chemical and
the pelicans habitat became clean again
more baby pelicans began to hatch and in
most places the brown pelican is no
longer in danger this big brown bird is
a great example of what can happen when
we find out that an animal is endangered
people can work together to try and
clean up an animal's habitat if it's
polluted or if an animal's habitat is
getting too small like the amore
leopards forest people can try to plant
more trees to make the habitat bigger
again now you may not know it but you're
helping endangered animals right now one
of the best things that kids can do to
help is to learn about animals that are
endangered
you can also help out animals that live
in your area by taking care of their
habitat that means doing things like
recycling and throwing away garbage
instead of littering and working with
other kids and grown-ups to clean up
your neighborhood everyone deserves a
clean and healthy habitat thanks for
joining us on scishow kids do you have a
question about your favorite animal or
something else hasn't grown up to help
you leave a comment down below or send
us an email to kids at scishow comm
thanks let's see you next time here at
the fort
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